EDITORIAL: County should do the right thing on lower property values
There’s no argument that property values have dropped in the Jackson County area. During the housing bubble, speculation, easy credit and rapid growth pushed housing and some commercial property to artificial highs.
Since all of that has now crashed, what is your property really worth?
That question will loom large in Jackson County in the coming months as taxpayers and county assessors attempt to figure out just how to value property for next year’s local government tax rates. Over 2,100 property owners have filed with the county to have their property values lowered.
Of course, local governments don’t really want to see property values adjusted downward. Doing that could force officials to make some hard choices of either cutting costs, or increasing the millage rate.
The latter is almost impossible, unless a public official wants to be tarred and feathered by angry taxpayers. Governments cannot — should not — raise taxes in the middle of an economic recession.
Complicating all of this will be new rules coming out of the Georgia General Assembly, regulations that have yet to be fully studied to see what impact they will have on the assessment process. One bill, SB 55, appears to allow foreclosure sales to weigh on surrounding property values, a move that could upend the valuation process in high-foreclosure counties like Jackson.
The core issue here, however, is one of fairness to taxpayers. When property values were going up at an inflated rate, government officials couldn’t wait to have reassessments done to increase tax digests. They were only too happy to get the extra money, even if some of it came from inflated “bubble” assessments.
Now, however, government leaders are saying very little about pushing assessments down to reflect the housing crash. A lot of people paid too much for property during the boom, but just because someone paid $200,000 for a house doesn’t mean it was — or is — really worth that amount.
Getting to a fair value number is difficult. With the real estate market moribund, there are too few buyers to really set traditional fair market values based just on comp sales.
Still, local property values should be adjusted down to reflect a reasonable decline in real estate prices.
And while a number of people have filed with the county to have their property reassessed, it really shouldn’t take that action for county officials to do the right thing.
That question will loom large in Jackson County in the coming months as taxpayers and county assessors attempt to figure out just how to value property for next year’s local government tax rates. Over 2,100 property owners have filed with the county to have their property values lowered.
Of course, local governments don’t really want to see property values adjusted downward. Doing that could force officials to make some hard choices of either cutting costs, or increasing the millage rate.
The latter is almost impossible, unless a public official wants to be tarred and feathered by angry taxpayers. Governments cannot — should not — raise taxes in the middle of an economic recession.
Complicating all of this will be new rules coming out of the Georgia General Assembly, regulations that have yet to be fully studied to see what impact they will have on the assessment process. One bill, SB 55, appears to allow foreclosure sales to weigh on surrounding property values, a move that could upend the valuation process in high-foreclosure counties like Jackson.
The core issue here, however, is one of fairness to taxpayers. When property values were going up at an inflated rate, government officials couldn’t wait to have reassessments done to increase tax digests. They were only too happy to get the extra money, even if some of it came from inflated “bubble” assessments.
Now, however, government leaders are saying very little about pushing assessments down to reflect the housing crash. A lot of people paid too much for property during the boom, but just because someone paid $200,000 for a house doesn’t mean it was — or is — really worth that amount.
Getting to a fair value number is difficult. With the real estate market moribund, there are too few buyers to really set traditional fair market values based just on comp sales.
Still, local property values should be adjusted down to reflect a reasonable decline in real estate prices.
And while a number of people have filed with the county to have their property reassessed, it really shouldn’t take that action for county officials to do the right thing.
SB 55 was changed to include not only foreclosures, but all distress sales. This changed the equation that we were discussing in the previous posts, and certainly will cause digests to decline. Even without such language, values, in many cases, are down from last year’s levels, and any assessor doing their job should reflect such changes in their 2009 assessments. In my county I’ll be recommending to the board of assessors that we lower the digest by an amount that would rival Jackson County’s entire digest.
In the previous posts, I was attempting to explain that considering only foreclosures could, in this market, cause assessments to increase. However, some of the more intellectually challenged who read my posts ignored its substance and made arguments that were based on their stereotypical impressions of what they felt a tax official would argue. I’m not foolish enough to believe that these same simpletons will read my agreement with Buffington’s opinion and actually understand that I’m agreeing because that’s not what their stereotype of me tells them I will say. Unless Buffington reins these simpletons in and doesn’t allow their idiotic ramblings to be displayed, I’m sure I’ll be blasted by morons claiming that I feel values shouldn’t be decreased.
