Assessors office appealing to Department of Audits
Gilmer County will be able to collect public utility taxes at the full 40 percent rate this year, but is still out of compliance in one area of the current property digest according to a recent review by the Georgia Department of Audits and Appeals (DOA).
Chief Appraiser Theresa Gooch gave this update to board of assessors members Bill Logan, Jerry Davis, Gary Engel, Lisa Bradley and John Williamson during an assessor board meeting held last week.
The 2022 tax year digest is in the 38-40 percent median sales ratio range needed to collect public utility taxes at the full rate. That was not the case last year. After an appeal and subsequent review of certain parts of the digest by the DOAA, the revised sales ratio still fell under that required range resulting in a loss of utility tax revenue.
“Our overall median came in at a lot higher than we expected,” Gooch said about this year’s digest review.
The DOAA did find the current digest’s “residential COD” (coefficient of dispersion) to be out of range. The residential COD, an indicator of assessment uniformity, measures how far property assessments are from the median ratio.
“Our residential COD should’ve been 15 or less. It has us listed at 18.8,” Gooch said.
As it stands, the digest can be passed by the state, but it would be with a conditional approval.
The assessors office has already appealed the digest review findings, after being allowed to do so by the board of commissioners, Gooch said.
“We would then have until the 2025 review to get the COD in line. I feel it’s important that we address the discrepancy in (the DOAA’s) methodology and ask for reconsideration,” she added. “We’ve found approximately 96 sales that were unqualified that were qualified in the study. That included things like personal property and renovations. I’ve reached out to the director of the DOA, Lee Thomas, with a spreadsheet of those sales and asked for reconsideration to see if that will help (improve) our overall residential COD.”
Gooch noted that the methods used by the DOAA in reviewing property sales and values is different than what’s used by the state Department of Revenue (DOR). The DOAA performs a digest review every third year, while the DOR handles digest approval the rest of the time.
Assessor board chairman Bill Logan said only 42 Georgia counties can tax public utilities at the full rate, while others can’t based on their initial digest reviews.
“Something is wrong with their methodology,” Logan said. “We told them that in our two page letter (last year), but nobody listens. The problem is not going away. It will be like this every year.”
Engel asked, with well over half the counties out of compliance, does that “cast any disparaging comments on their approach? Do they have to demonstrate they have a valid approach to this realistically?”
“That’s a million dollar question,” said Gooch. “We keep having this conversation year after year. We’ve reached out to our legislators and this board even wrote letters. Right now, (their) approach is still correct for what (the DOAA is) doing. However, it’s not a correct reflection of this office or numerous offices across the state as to how we measure this market. We’ve asked the DOR and the state to come up with a uniform approach and help the counties be successful and have a methodology in place.”
Gooch said the best case scenario for the local assessors office is the DOAA, with another review, “will remove some of those sales” and the COD will go back in line, putting the entire digest in compliance until the 2025 review year. If the board disagrees with the the appeal results, it can decide whether or not to go to arbitration, she added.
“If the DOA comes back and the numbers get worse or they just don’t make any adjustments, they will have to have a formal appeal period with us. What would be asked then is if the board wants to appeal to arbitration. At arbitration, the board would have the option to present our information and ask the arbitrators to pick our (information) based on our internal studies,” Gooch said.