On the Sunday before the mid-term elections, my letter in The Observer expressed my opposition to two amendments on the ballot. As an afterthought on my opposition to the amendment proposing tax relief on small tracts of timberland, I restated my earlier statement that timberland tracts  of more than 200 acres were exempt from property tax.

One of my friends, a timberland owner, called me right away and said that my statement was not true. Now I am not given to making false statements, unless I quote a source which made a false statement. My error was one of not identifying the source of that statement.

A few months earlier I had picked up a pamphlet at the Tax Commissioner’s office which was prepared and printed for the county by the state. The title of the pamphlet is “COLQUIIT COUNTY IMPORTANT TAX INFORMATION.” One section of the pamphlet is titled “Preferential and Specialized Assessment Programs.”

One of the subsections in this category states, “Forest Land Conservation Use Assessment provides for an ad valorem tax exemption for property primarily  used for the production of trees, timber, or wood  fiber products.” It goes on in part to say, “This 15 year covenant agreement between the taxpayer and the local board of assessors is limited to forest land tracts consisting of more than 200 acres.”

Obviously I was concerned that my letter might have contained information which was not true. So I called the Tax Commissioner to, hopefully, get a definition of “exemption.” The commissioner suggested that I contact the assessor for an in-depth explanation of “exemption.”

Now the assessor’s job is not an easy one. There seems not to be any cut-and -dried rules in assessing real property. So the answer to most of my questions were prefaced with “it depends.” The same millage rate is applied to all property. But the value of all property is not the same. That is what gives birth to “it depends.”

After a long conversation, here is what I came away with. If  the timberland property is more than 200 acres, and the property owner subscribes to the 15 year covenant agreement, the property tax will be less than it would be if the owner does not subscribe to the 15 year covenant agreement.

I tried to get a percent reduction, but it was not forthcoming. Remember, “it depends.”

So where the pamphlet says, “provides for an ad valorem tax exemption,” I believe it should say, “provides for an ad valorem tax reduction.” That appears, to me, to be the only benefit for entering the covenant agreement.

So just because the state produced and printed the pamphlet, that does not necessarily make it totally accurate. If you poll the internet for the definition of exemption it says, “the process of freeing or state of being free from an obligation or liability imposed on others.” Therefore, I apologize to all timberland owners for whom my letter caused concern. I will be careful about quoting information from the state in the future.

If my understanding of the appraiser’s explanation is inaccurate to any degree, I promise to not question how property is appraised again; but instead request that you call and get your own interpretation of the process. And I hope that the experience will not be as confusing to you as it was to me. And while you are at it, thank the appraiser for undertaking such a difficult, and sometimes controversial job.

Bruce Leigh

Moultrie