MOULTRIE – Colquitt County Board of Tax Assessors Chief Appraiser Jim Mac Booth told county commissioners at an August work session that he had 800 property tax appeals.

Colquitt County residents received their annual property tax assessments at the beginning of June and had until July 19 to file a written appeal ahead of the bills being sent out.

“So, currently we have 466 yet to see, so we’ve seen pretty close to half of all the appeals,” Booth said.

He also reported that there were 176 appeals with 30-day letters, which could be resolved throughout the next 30 days and that his office had already resolved 104 with 53 going to the Board of Equalization.

The Board of Equalization is the grand jury-appointed body that hears and adjudicates appeals to property values and assessments made by the Board of Tax Assessors.

Booth clarified, when asked by County Commission Chairman Denver Braswell, that 176 residents’ appeals had already been seen and they were sent a letter that gave them their new property value, and he said that they could either agree to it or go to the Board of Equalization.

Braswell asked how long it took, after Booth had talked to the assessor, for a resident to get a letter about their appeal.

“They go out in the mornings and try to see everything that they have for that day. Come in, in the afternoon, and do the paperwork. They’ll (letters) either go out that afternoon or the next day,” he replied.

He also said that he felt pretty good that, in the next two months, they would have everything seen, if they keep at the pace they’re going.

“We shouldn’t have any active which hadn’t been sent yet,” Booth said.

Braswell asked if the appeal meetings had started yet and Booth told him not yet but supposedly September.

“Y’all may have to authorize a full day of appeal hearings, so that you (officials) come in at lunch and go ’til 7 p.m., instead of from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. You can only see about four a night,” he said.

Commissioner Mike Boyd asked what was the average percent of increase for property taxes this year, and Booth responded, that for the entire county, the average was 17%.

“And that’s fair market values. We had to catch up to them,” he added.

He also said that currently there was about $67 million in dispute and he felt that they would be able to keep about half of it.

“You said that you’re going out and actually assessing roughly 10% of the houses each year?” Commissioner Paul Nagy asked. “I think that’s what I heard at the last meeting.”

Booth said with appeals, sales and splits, that was approximately what they did each year.

“And what should we actually be doing? If we are really taking care of the homeowners and taxpayers, what should we be doing?” asked Nagy.

“We would need to be able to see a third of the county every year. Do all the splits, sales, appeals … permits included in that,” Booth replied.

Boyd wanted to know if Booth reviewed the assessments that the assessors brought back before they went out to the homeowners and he said, “Sometimes” and he wished that wasn’t so.

“There’s not enough hours in the day to see a third of the county every year,” Booth said.

Nagy said that he knew the budget was already done but he thought that they should look at what they could do next year to help Booth’s office.

“I don’t know about how y’all feel, but about 10% a year is not good enough,” he added.

The commissioners offered a couple of ideas to see if they would assist Booth in getting more assessments done including the use of EagleView, an aerial imaging and geospatial data gathering program, and if they needed to actually see properties that were being reassessed after a property sale.

Booth said, basically, the aerial program wasn’t effective for them for assessment purposes and the County Attorney Lester Castellow said that reassessments on property sales had to be done because it was state law.

Braswell confirmed with Booth that he had told them, at a previous meeting, that the state wanted every house in the state to be seen every three years.

“That’s what the state wants,” Booth said. “We just had our review with the State and he said, ‘We would need. … We were down two field appraisers.’ What the State recommends,” he said.

Braswell said there were two conflicting regulations and asked if the State wanted Booth to see every house every three years but also reappraise every sale, how did he decide which regulation to follow.

Booth said they couldn’t check every house every three years because it was just physically impossible but they did check every sale, even if it was just an empty lot.