FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Fulton County Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to reject this year's higher property valuations, allowing tax rates to be set based on last year's values.
What the commission did is unprecedented.
In every other case, the Board of Assessors set property values. Higher values usually lead to higher taxes.
But this year, the elected county commissioners used a 137-year-old law to take over the process after hearing weeks of taxpayer protests.
Unhappy property owners brought their complaints again Wednesday, and this time, they got what they wanted.
A week after the Board of Assessors said it doesn't have the legal authority to throw out the new and much higher property valuations, the elected county commissioners used a newly discovered but very old law to do it themselves.
Chairman John Eaves admits it's a temporary fix.
“It does provide relief to property owners for the 2017 year, as we go into 2018. It's not a final solution,” Eaves told Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher.
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One commissioner who voted for the rollback, first threw a barb at Eaves, who's running for Atlanta mayor.
“Why kick the can down the road to next year after the mayoral election is over? Why not deal with it here today?” Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington told Belcher.
“This is not a political game, here. This is real. Real and grave. People's lives, choices about where they can live, facing eviction,” Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis said.
A common complaint that the appraisers who set the new property values made too many mistakes.
“Clearly, in my opinion, the errors are simply too rife,” said Fulton County Commissioner Lee Morris.
There is a general acknowledgement that property values are getting higher.
“To do it all in one year, it's unfair. It's just unfair,” Fulton County Commissione Liz Hausmann told Belcher.
“We will listen. That's the bottom line, and not only will we listen, we'll do something about it,” said Fulton County Commissioner Emma Darnell.
The rollback will not affect commercial properties, only Fulton County's 317,000 residential properties. Those owners should expect new assessment notices in the mail around mid-August.
Likely to be unhappy are Atlanta Public Schools officials who said they were expecting about $24 million in new revenue based on the new valuations.
Fulco Comm votes to roll back prop valuations to 2016 level, avoiding huge tax increases for thousands of homeowners pic.twitter.com/jQdzssnaPU
— Richard Belcher (@BelcherWSB) June 21, 2017
Cox Media Group
