After over a year of bad news of issues with Jones County’s property values, tax digest and two failed Sales Ratio audits, the Board of Tax Assessors had good news to announce at last week’s meeting.
The May 1 meeting of the board was called to order by Chairman Leigh Stanford, and the opening prayer was led by board member Joe Rutledge.
The bearer of the welcome news was Interim Chief Tax Appraiser James Davis who has been in the position since March 10. Davis is an Appraiser 4 and has served as chief appraiser in Bibb, Upson, Colquitt and Monroe counties. He currently serves as an instructor for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
Davis’s report was about value modifications, according to the agenda, and number 11 out of 13 agenda items. He began his comments with the statement that, during his two months as acting chief appraiser, the staff of the Jones County Tax Assessors office had gone multitudes beyond their call of duty in the work they have done in this short period of time.
“Our ratio study indicated it was below 30 percent before changes were made,” he said.
The chief appraiser said the state mandate is a ratio between 36 and 44 percent. He said ideally it would be a 38. He said the staff has been working diligently to make needed changes, including the building value per square foot. He said that cost is proposed to go from $60 to $95 per square foot.
“We have various changes to various land models, schedules, both urban and rural, and the staff has been working to compare our existing prices against actual sales prices,” he said. “All those changes would result in our ratio going from below 30 for 2025 to 36 percent, which would bring us into compliance for the median sales ratio number.”
Stanford asked Davis to repeat his statement to make sure it was understood.
The chief appraiser commented that he said the ratio was below 30 but it was actually 27. He said he estimated that, before the changes, the valuation was clearly low, 70 to 75 percent of property values.
Davis said he recommends the board approve the proposed changes and square footage cost increase. He said that will bring the county to a ratio of 36 percent for the year 2025 and would be input for the assessments notices to go out at the end of May to taxpayers.
Stanford pointed out that it was not only the increase and changes to the tables bringing the ratio to 36.
“It’s the hundreds of corrections, re-evaluations, and the cooperation of Mr. (Tim) Pitrowski, giving us access to the planning and zoning system to see in real time the building inspections, permits being issued and percentage of completion,” she said.
Stanford noted the staff has worked seven days a week, certainly more than eight hours a day.
Board member Andrea Riley added permits were pulled from previous years to make sure nothing had been missed.
Davis said, as part of corrections and changes, the county is up to date on new construction, which was not the case two months ago.
Appraiser Bill Goodman added that depreciation was applied to county properties for the first time in more than eight years.
Stanford asked if there was a motion from the board.
Riley made a motion to approve the change to square footage and the discussed changes and corrections. The motion was approved unanimously.
Davis reiterated his appreciation of the staff, who he said went way beyond his expectations.
Commissioner Sam Kitchens took the opportunity during comments to thank the board and staff of the tax assessors office.
“I don’t know how we got here in nine weeks. It can only be from an amazing amount of work, knowledge and expertise,” he said. “We didn’t get here in a short period of time, but we got back in a short period. You have done the job exemplarily.”
Kitchens asked Stanford if it would be possible for her to make a presentation to the Board of Commissioners, explaining what has been accomplished.
“We need to let people know where we are and how we got here,” he said.
The chairman said she had already made contact with the Clerk of the Board about getting on the agenda.
Kitchens said now it is up to the commissioners to take the next step in preparing taxpayers.
“You’ve done your job; now we need to do ours. It will be up to us to educate the property owners about what they are going to see,” he said.
After the May 1 meeting was opened, board members quickly got to work going through the items on the agenda.
They approved conservation applications presented by board secretary Kim Adams.
Other agenda items included qualifying timber property, dealing with freeport applications, approving error and relief cases and a refund to a taxpayer due to an error.
The approval of 27 motor vehicle appeals were the final item before Davis’s report.
2024 Sales Ratio Audit
With the good news about the improvements to the 2025 property values and tax digest, it would be easy to forget that this year’s Sales Ratio Audit by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts will reflect the percentage using the sales and property values from 2024 and will not be reflective of the work done in the tax assessors office during the past nine weeks.
