Milton will ask the court for its own tax order

Milton will ask a judge for its own authority to collect this year's property taxes, the city says, the next move after last week's Fulton County tax order left Milton out of it.

Start with why the county went to court. A temporary collection order, or TCO, lets a government start collecting property taxes before the year's tax digest is final. Fulton asked for one, Communications Director Greg Botelho said, "because completion of the 2026 property assessments and delivery of an approved tax digest to the State have been delayed." The county wanted "precautionary authority to begin collecting taxes," and a judge signed the order Tuesday night.

Milton was carved out of that order, and now we know why. "Milton, Alpharetta, and Roswell withdrew from the County's proceeding and were excluded from the order," Botelho said.

The city intends to file its own. "We intend to file our own petition for a TCO after the required legal advertisements are completed," Botelho said. "We expect that filing to occur within the next three to four weeks, with a court hearing likely sometime in September, depending on the Court's calendar."

What it means for your mailbox: nothing yet. "Our intention is to maintain our normal billing cycle," Deputy City Manager Bernadette Harvill said. "Should that change, we will do an abundance of communication on the new timeline."