The first meeting of 2026 for the Jones County Board of Tax Assessors dealt with required appointments and good news for the upcoming year.
Chairman Dr. Leigh Stanford called the Jan. 8 meeting to order, and following the approval of the agenda, the first item of business was the annual election of board chairman and secretary.
All board members were present at the meeting with the exception of Justin Kelly.
Board member Andrea Riley made the motion to reappoint Stanford as chair, and the vote to approve was unanimous. She also made the motion to reappoint Bill Goodman as the board secretary, which was also approved unanimously. As the only appraiser on staff, a requirement of the position, he is stuck in the role.
Stanford commented that she understood Goodman has a full plate and would like some relief. She said that would happen as soon as it was possible.
The appraiser presented 75 homestead exemptions and recommended their approval.
After reviewing the documents, board member Joe Rutledge made the motion to approve the exemptions, and the motion passed unanimously.
Goodman presented 34 E&R and NOD documents and 31 motor vehicle appeals. All were approved with motions by Riley and board member Tina Presley.
Updates
Goodman worked his way through the project updates beginning with the mobile home digest that was approved by the board at a Dec. 29 called meeting. He said the digest was submitted to the tax commissioner Dec. 31 and billing is scheduled Jan. 30.
The billing date opens the appeal period that has a deadline of March 16.
He said the application period for CUVA (Conservation Use Value Assessment) and FLPA (Forest Land Protection Act) applications began Jan.
5, and 24 applications have been received to date. More continue to come in daily.
Goodman said the properties will be visited before the Feb. 5 meeting of the board. He said the deadline for those applications is April 1. The speaker said the 2026 CUVA market study had been uploaded for the DOR so they can complete their table values. Goodman said eight aircraft are owned by Jones County residents, and those taxpayer returns will be mailed by Jan.
15 to determine their taxable locations. He said those FAA records are updated annually.
Watercraft listings have been submitted, and those returns are scheduled to be mailed Jan. 14. He said 90 percent of the data has been entered, and remaining returns will be mailed manually.
Goodman reported the business personal property list is completed, and returns will be mailed Jan. 14 with an April 1 filing deadline. Staff will enter the filed returns and assign values for non-filers.
Part of the good news was that of 488 appeals, 478 have been resolved. He said six are scheduled for Board of Equalization hearings Jan. 14, and four will automatically resolve Jan. 11. Goodman said all appeals are expected to be resolved by Feb. 15.
More good news has to do with taxes on public utilities. He said the values were received Dec. 30 and assessment notices mailed Dec. 31.
The billing will be submitted to the tax commissioner Jan. 30.
“The utilities will be billed at their full value,” Goodman said.
That is due to the corrections made to the county’s property values and the improvement with the county’s sales ratio.
The increase in the value of the county’s square footage was a significant factor in that improvement. Until 2024, the value was calculated at $40 a square foot. That was increased to $60 in 2024 and $110 last year, at the behest of the Georgia Department of Revenue.
The tax percentage paid by public utilities is connected to that sales ratio that has been significantly reduced since 2022. That’s important when considering that four of the county’s 10 largest taxpayers are utility companies.
The appraiser gave an update from Technical Appraisal Services, the company performing the countywide revaluation of properties.
He said the firm remains on schedule and is making strong progress on the review.
“They are making excellent progress,” he said.
The company has performed revaluations on every property in Jones County, and that data will be input before the assessments are mailed in May.
Goodman said the work done by the two appraisers in the office attempting to deal with the inequities in the digest last year had to be done with a broad brush.
At the conclusion of the update, Stanford said the continuation of the maintenance contract with Technical Appraisals will be voted on in the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned to enter closed session at 5:15 p.m. and reopened at 5:42 p.m. to be adjourned again with no action taken.
