The Madison County Board of Assessors planned to meet Wednesday afternoon to approve the mailing of assessment notices.
The group also met Monday evening to discuss digest figures. In recent weeks, the BOA considered applying a base calculation that would lower overall property values, but the group now plans to apply figures used in last year’s assessments that will keep digest numbers basically the same.
With a lowered calculation applied to all properties, the county would see an approximate $30 million decrease in its overall property values, but with last year’s formula applied, the county will see roughly the same digest as in 2007.
“It will probably be almost a wash, almost the same as last year,” said Madison County Chief Appraiser James Flynt of the 2008 digest figures.
BOA chairperson Samantha Garland said the lowered formula did not adequately reflect current property values in the county. She said renewing the 2007 calculations was needed in order to put properties closer to their fair market value.
“We’re not upping the values; we’re just putting them back where they were,” she said.
BOA member Jim Escoe has adamantly disagreed, saying that values were inflated last year and were brought back to a more appropriate value with the lower calculation.
Flynt said Tuesday that the land schedules for 2007 have been reinstated. He said he also corrected calculations that are applied to properties within cities. Properties within cities are generally valued higher than those in more rural areas, since city services are available and more amenities are close by. However, the increased assessment calculations that are applied to those properties are supposed to be factored on just the land, not the home. Flynt said he has taken the “influences” or increased calculations off of the homes within cities, which have been applied in the past. That means the overall property values for cities will be down somewhat this year, though final figures were not available as of press time.
It is people such as he, who only thinks "inside the box" so to speak. He needs to look at the whole picture to realize that these people, the BOA are taking in the whole
picture and trying to help the people of Madison County.
Please explain to me how the Assessor and his staff do the assessments and property values are 30 million dollars lower than last year, which reflects 2 things:
1. Contrary to what you assert, the home market in this county is in the dumps and has been for 2 years. Are you blind? When values go up, assessments go up. When values go down as they have in what is recognized as one of the worst drops in home values in U.S. history, the assessments should go down. Sounds like the BOA and BOC may have some members amongst that population who foolishly assumed that home values only go up!
2. The drop in assessments also reflects a necessary correction for the huge increase in assessments we experienced 3 years ago.
At any rate, the assessor and his staff do the assessments and ascertain values. You are correct in stating the BOC sets the millage rate. If assessments are lower, the BOC will have to set a higher millage rate, i.e. raise taxes.
We pay the assessor, he is a professional doing the job he is paid to do, so why the need to question his assessments? Interesting that no one questions his assessments when they go up; that burden is left to the individual property owners.
I look forward to your explanation.
I will leave with this quote from Larry Stewart from the Athens Banner Herald regarding the information we are all about to receive on our assessments: "The values likely do not accurately reflect current property values in the county..."
So, why send them out if they aren't accurate? Simple. As I stated, the BOC doesn't want to be put in the position of making the politically unpopular decision to raise the millage rate. The BOA wants to pass the buck to the BOC. The BOC wants to pass the buck to the BOA. For once we had an assessment that accurately reflected a drop in the market and apparently we don't need to hire an assessor if we aren't going to use his assessments.
Manipulating property values to suit a county's budget is illegal and it has been going on for some time in Madison County and I suspect in most counties in the state of Georgia.
Care to discuss the legality of this year's assessments again?