The November meeting of the Jones County Board of Tax Assessors ended with good news about progress for the countywide revaluation.
The Nov. 6 meeting was called to order by Chairman Dr. Leigh Stanford, and the opening prayer and pledge was led by board member Joe Rutledge.
All board members were in attendance.
Board Secretary and Appraiser Bill Goodman guided board members through the agenda, beginning with the approval of five Veterans Homestead exemptions. Goodman recommended approval of all five of the applications after they were reviewed by board members.
Rutledge made the motion to approve the exemptions, and the motion was approved unanimously.
Goodman presented one new CUVA (Conservation Use Value Assessment) appeal, one FLPA (Forest Land Protection Act) continuation without penalty and one CUVA breach with penalty.
The appraiser said the tax commissioner and applicant agreed to the penalty amount to proceed with the sale of the property.
He recommended the approval of the three requests.
After review, board member Justin Kelly made the motion, and it passed unanimously.
Goodman next brought the board members 244 error and relief items. He added that there were two deed issues that needed to be corrected with an E&R, one homestead exemption issue and two CUVA breaches that brought the total to 249 E&Rs.
The secretary recommended approval of all the E&Rs. Board members reviewed the documents, and Kelly made the motion to approve them. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.
Goodman presented 23 motor vehicle appeals and recommended approval. After reviewing the appeals, board member Andrea Riley made the motion to approve the appeals, and the vote to approve was unanimous.
Updates
Goodman reported 96 CUVA renewal notices and one FLPA for 2026 were processed and mailed Oct. 22. The deadline to mail the notices was Oct. 31. He also said inventory requests forms for the county’s 34 mobile home parks were mailed Oct. 30.
Goodman also talked about the ongoing appeals process. He said 418 of 488 appeals have been resolved with 70 remaining open. Three of those remaining have received 30-day notices and are expected to be automatically resolved by Dec. 1. He noted those taxpayers may still appeal to the Board of Equalization.
The secretary said 61 appeals were scheduled for BOE hearings Nov. 12-24. An additional hearing is scheduled in December if needed. Final opinions were issued on six appeals but can still be appealed to superior court.
The hope is for the all the appeals to be resolved by Jan. 31.
Goodman read the progress report as of Oct. 17, received by the county from Technical Appraisal Services.
• Residential properties: 11,673 of 13,100 reviewed
• Agricultural properties: 1,575 of 2,400 reviewed
• Commercial properties: 404 of 420 reviewed
• Industrial properties: all 22 reviewed
• Exempt properties: all 390 reviewed
• Prebilled mobile homes: 305 of 850 reviewed
Public utilities and aerial imaging
Goodman said the state is currently reviewing appeals related to public utilities, and the county will be notified by email when complete.
Stanford reported the Board of Commissioners were previously made aware that the county’s aerial imaging is out of date. She is working to verify that Eagle View through the Schneider Company is the sole source provider for the imaging service.
The chairman said estimates have been received, and the next step is to request funding from the county.
Riley made a motion to authorize Stanford to proceed with contracting for the imaging service and requesting the funding. The motion was approved unanimously.
Following public comments, the meeting was adjourned.
The Board of Assessors meeting is available to view in its entirety from the county’s website, jonescountyga.org.
