I compared the 2009 Tax Digest and 5-Year History of Levy that was published in the Calhoun Times to a 2009 State Consolidation Summary that I had printed from the Department of Revenue web site and found the published net M&O digest number on the consolidation summary was $1,467,407.00 less than the published net M&O digest. To be certain I went to the Department of Revenue web site and printed another one. This time I found the numbers had been changed by the state since I had printed the first Consolidation Summary. The new State Consolidation Summary was now $3,797,895.00 less than the published net M&O digest that the millage rate was set by.
I’m not an attorney but I read the Georgia Code concerning digest discrepancies and what I deciphered from the law language is that publishing an incorrect digest is unacceptable. Should anyone want to check this for themselves you can find the information including O.C.G.A. 48-5-32 on the Department of Revenue web site.
One of the main reasons for the digest compliance law was to benefit and inform the taxpayers. When the published digest information is incorrect it is useless to them.
In a Nov. 18, 2009, article in the Calhoun Times it said the tax assessors had received more than 2,300 appeals and to get the digest approved, they had to get the number of appeals below 1,300, which is 5 percent of the total 26,000 parcels.
I have in my possession a list of active appeals that total over 4,000 — 948 are appeals that are going to the Board of Equalization the rest are the first appeal that is still waiting for a reply. Obviously they did not get the number below the 5 percent mark.
Now I am told that by getting the amount of assessed value on appeal below 5 percent they were able to get the digest approved. I read the Georgia Code that they say enabled them to do so. This is what it says: “In any year when a complete revaluation program is implemented, the Commissioner shall not approve a digest when 5 percent or more of the property by assessed value is in arbitration or on appeal and 5 percent or more of the number of properties is in arbitration or on appeal” (O.C.G.A. 48-5-304).
The Tax Assessors or County Commissioners may tell you that this means the assessed value added to the digest as a result of the revaluation but I think it means the total amount of the assessed values disputed, for example; if your property was valued at $75,000 and the new assessment is $100,000 and you filed an appeal, $100,000 will be included in the total assessed value on appeal. I don’t know what the total amount of assessed value on appeal is. I could ask for this information but for some reason I don’t think I would get a total that was calculated correctly.
I feel like a lot of the confusion, anger and frustration could have been avoided if the County Commissioners and Tax Assessors had held a joint meeting to answer the tax payer’s questions concerning the new property assessments. The tax payers have a right to ask and be answered. With that said, I would like to make this my official request to have the County Commissioners together with the Tax Assessors to hold an open meeting to answer any questions the tax payer’s may have. I also request that we don’t have to be on a list to ask questions and the meeting be held at a time of day when the majority of tax payer’s can attend.
Teresa Dempsey
Calhoun
The first time I dialed 770-548, a taped message replied, "Hang up and dial a "1" to make this call". Since then, I called long-distance to get a local number. Again, thank you.
Rusty, Did you know county spends 1) $1,500 a year to exterminate the fire hall. Imagine, termites eating brick and steel, now? If mice, maybe firemen should clean up station, set traps rather than washing their personal vehicles, 2) every department pays bank transaction fees. Government runs millions through the accounts, too. I'm small but if my bank charges a fee, I call and request it be removed or change banks. Of course, I deal only with my money. Everybody's money is nobody's money
Why do all City of Calhoun employees have long distance mobile telephone numbers? 770-548-xxxx
As example: Need limbs cut out of power lines, call long-distance to get a city employee.
Kenny Rogers is the only one who will return your call.
As for the trips and expenditures; get a life! If you travel for business, you have to go where the meetings are held for goddness sakes! Yes the hotels are expensive, the meeting facilities are built with tax money in locations that demand a high rate.
Now I do fault the Board with using an out of area company to do the re-assesments, and I do think another assesment will need to be done to correct the problem.
I'm sure you have done looked up Judy Bailey's and saw where her property value went up by almost 600,000.00 but yet her tax bill only changed by 3.82 from last years tax bill.
Now if people don't see something wrong with that picture they are blind.
Map#082- Block# 040--
2009 - $393.88
2008 - $550.44
Source:
https://gordon.paytaxes.net//customer/property_tax_search.php#results
2009 - $3327.21 ($8.84 less than 10-years earlier)
1999 - $3336.05
Map # 88 Block # 86
Source:
https://gordon.paytaxes.net//customer/property_tax_search.php#results
2009 $168.83
2008 $1,165.59
Source:
Map# 001A Block# 064
https://gordon.paytaxes.net//customer/property_tax_search.php#results
Our Georgia property tax system is broken and nobody but the lawyers who wrote it can understand how it works (or doesn't work, as this letter to the editor points out). I think the tax appraisers office, the commissioners and the taxpayers all share the pain of being locked inside a vehicle that is careening down the road out of control. One agency has control of the gas, another has the brakes, and another has the steering wheel The taxpayers only have control of the horn and we are tooting it as loud as we can.
The recession began in December of 2007, but more than two years later, the taxpayers are still being assessed as if nothing changed. The board of equalization is a joke. They simply vote to keep assessments equally high. That's what they are there for. Recession, what recession ?
The county government needs money. The taxpayers need relief. Something has to give. Let's hope the legislature enacts some real reform of the system before this session ends.
RobertE...tea bags are to the [far] right of reality.
Frankly, that's positive.
Duck, we liked it better when you spoke up and didn't just ride the payroll.
Since agendas are ghosts, we three, on behalf of Gordon County citizens, petition Chairman Never Wrong Long to place the tax assessor on an agenda; provide notice in the Calhoun Times, and make it at a time when the good citizens can attend. Open questions, too.