{"id":11444,"date":"2014-11-20T14:42:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T19:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=11444"},"modified":"2014-11-21T08:36:49","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T13:36:49","slug":"volunteers-for-lowndes-county-board-of-equalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/volunteers-for-lowndes-county-board-of-equalization.html","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers for Lowndes County Board of Equalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 2014-11-21:<\/strong>\r\nBrad Shealy from the District Attorney’s office called back.\r\nThe reason there was no decision at day before yesterday’s\r\nGrand Jury meeting was there were no applicants.\r\nHe said qualifications include you must be 18, a high school\r\ngraduate, and a property owner, presumably meaning real estate.\r\nPlus you have to go to Tifton or Athens for a 40 hour course.\r\nWhich he said is better than it used to be when the only\r\nlocation for the course was Athens: Tifton is close enough\r\nto drive up and back daily.\r\nIf you want to serve, please contact the Clerk of Court\r\n(see below for her number).\r\n\r\n

\r\nWhen will new members be appointed to the Board of Equalization,\r\nwho are the candidates, and how are people to know?\r\nMaybe you’d like to volunteer.\r\nIf so, send your resume to the Clerk of Court (not the County Clerk).\r\nApparently you have about two weeks.\r\n

\r\nAs public comment on\r\n\r\nfacebook by Becky Vaughn Herndon today<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nLowndes County is looking for volunteers to be members of the Board\r\nof Equalization (BOE). The purpose of the BOE is to hear property\r\ntax disputes between the Lowndes County Board of Assessors (BOA) and\r\nproperty owners. The board must not be biased towards the Lowndes\r\nCounty Assessor’s office or the taxpayer. It hears evidence from\r\nboth sides and decides, based on the evidence presented, what the\r\nvalue of the contested property should be. The board may:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n
  1. Find the BOA evidence stronger and rule in favor of the county.\r\n
  2. Find that the taxpayer’s evidence is more persuasive and rule in favor of the taxpayer.\r\n
  3. Weigh the evidence presented by both sides and declare a value somewhere in between.\r\n
  4. Order a re-valuation of the area in which the property is located if a matter of uniformity is in question.\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nShe continued with some opinions, then says the Grand Jury appoints the\r\nBoard of Equalization, and this:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nI was told the resumes need to be delivered to the county clerk by December 5th.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nWhy would resumes go to the County Clerk if the Grand Jury\r\nappoints the Board of Equalization?\r\nShouldn’t they go to the Clerk of Court?\r\n

    \r\nWhy this is being passed around as a social media rumor instead\r\nof being posted by the relevant elected and appointed bodies, I don’t know.\r\nI cannot find any notice posted about these BOE openings\r\non any of the relevant bodies’ websites.\r\n

    \r\nThe\r\nLowndes County Tax Commissioner website has\r\n\r\nan explanation<\/a> of what the BOE is:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nThe County Board of Equalization, appointed by the Grand Jury, is\r\nthe body charged by law with hearing and adjudicating administrative\r\nappeals to property values and assessments made by the Board of\r\nTax Assessors.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nThe Tax Assessors website\r\n\r\nadds<\/a>:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\n(Note: An arbitration method of appeal is available to the\r\ntaxpayer in lieu of an appeal to the board of equalization at the\r\noption of the taxpayer at the time the appeal is filed.)\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nThe\r\n\r\nClerk of Court’s web page<\/a>\r\ndoesn’t mention anything about that.\r\n

    \r\nA search on the \r\nLowndes County Commission website<\/a> doesn’t find anything about\r\nany Board of Equalization.\r\n

