Tag Archives: Tax Assessors

Land is not just money: appeal tax valuations today




Appeal today
if you think there’s more to land (or business)
and woods and fields and streams than money,
unlike the Tax Assessors, whose revaluation would drive development
into agricultural areas of the county where it doesn’t belong,
while avoiding populated areas such as the south side of Valdosta.
We can expect pipeline companies and utilities from other states
to think nothing of pillaging our lands for their profit.
We shouldn’t expect that of our neighbors whom we elected Tax Asssessors.
If you have affection for your land, your county, your neighborhood,
today’s the deadline

to appeal your valuation
.
And there will be an election later.

As Wendell Berry said,



Whatever has happened in what economists call “the
economy,” it is generally true that the land economy has been
discounted or ignored.

Are the Tax Assessors boomers?
Are you a sticker?
Wendell Berry explains: Continue reading

Monday August 10th deadline to appeal tax valuations –VLCoC

Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members just got a message from
Bruce Allred, Government Affairs Council Chairman,
saying:


MONDAY IS DEADLINE TO APPEAL PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS!

You can look up your property on the Tax Assessors’ website:
www.qpublic.net/ga/lowndes.


See also the

LAKE Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04
.

That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading

Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04



See for yourself the Tax Assessor response to local landowners, in these
LAKE videos of

last night’s meeting
at Farm Bureau.
Do you think there’s a problem?
If so, what do you think we should do to fix it?

The attendees appointed Gretchen to take notes. Here are her notes,
followed by the videos.

Accessibility is not about access, it’s about geographic location…. That was done by one of our appraisers on staff. —Chief Appraiser Silas Hrobar

Rural and commercial land owners got surprises in the mail in July
when they received the updated assessments of their properties.
Lowndes County Assessors engaged a contractor last year to help with
the reassessments of approximately 10,000 properties. Rural
properties were categorized as small (under 20 acres) and large
(over 20 acres) but complaints were the same, inconsistent and
confusing application of criteria.

On Tuesday evening, Farm Bureau hosted Continue reading

Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

Are Bill Gates and subdivisions really more important than agriculture
or rivers or public transportation?


Come to Farm Bureau tomorrow evening
and find out what’s
going on with the rural land revaluation. facebook event.

When: 7PM, Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Where: 3296 Greystone Way, Valdosta, GA, (229) 242-7876

By: Farm Bureau board member Buddy Coleman called this meeting.

What: Compare the Comprehensive Plan to this revaluation here (PDF).

Sprawl: sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin (Or at least big tax increases).
PDF of the report by UGA Prof. Jeffrey H. Dorfman Lowndes County paid for in 2007,

The Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in
Lowndes County
.

Who: At least some of the

Lowndes County Tax Assessors
Continue reading

Who is on the Lowndes County Board of Equalization?

The lowndescounty.com list of the

Board of Equalization
(BoE) also is not correct,
like their

incorrect list of Tax Assessors
.

300x388 LGS GCP Board Of Equalization Schedule-001, in Georgia Certification Program Board of Equalization Schedule, by Georgia Department of Revenue, 30 July 2015

but there seems
to be no other public website list of BoE members.

Members

  • Jimmy Griffis, Chairman
  • Gelana Goddard
  • John Avera

Alternates

  • Wayne Ricks
  • Lanelle Rogers
  • Joe Clark

A

new BOE member was appointed in late 2014
.

I called Beth C. Greene, Clerk of Superior Court, and asked her for the real list, which is: Continue reading

Who are the Lowndes County Tax Assessors?

This should be an easy question, but it isn’t.
Why not?


