Wednesday, July 23, 2003
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003 |
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Property values up 8%; taxes to follow By JOHN THOMPSON
By Aug. 5, Ellen Mills should be breathing a lot easier. Mills is the department head at the Fayette County Tax Assessors Office, and by the first Tuesday in August, she'll know how many angry taxpayers are filing appeals of their new tax assessments. "Last year, we had about 700 appeals, and expect to have about 500 this year," she said. So far, 224 residents have complained about their assessments and have started down the lengthy path of appealing the new value of their homes. With 37,000 parcels to assess, Mills' office stays busy. The office has 14 employees and half the department physically examines about 3,000 homes a year, she said. The rest of the appraisals are based on home sales in the area, which the office examines on a daily basis to determine housing trends in the county. One of the biggest groups that has gotten large appraisals in recent years has been older homes built in the 1960s and 1970s, she said. "With less new construction going on in the county, the older homes are really starting to appreciate in value. They represent the easiest way to enter into the county," she said. Preliminary figures show homes in the county are worth nearly $6.8 billion on this year's tax digest, compared to $6.1 billion last year. Personal homes represent nearly 80 percent of the tax base in the county. (See box.) Residents may think that assessments are appearing a lot quicker than they used to, and they're right. In 1999, the county started sending out yearly reassessments to keep from paying penalties to the Department of Revenue. "Our assessments have to be within 10 percent of the fair market value over a three-year period or some serious penalties can occur," Mills said. Penalties including losing state grants and cash payments to the Department of Revenue convinced the county to go to a yearly reassessment, she said. In looking at this year's tax digest figures, Tyrone showed the biggest increase over last year. Tyrone's residential property values jumped 22.4 percent, while homes in the unincorporated county rose 9 percent. Peachtree City saw a 8.76 percent jump in value, while Brooks had an 8.37 percent increase. Fayetteville had the lowest increase at 8.34 percent. The figures include reassessments and new construction. When the tax digest is complete in August, Mills will have an exact handle on the value of reassessments that she will forward on to the county's governments for the setting of the millage rate.
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