    \r\nThe Tax Assessors do have an explanation of\r\n\r\nappeals to the BOE<\/a>:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nWhen the Board of Tax Assessors changes the value of property from\r\nthe value in place for the preceding year or from the value that was\r\nreturned by the taxpayer for the current year, a notice of change\r\nmust be sent to the property owner. Upon receipt of this notice, the\r\nproperty owner desiring to appeal the change in value must do so\r\nwithin 45 days of the date of the notice. The appeal is filed with\r\nthe Board of Tax Assessors, which reviews the appeal filed and\r\ninforms the taxpayer of its decision. If the Board of Tax Assessors\r\nmakes no changes, the appeal is automatically forwarded to the\r\nCounty Board of Equalization. A hearing is scheduled, conducted and\r\nthe Board of Equalization renders its decision. If the taxpayer is\r\nstill dissatisfied with the decision, an appeal to Superior Court\r\nmay be made.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nIn lieu of an administrative appeal with the Board of Equalization,\r\nan arbitration method of appeal is also available to the taxpayer.\r\nThe Board of Tax Assessors can provide details regarding this\r\nprocedure. The assessment appeal may be made on the basis of\r\ntaxability of the property, the value placed upon the property, or\r\nthe uniformity of that value when compared to other similar\r\nproperties in the county. The appeal must be filed within the\r\napplicable time period and cannot be filed after that time.\r\nAdditionally, the appeal should not be based on any complaint\r\nregarding the amount of taxes levied on the property. For more\r\ninformation on the Appeals Process please go to:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.etax.dor.ga.gov\/ptd\/adm\/taxguide\/appeals.asp<\/a>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nAnyway, since this posting apparently started with\r\n\r\nLowndes County District Attorney J. David Miller<\/a>,\r\nI called his office to inquire.\r\nThey said there was an ad in the newspaper,\r\nand referred me to the Clerk of Court to get a copy.\r\nAlso that Brad Shealy, Chief ADA, would call me back.\r\nPlus there was a Grand Jury meeting “yesterday” at which\r\nthey were going to decide, but instead they deferred until\r\ntheir December 5th meeting.\r\n

    \r\nWhile waiting, I looked up\r\n\r\nthe newspaper public notice<\/a>:\r\n

    \r\n

    \r\nThe Valdosta Daily Times\r\n
    \r\nLowndes County\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nBETH C. GREENE CLERK OF SUPERIOR, STATE AND JUVENILE COURTS LOWNDES\r\nCOUNTY, GA\r\n
    \r\nP.O. BOX 1349 VALDOSTA, GA 31603\r\n
    \r\n229-333-5126\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nPursuant to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated Section 48-5-311,\r\nat the September Term 2014 Grand Jury of Lowndes County, Georgia, to\r\nbe held pursuant to Law on Wednesday, November 19, 2014. The\r\nfollowing to be appointed by the Grand Jury, to wit: Lowndes County\r\nBoard of Equalization, One Member to serve 2015, 2016, 2017 One\r\nAlternate Member to serve 2015, 2016, 2017.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nAnyone interested in being so appointed should contact the District\r\nAttorney’s Office in writing before 12:00 Noon on November 17, 2014\r\nP.O. Box 99, Valdosta, Georgia 31603. Attention: Board of\r\nEqualization.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\nBETH C. GREENE\r\n
    \r\nClerk of Superior Court\r\n
    \r\nLowndes County, Georgia\r\n<\/p>\r\n

    \r\n00080224\r\n
    \r\n10\/24,31\/14\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

    \r\nNote the application date of Nov 17th, which would fit with\r\nan original decision vote date of Nov 19th (yesterday).\r\n

    \r\nI have also left a message with Beth Greene, Clerk of Court.\r\n

    \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThere could be some interesting cases before the BoE soon, considering\r\nthe recent revaluation of\r\nRural Land and Agricultural Improvements\r\n(Work Session 2014-06-23<\/a> and Regular Session 2014-06-24<\/a>) and\r\nCommercial and Industrial Valuations\r\nWork Session 2014-10-27<\/a> and\r\n\r\nRegular Session 2014-10-28<\/a>).\r\n

    \r\nIt’s worth noting that Lowndes County’s millage rate\r\n\r\nis on the low end among Georgia’s 159 counties<\/a>,\r\nand lower any of the surrounding counties (Brooks, Colquitt, Cook,\r\nBerrien, Lanier, and Echols).\r\nEven if you add in VLCIA (excuse me: VLDA)’s 1 mil and VLPRA’s 1.25 mil,\r\nthe resulting 10.483 mils is still lower than any\r\nof the surrounding counties.\r\n

    \r\nBut if you want to volunteer to be on the Board of Equalization\r\nor know someone who does,\r\nthere’s still time to get your resume to the Clerk of Court.\r\n

    \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 2014-11-21: Brad Shealy from the District Attorney’s office called back. The reason there was no decision at day before yesterday’s Grand Jury meeting was there were no applicants. He said qualifications include you must be 18, a high school graduate, and a property owner, presumably meaning real estate. Plus you have to go to […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,88,133],"tags":[8052,8049,8055,8050,8053,7788,8704,8054,8701,3993,7226,8702,12,7,8734,8051,60,6,8742],"class_list":["post-11444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-vdt","tag-assessor","tag-beth-c-greene","tag-board-of-equalization","tag-clerk-of-court","tag-collector","tag-district-attorney","tag-economy","tag-equalization","tag-georgia","tag-grand-jury","tag-j-david-miller","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-public-notice","tag-tax","tag-valdosta","tag-vdt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2YA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11444"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11458,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions\/11458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}