The Gilmer Board of Tax Assessors is urging county commissioners to contact state legislators about criteria the Georgia Departments of Audits (GDOA) uses to determine property sales ratios.
Assessor board members Bill Logan, Jerry Davis, Tom Porter, John Williamson and Gary Engel discussed the matter with chief appraiser Theresa Gooch when meeting last Thursday.
After a low overall ratio for Gilmer property sales was recently appealed by the county commissioners, GDOA representatives met with Gooch and Logan, the assessor board’s chairman, for an appeal hearing.
“We brought up a lot of information about sales we thought should be in consideration and sales that should be removed, their methodology versus our methodology. We didn’t get a result at the end of the hearing,” said Gooch. “I’m hopeful they understand our position, (and) I’m hopeful our number will move in a positive direction.”
The assessors office uses property sales from an earlier time frame to reach its figures, but the Department of Audits uses property sales from a broader time frame when determining sales ratios for counties.
“Right now, we’re both being governed under two (different) sets of laws,” Gooch said. “I think what it boils down to is what they’re doing their study for is the Board of Education and that type of funding versus what we’re doing our study for, which is taxation.”
Higher prices paid for homes over the past year contributed to the sales ratio not being in compliance according to the GDOA’s guidelines, Gooch noted.
“We used 2020 sales to set values for 2021. They used all 2021 sales and dated back to Jan. 1. We can’t look that far into the future, unfortunately,” she said. “Even if we peaked at 2021 sales, there’s no way they could have been applicable because they’re using nine months of 2021.”
“That’s not right. You can’t compare an apple to an orange,” said Davis.
The 35.88 ratio received by the assessors office could mean a loss of approximately $85,000 in tax revenue from public utilities, Gooch noted. Sales ratios are intended to gauge how close a county’s assessed values are to actual fair market values. The state says they have to be above 36 percent for public utilities to be taxed at the full rate.
Logan said 95 Georgia counties are in a similar situation, having “failed” at having in-compliance sales ratios this year. Gooch said many of those counties are also appealing the GDOA’s decisions.
“All the counties that are appealing are kind of under the same general discussion with them,” Gooch said. “It’s not ever been this big an issue or problem until the nation and the state has seen such an accelerated (housing) market.”
Williamson said appealing the decision may be a fix, but not a solution. He asked who in the state government can change how the studies are done. “Is (House Speaker David) Ralston a part of that? Can we take action?,” he asked.
“It would have to be Ralston and the legislature to chase this. This is a state law problem,” Logan said. “It can’t be changed at this level or the county level. It has to be changed at the legislative level.”
Gooch said a letter will be drafted from the board of assessors to the county commissioners asking them to start a state-level discussion about the sales ratios and how they’re determined.
“I think it has to come not only from us, but from the commission level. This is affecting the school board and (them),” Logan said.
“It’s probably going to take some law changes (to clarify) if we need to change our methodology or possibly something that helps them better define theirs,” Gooch said.
The assessors office probably won’t know the outcome of Gilmer’s appeal until October. If the appeal outcome is in the county’s favor, utilities can rebilled for the lost tax revenue, Gooch noted. If the outcome is not in the county’s favor, there’s an option to proceed to arbitration, she added.
“If there’s not something done and you continue to have sales like they’re having, it’s probably going to continue. If it’s not corrected, I would say, for 2022, you might have the same problem,” said Logan.