300x353 W.G. Walker, in Rural land re-evaluation, by Tax Assessors, 14 July 2015


300x336 Mike Hill, in Rural land re-evaluation, by Tax Assessors, 14 July 2015


And the answer is a saw sales owner who previously promoted
development in an agricultural region of Lowndes County,
a realtor whose job is to promote development, and a preacher
who previously chaired a board that wanted to take tax money
from the county without rural citizens being able to vote on it.
None of them appear to have any experience in agriculture.
These are the people who oversaw the recent revaluation of rural
(and commercial) properties that would drive development into parts of Lowndes County that the Comprehensive Plan says should be agricultural.
Now I know all three of them, and they’re fine people.
But perhaps some rural people need to ask them some questions.

The

list on lowndescounty.com

of Lowndes County’s elected
Tax Assessors
is not remotely correct: Doyle Kelly is no longer
serving due to illness, yet he’s still on that list,
along with Mike Hill and W.G. Walker.



Mike Hill runs Continue reading

Rural tax revaluation: Bill Gates and subdivisions more important than agriculture and public transportation?

Does this

rural land revaluation map

resemble the

Comprehensive Plan Future Development map
?

Tax Assessors: Rural Land Accessibility Codes

Why not?
And why were rivers and public transportation not considered either
by the Lowndes County Tax Assessors
while tracts with road frontage were considered the
“highest market area”
and
land purchases by Bill Gates
were considered
“benchmark sales” instrumental in pricing large tracts?

This rural land revaluation is yet another vehicle to drive development straight north into the agricultural areas of the county, not even stopping at the Withlacoochee River.

That way lies sprawl, which as Dr. Jeffrey H. Dorfman of UGA has said,
“is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin* * Or at least big tax increases.”

The City of Valdosta better watch out! Much of this Continue reading

County revenue and property tax appeals –Craig Cardella @ LCC 2015-03-24

9. CWTBH - Craig Cardella
A local citizen got cut off just as he said the county attorney’s
opinion was he could interpret state law about property taxes however he wished,
in the

24 March 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission
.

9. Citizens Wishing to be Heard-Please State Your Name and Address

Video.
Craig Cardella’s concern was that the County Commission does not have enough money
to do things that are important to the community.
He said he had given a similar talk to Valdosta Mayor and Council recently.
He said he had been a city manager in the past, and had worked in and around
local government nearly all his career.

In 2009 GA State Senate authorized Continue reading

Videos: Fire aid, drinking, driving, and air conditioning @ LCC 2015-03-24



One citizen got cut off
just as he said the county attorney
thought he could interpret state law however he liked.
In addition to the
Lake Park Fire Department Automatic Aid Agreement
the County Manager asked at the Work Session to add to
agenda,
they also added
Southern Region Traffic Enforcement Network (SRTEN).
Plus not on the agenda there was

recognition of student guests
.
See also the previous morning’s Work Session

Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful cleanup presentation
.
They meet again this morning.

Also voted on two weeks ago were
changes to the

speed zone ordinance
,
a

GEMA grant application
, a

proposal for engineering services for Exits 22 and 29
,

HVAC for county buildings
, and a

liquor license
.
Here’s
the agenda
with links to the videos and a few notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015  8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

VALOR GIS and Tax Assessors Map don’t agree on Hahira annexation property @ LCC 2014-09-08



Looks like the 5720 S. Hagan Bridge address is in
VALOR GIS map for

the Hahira extraterritorial request

in the

board packet
, which appears to have been received as an attachment to

the request letter from Hahira
.
It’s easier to see if you go directly to
VALOR GIS
and zoom in.
Which raises the question of why is the address in VALOR GIS
different from the address in the

Tax Assessors map
.

See also this
comment today by Barbara Stratton
. -jsq

Mr. Allen said 5720 S Hagan Bridge Rd, which is the agenda address I
was also given by one of the County Commissioners Tuesday afternoon.
5710 S Hagan Bridge Rd is the address in the Tax Assessors records
and also the address that was approved by the Hahira City Council in
previous meetings. So where did the 5720 address come from and I
also agree that the correct address and owner name should have been
published for public record. The 5710 property owned by John Bailey
was purchased in February 2014 and almost immediately Continue reading