Tax hikes will be the subject of two final public hearings today, March 26, concerning the proposed millage rates announced by the Wilkes County Commissioners and the Wilkes County Board of Education.

The first hearings brought small numbers of citizens to question the tax increases.

The commissioners' hearing will be held at 6 p.m. today in the board room, followed at 7 p.m. by a called meeting of the commission for the formal adoption of the mill rate.

The Wilkes County Board of Education will be holding corresponding hearings today at 11:30 a.m. Formal adoption of the board's mill rate will be at a called meeting today at 12:30 p.m.

In advertisements published in previous issues of The News-Reporter, the county commissioners stated that they have "tentatively adopted a millage rate which will require a decrease in property taxes by 0.13 percent in the incorporated area and a increase in property taxes by 3.55 percent in the unincorporated area." Similarly, an advertisement placed by the Board of Education states that its millage rate "will increase property taxes by 6.88 percent." Those figures are derived from a complex formula prescribed by the state and do not reflect the simple percentages contained in this report.

Millage rates set by the county dropped in both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county but, combined with the higher digest figures, will result in an increase of tax revenues amounting to $180,481, or 5.752 percent more than 2007.

By leaving the millage rate the same for its tax levy, the Board of Education will see a much more significant increase in revenues - almost three-quarters of a million dollars amounting to an increase of 14.14 percent more than 2007.

The 2008 tax digest, released just two weeks ago, grew from $322.5 million in 2007 to over $402 million. The increase was due mostly to the revaluation of large tract properties and therefore the biggest increases were in the unincorporated areas of the county. However, as might be expected, assessments were higher across the board.

Those increases prompted a very large number of appeals by county property owners. So many, in fact, that the publishing of the 2008 tax digest was delayed almost five months. Some of the appeals are still pending but enough have been cleared to allow the release of the digest.

Real and personal property in the unincorporated areas of the county took the biggest hit in the new digest with an increase of over 30 percent in assessed values. All other categories increased around 10 percent.