Business Investments Increase By $527M In Forsyth County

FORSYTH COUNTY, GA — The Forward Forsyth economic development partnership announced this week the results of a recent analysis of the Forsyth County tax digest. The analysis reviewed changes in the tax digest from 2017 to 2019, the period since the Forsyth County Chamber and Forsyth County Board of Commissioners initiated a new economic development plan for the community.

With only 10 percent of Forsyth County’s tax digest composed of businesses comprising 24 percent of the total assessed value of the tax digest, county officials said the remaining burden of local taxes falls to homeowners.

According to county officials, the average homeowner in Forsyth County uses more in services than they pay in taxes. Local leaders said they knew that there would be difficult choices to make in the future unless we can increase new business investments and new jobs to lift the proportionate burden from homeowners.

The county’s new Economic Development Strategic Plan and the creation of the Forward Forsyth
economic development partnership are the result of an initiative by the Chamber and the Forsyth
County Board of Commissioners to aggressively focus on increasing business investment in Forsyth County and balancing the tax digest.

From 2017 to 2019, there has been an increase of $527 million in assessed value of properties owned by businesses. The 19 percent increase in assessed value is driven in part from adding 208 acres of land now zoned for new businesses (a 1.5 percent increase from 2017).

“While this a long game that will take many years to implement, it is exciting to see these initial results.” said James McCoy, President and CEO of the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce. “We are performing well ahead of the goals set back in 2017. It speaks well of the partnership and leadership of the community.”

Forward Forsyth is executing tactics described in the Forsyth County Economic Development Strategic Plan to encourage developers to build new buildings for target companies to lease and marketing the community and availability of those buildings to target industries: technology, data services, e- commerce and distribution, advanced manufacturing and professional services.