FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County officials are seeking an emergency court order to allow them to collect property taxes, warning that without it, the county and local schools will be without critical funding.
The county went before a Fulton County Superior Court judge asking for permission to begin collecting 2026 property taxes while the assessment process remains unfinished.
Officials say if taxes are not collected soon, both the county government and public school districts would have to resort to short-term loans or not have enough money to pay employees and fund services.
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“At stake here is the county’s revenue for 2026, the county, the school boards, and all the municipalities,” Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand said.
He says normally the county starts collecting after properties are assessed, go through a tax digest process, and new millage rates are set.
However, the tax commissioner says because of issues with technology and legal changes, the assessment process has been delayed, causing a domino effect and causing the county to run behind schedule.
Ferdinand says the county cannot afford to wait to complete the normal process before the money starts to run dry.
“By that time, it might be too late,” Ferdinand said.
In court on Tuesday, the county said that without the property tax revenue stream, it eventually could not afford to pay employee salaries and compensation, fund the jail, IT and more.
Local school districts would also feel the impact.
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“If [the emergency tax collection] doesn’t happen, then you know, we are really scrambling to try to make ends meet,” Dr. Mike Looney, Fulton County Superintendent, told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna.
Superintendent Mike Looney said around 60% of the school system’s funds are tied to this revenue stream that they can’t currently collect.
He says the district has enough reserves for a couple of months. However, if the revenue doesn’t start coming in soon, it would start looking at short-term loans, which have their own problems.
“If we don’t have the income stream to justify the loan, we’ll have a hard time getting the loan,” Dr. Looney said, “So it’s kind of a catch-22 for us.”
That urgency drove the county to court this week, where officials argued that the emergency order was necessary to prevent irreparable harm.
“This temporary collection order would allow us to collect taxes in 2026 to meet our obligations,” Ferdinand said.
If granted, the county would tax homeowners using the most recent 2026 assessments (for the properties that have already been assessed), while using 2025 tax rates.
However, homeowners may receive a second tax bill later in the year if millage rates or assessments change.
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