Tax bills to be mailed Sept. 1; growth spreads cost around

As it now stands, Lincoln County residents should receive their tax bills around the first of September.

The Lincoln County Tax Commissioner's Office is preparing to send the tax digest to Atlanta for approval by the Georgia Department of Revenue. If everything is in order, the digest will receive conditional approval, and the tax bills will be printed and mailed in Macon.

For the second consecutive year, the fair market value of all real property in the county is hovering at $1 billion. However, the county can only levy tax on 40 percent of the fair market value, which, less exemptions, translates into a net digest of $296,786,434 for 2007 as compared to $263,111,569 for last year.

Homestead and other personal property exemptions amounted to $7,157,332; whereas, conservation exemptions took $31,512,859 off of the tax books for a total of $38,670,191.

As a rural area, the conservation exemption hits Lincoln County the hardest. This exemption allows landowners to enroll in a 10-year conservation plan, which means their land is assessed using the state value for agricultural property instead of the value set by the county.

Approximately 50 percent of the taxable property in Lincoln County is in the conservation use program.

Still, "The net taxable digest for 2007 grew 12.8 percent, which includes all real and personal property, timber, and motor vehicles," said Kenny Adair, chief tax assessor for Lincoln County. "This significant new growth resulted mainly from new subdivisions, mostly without houses, that had not been on the digest before."

Last year, the digest grew 19 percent, according to the chief appraiser. "Most of this was due to the revaluation of existing property. There was a huge increase in the sale of property on the lake, with people paying more than the appraised price."

In other comments, Adair used the Providence Ferry subdivision on Walter M. Remsen, Sr. Road as an example of the growth taking place in the county. "In 2006, the 800-acre subdivision, which consisted of raw or undeveloped land, was assigned a fair market value of about $4.5 million. By 2007, two thirds of the subdivision had been broken up into 200 lots, and the infrastructure had been installed. However, there were no houses on the tax books, and the remaining third was still raw land. Nevertheless, with these improvements, the subdivision was appraised at a fair market value of $24.6 million on the 2007 digest."

Looking ahead to 2008, if 100 homes in the $300,000 range are built in this subdivision in the near future, the fair market value of the property will climb to $54.6 million.

"The growth of these new subdivisions is helping offset the taxes on existing properties," said Adair. "Had we had a two-percent increase instead of the 12.8-percent increase in the digest, then the money collected for taxes levied by the board of education, the county, and the state would have had to come from existing properties. We would have been forced to increase taxes.

"Since we collected money from the new growth, the county was able to decrease the millage rate," he continued. "The majority of existing properties will see a decrease in their taxes (providing the value has remained the same) because others are now helping to share the cost."

Adair went on predict the same scenario for next year. "I believe the new growth will continue to help offset the taxes paid by existing property owners. If people start building houses in these subdivisions, this could keep on for another 10 years. Still, it's all a big unknown."

At the present time, the county has 19 subdivisions that are either in the concept stage or working toward preliminary or final plat approval. These include Stillwater Coves, off of Graball Road; Longleaf Pointe and Dogwood Ridge, off of Chamberlain's Ferry Road; The Village at Soap Creek and The Retreat at Lake Thurmond, off of the McCormick Highway; Serenity Pointe, off of Nathania Farm Road; Long Cove, off of Highway 220 West; Charleston Bay, off of Tabernacle Church Road; Oak Hill and White Rock Estates, off of Maxim Road; Scarlett Oaks, off of the Elberton Highway; and AquaSolaris, off of Bethany Church Road.

In additional remarks, Adair pointed out that for a number of years, his office has been engaged in the painful process of bringing the county into compliance with the state laws governing the assessment of property.

State law requires that property be appraised at 100 percent of its fair market value, although the state will accept figures in the 90 to 110-percent range. "In the 2001 Tax Digest, we were at 55 percent of fair market value," said the chief appraiser. "Af-

around ter paying fines for a few years, we had a major revaluation in 2002. If we hadn't done this, the state would have assessed a very hefty fine and cut off funding until the county brought the digest into compliance.

"We are now assessing property at 100.2 percent of the fair market value, which is the closest we've ever been to the state standard," Adair explained.

He indicated that when he started work in Lincoln County in 2000, the county was receiving 10-page letters from the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, full of faults and findings in regard to the tax digest. However, for the past five years, the county has received single-page audit reports informing it that everything was in order.

This year, Adair's office received roughly 20 appeals.

For more information about property appraisals and the tax digest, contact the Lincoln County Tax Assessor's Office at 706-359-5502.

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