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Camden County adopts rollback millage after extended public opposition to increase
Summary
After a presentation from the county CFO and more than an hour of public comment opposing higher property taxes, the Camden County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt the 2025 rollback millage rates countywide and for the unincorporated tax district and to certify the school board's millage.
Camden County commissioners on Saturday adopted rollback millage rates for 2025 after a public hearing that drew sustained opposition to a proposed tax increase.
Nancy Clark Gonzales, the county's chief financial officer, told the board the rollback rate "is the millage rate which would generate the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year." She said the proposed countywide rollback rate is 11.929 mills and the unincorporated rollback rate is 1.123 mills, and that using the rollback would produce an estimated $28 million in property-tax collections for the general fund.
The presentation included a 10-year snapshot showing the county's net digest growth from roughly $1.25 billion in 2016 to about $2.44 billion and a decline in the nominal millage rate compared with recent years. Clark Gonzales also described the homestead-exemption freeze and said the rollback scenario would add about $5.5 million in cumulative homeowner savings for 2025 and increase the program's lifetime savings to roughly $37.6 million.
During the restricted public-comment period on the millage, more than a dozen residents urged the board to reject any increase. Speakers repeatedly asked the commissioners to reduce spending, audit recent projects and delay new tax levies while household budgets remain strained. "We have a spending problem, not a tax problem," said Wesley Mills, who described his household budget and raised questions about specific capital items in the FY25 budget. Christopher Walker, another resident, said the county must restore "transparency, accountability, and trust" after prior spending decisions.
Other commenters pressed for line-item detail and questioned whether special projects should be paid from SPLOST (the special-purpose local option sales tax) or general tax revenue. Several participants urged independent audits and a prioritization of projects to avoid inflicting a single-year tax shock on fixed-income residents.
After the public hearing and follow-up discussion, the board voted to adopt the rollback millage rates for the countywide and unincorporated tax districts. The board also approved certification of the Camden County Board of Education's adopted rate of 15.000 mills, a formality the chair described as required by state law.
The board did not adopt the higher advertised rate; the motion recorded and carried to set the county and district rates at the rollback levels.
What happened next: commissioners approved the formal millage-certification paperwork and continued through the agenda, taking other votes on personnel and land-use items.
