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closeOn the last day to contest new property values, homeowners filed into the Macon-Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors office by the hundreds Monday, dropping off letters of appeal and talking to appraisers.
“I was afraid to drop it in the mail because I wanted to get it in today,” said Macon resident Deborah Smith, who turned in a letter of appeal shortly after 4 p.m.
- Gallery: Bibb residents appeal property values
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After appeal, what’s next?
The tax assessors office will review your appeal.
If a change is made, you will be sent a letter with your new value. If you agree with it, then you’re done. No further action is necessary. If you don’t agree with it, you have another 21 days to appeal to the Board of Equalization or arbitration, whichever you choose.
If no change is made, you will be sent a letter stating that your appeal has been forwarded to the Board of Equalization. The board’s secretary will be in contact with you.
By the time the office closed at 5 p.m., about 12,700 appeals had been counted, Chief Appraiser Andrea Crutchfield said. That’s about 19 percent of Bibb’s total number of parcels, not including any mail that came in Monday or may come in today. Letters postmarked by Monday will be accepted.
Appraisers will start reviewing the appeals today or Wednesday, Crutchfield said.
The volume and value of properties under appeal currently exceed standards for submitting the tax digest to the Department of Revenue for approval.
The state requires that less than 5 percent of the tax digest’s total value or fewer than 5 percent of the total number of parcels be under appeal before the digest can be submitted.
That usually happens around August.
That means, the tax assessors must now get to work whittling down the number or value of appeals to an acceptable level.
The assessors could be ready to make value changes themselves as soon as their July 15 meeting.
Appeals that go to the next level will be heard by five Boards of Equalization.
Those boards, independent bodies made up of three people that can hear appeals, can work about 3,200 appeals per month, assessors have estimated.
So far, the number of appeals is still less than the last revaluation in 2006. That revaluation generated more than 18,000 appeals and eventually was abandoned.
Crutchfield said that will not happen this year.
“We’re going to finish this one,” she said. “We’re not going to throw it out.”
To contact writer Jennifer Burk, call 744-4345.
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