Lastly let me caution those reading this that, it’s a mistake assume that a decreased assessment equals a decreased tax bill. If I have any point of contention with Buffington’s argument, it is with his statement that “Governments cannot — should not — raise taxes in the middle of an economic recession”. This year all sources of revenue are down and governments have mandates pushed down from the state and federal authorities that mandates services that must be supplied. Ignoring those mandates would cost the government more money in the long run as they would be sued, and then not only be forced to provide the service anyway, but also to pay the costs of their failed litigation. It might be easy for those who do not actually shoulder the responsibility of providing such mandated services (people like Casual Observer and Buffington) to thumb their nose at the judges and the courts that those responsible would have to answer to for their contempt of the law, but no one who has such responsibility, and two working brain cells, would take that position. Because we have to provide an education to our children, emergency services such as fire and police services, and utility services such as roads and bridges to drive on and water to drink, people still have to pay taxes, even a down economy. Because of this, many governments and school boards will be forced to raise millage rates. If your millage rate increases more by percentage than your assessment decreases, your tax bill will go up, not down. Understand that I’m not advocating raising taxes; I’m advocating obeying the law (Assessors do not write and pass these laws, they just follow them).
sincerely,
Every Politician
This is a peaceful free speech demonstration, and we will be promoting the Fair Tax Act proposal, A redressing of government of our grievances, and for dissemination of factual information.
Bring the Family and show your Solidarity with like minded men & women.
This is a family event so no alcohol or firearms are permitted.
Thank You for your support & we look forward to seeing you there.
lerichards@windstream.net
We (Citizens of Jackson County) will also be joining you and other Americans across our great nation on Wednesday, April 15, 2009.
We will be meeting in Nicholson beside City Hall from 6pm - 8pm. We invite all citizens to attend. Best of luck to Barrow County!
Best of luck to Jackson County & to our great Country!
~Let Fredom Ring~
Although it is true that a group of friends and supporters will be joining Ms. Pearre at the library on Saturday to celebrate her tenure there, to call it a "Retirement Party" is certainly misleading. ( I do not claim that it was intended as such)
The simple truth is that Ms. Pearre - a Cancer patient and diabetic -
( and having fractured and dislocated her shoulder only two weeks prior ) was FIRED by Mayor Ronnie Maxwell, after working for the city for the past nine years. The reasons given by Mr. Maxwell were - to paraphrase - that "...the library would be heading in a new direction..." and that "...her position was being eliminated".
It should also be noted that Mr. Maxwell informed Ms. Pearre of her termination by letter. Odd, in a town the size of Nicholson, where the library is a mile from City Hall, and as Mr. Maxwell and Ms. Pearre are well acquainted, no?
I do not intend to libel Mr. Maxwell but merely to state the facts. I believe it's important for local citizens to be made aware of the actions of it's government.
I am not signing my name to this comment intentionally. I do not wish to invite harassment against myself or those in the community who support Ms. Pearre and are grateful for her years of service.
Thank you.
A very wise choice, as you can be sure that you WOULD be harassed if you had made your identity public. It is common knowledge in Nicholson that as far as the Mayor and City Council are concerned "you are with me, or you are agin' me". You either go along with what the Mayor wants, or you will be punished one way or the other (and that goes for City Council members who disagree with the Mayor, too.)
It makes me wonder...who's watching the watchers? The "overlords" of the community wear a silk-covered iron glove, on the surface everything is nice and friendly, but when you look beneath the cover you see just how ham-handed and iron-fisted "your local goverment" truly is.
Do you ever read any of this Mister Mayor Maxwell? Maybe you should stop and wonder why people take the time to write this kind of response, maybe you should take a long, hard look at how you handle things. The next election is not THAT far away.
look at the number of serious /fatal accients on our state and interstae roads each year witch have to be meet with "trauma" hospitals and most bills go beyound what the insurance covers.
unless you have had the need for a trauma center you will never know what the cost is .
my sugestion is SLOW DOWN save lives and gas.
Speed limits are merely fee generators for bloated police budgets.