The Jones County Tax Assessors’ Office undertook a full re-evaluation of some 16,000 parcels of real property this year, but the reassessments produced only a small number of appeals and will apparently not delay the setting of a tax millage for the upcoming fiscal year.
Jones County Chief Tax Appraiser Anthony George confirmed last Thursday, Aug. 1, that only 170 appeals, 1.1 percent of the total number of parcels, were filed. That is well below the five percent threshold that can cause issues for the county with the State Department of Revenue.
George indicated that there has not been a full re-evaluation of property in Jones County since he came here in 2016.
He noted that his office had in recent years looked at subdivisions with sales of increasing values.
“But because of the explosion in the market in the last two and a half to three years, we felt the need to evaluate everybody equally, across the board because the sales were outpacing our assessments,” he explained. “Because people were basically overpaying for property, and they were outpacing our assessments.
“We’re responsible to the Georgia Department of Revenue for staying up with market values. So, it doesn’t matter if someone overpaid; that’s the market value.”
George said he tries to take a moderate approach to increases in assessments.
“If the market went up 40 percent in one year, we’re not going to go from zero to 40 in one year. Because that would overburden the taxpayer as far as evaluation,” he commented. “The Board of Commissioners may not roll back the rate to offset that increase. So, we go up gradually, year to year.
“We’re probably the only county in the state that for the last five years, except for this year, the appeals have gone down,” George asserted.
He shared records that showed the appeals dropped every year from 2017 to 2022, from 208 to 57, though, as he noted, there was no full re-evaluation of properties those years.
The appraiser said the reduction “is a result of better handling of taxpayers’ condition issues they may have had on their property during the year for the following year’s digest.”
George pointed out that in Georgia property is taxed at 40 percent of fair market value and that the DOR gives counties a range of 36 to 44 percent for assessments. That became a problem in Jones County this year.
“Because the sales outpaced our assessments, our ratio dropped,” George acknowledged. “Because it dropped below 36 percent, we have to raise our values to bring it up closer to market value.”
The actual ratio that led to the re-evaluation was 33 percent, the appraiser noted.
George said this was a first for him.
“We have never been below 36 percent since I’ve been here,” he said before pointing out that Jones County was one of many counties with lower-than-acceptable assessment ratios.
“Fifty-one percent of the state fell below 36 percent last year, which has never happened. I don’t know if it was a methodology change or what,” he said. “Two years before that, it was one percent; then you go to 51 percent? That’s a little odd to me.”
As to the results of this year’s re-evaluation, the chief appraiser said his staff is due the credit for the relatively few appeals.
“They treat the taxpayers very nice. They explain the how and why to them very thoroughly. That’s part of it,” George said. “You have to educate the taxpayers on why their value changed, how it changed, and explain to them we’ve spoken to the Board of Commissioners and they’re in line to roll back the millage rate.”
For those who don’t agree with the assessors’ numbers and want to pursue their appeal, George said Board of Equalization (BOE) hearings have been set.
“We have four dates as of right now. We have two scheduled,” he confirmed, adding that the first one will be Aug. 17.
The Board of Commissioners, meanwhile, has scheduled a public hearing required as part of the process of setting the tax rate. That hearing will be Aug. 13 at 6 p. m., according to County Manager Jason Rizner. He added that the commissioners will hear from department heads with special budgetary issues August 16 at 9 a.m. and that the millage rate will be set and budget adopted August 20.
Rizner cautiously noted a tax millage rollback may be approved by the Board of Commissioners.
“I don’t want to speak for the board, but there has been considerable conversation about utilizing the rollback rate,” he commented. “There will be a public budget hearing, and then comments can also be offered on the millage rate prior to its adoption on Aug. 20th.”
Rizner added that, even with a millage rate rollback, the county will realize additional tax revenue.
“Utilizing that rollback rate will still produce an additional $440,000 in revenue,” he said. “Those funds are the result of new growth in the digest, not inflationary growth. New houses and other structures produced that additional revenue.”
