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-We're in for a soggy Tuesday as the remnants from Hurricane Ida slosh through the state. The rain will begin overnight and could be extremely heavy on Tuesday. Also: Gusts to 30 mph> Click
-Continuing updates all day today, Tuesday.
-Latest on Hurricane Ida: Tropics
-Latest forecast:
-Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66.
-Tonight: 90% rain, mainly after 1 a.m.. Low around 54.
-Tuesday: 100% chance of rain. High near 60. Winds between 15 and 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Rainfall amounts: between 2 and 3 inches possible.
-Tuesday night: 40% rain chance, low of 48. Winds 10-15 mph, gusts to 20 mph.
This week's Buzz of Northwest Georgia (click)
-Increased payments just part of the property tax story this year.
-Gordon County appeals skyrocket as assessments shoot up.
-Average payment in most of the state up by $200-$300.
-Floyd, Bartow appeals lower than normal because of 'freeze.'
-Polk residents' payment deadline pushed back to Dec. 1.
Three-Dot Buzz: (click)
-Clarence Brown Conference Center rising quickly in Cartersville.
-Even more changes at Newswire.
-Rome's First Tweet Up set for Tuesday at 333 on Broad.
-Busy week: Empty Bowls, innovation conference, Santa arrives.
John McClellan on the playoffs: Who's in, who's out> Football Report
-Darlington, Calhoun survive week one; Pepperell, Armuchee, Trion, Chattooga eliminated.
Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable>Arey
-Are we seeing the last year of Steve Spurrier? We should be seeing the last of Charlie Weis.
Shorter closes season vs. Bethel College at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Barron Stadium> Details
Georgia High School Football Daily: Playoff previews> Click
Upcoming events at Rome Braves/State Mutual Stadium> Sports
-Braves' first Celebrity Shootout with Rocket Wheeler, Frog Smith.
-First annual Wing Ding due Nov. 21.
-Links to winter baseball leagues.
Today's Focus:
-Increased payments just part of the property tax story this year (click)
-Gordon County appeals skyrocket as assessments shoot up.
-Average payment in most of the state up by $200-$300.
-Floyd, Bartow appeals lower than normal because of 'freeze.'
-Polk residents' payment deadline pushed back to Dec. 1.
Three-Dot Buzz . . .
$20 million Clarence Brown Conference Center rising fast
Motorists on Ga. 20 heading to or from I-75 are watching the Clarence Brown Conference Center quickly rise across the two-lane from the Bartow campus of Georgia Highlands College. An opening date is said to be about a year from now but work on the $20 million, SPLOST-funded project seems to be flowing even faster. Look for the Brown Center to be home to upcoming business, social and educational uses. It will feature video conferencing, interactive white boards, wireless and wired Internet connectivity, and is considered to be "the most technologically sophisticated conference center of its size in north Georgia," according to the Cartersville-Bartow County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
More changes at Newswire: More changes in the local Web world as Dawn Treglown announces she's now sole owner of the Newswire organization. She had been named managing editor during the latest ownership switch involving a "silent partner." Treglown says she signed paperwork Friday to take over the site. Click
Busy week ahead:
-Join us for Tuesday's Tweet Up: Come to Rome's first free Tweet Up on Tuesday at 333 on Broad and enjoy snacks and $2 draught beer while listening to guest speakers share their tips and tricks on how to use Twitter and other social media forms to promote your business. You'll also network with other business owners in Rome so grab a stack of business cards and be at 333 on Broad from 6-8 p.m. Click Facebook or check the tweets of @hometown or @CarolFlammer.
-Community events, including Empty Bowls on Tuesday. For more on what's ahead, please click Calendar
-Chamber's Innovation Conference set for 9-11:30 a.m. Thursday at Berry College. Topics include alternative energy and "angel investing networks." Registration, prices and additional details> Click
-Downtown Rome's Christmas Open House is Friday, Saturday> Downtown
-Ho-ho-ho already? You bet. Santa arrives with live reindeer at 6 p.m. Friday at Mount Berry Square. Plus he's expected in downtown Rome along with Mrs. Claus during the Open House. Christmas season is here.
-Cartersville home to 2010 Miss Georgia USA, Miss Georgia Teen USA Pageants beginning Thursday. Among the Miss Teen contestants is Samantha Plott, left, Miss Cartersville Teen USA. For the schedule and updates, click Pageants.
Think your property taxes went up? See what's up in Gordon Co.
-Gordon County appeals skyrocket as assessments shoot up.
-Average payment in most of the state up by $200-$300.
-Floyd, Bartow appeals lower than normal because of 'freeze.'
-Polk residents' payment deadline pushed back to Dec. 1.
By Natalie Simms
You're paying higher property taxes this year in Floyd and Bartow counties, and they're due now through next Monday. Polk residents have an extra two weeks to think about it while in Gordon County, a battle is brewing over assessments which has stalled property owner payments.
Normally, taxes are due Nov. 15 for Floyd and Bartow property owners. But payments will be accepted on Monday, Nov. 16, without penalty because the due date falls on the weekend. Property owners in Polk County have until Dec. 1 to make their payments. The due date for Gordon County has yet to be determined but will be sometime in early 2010.
Why higher taxes? All property owners statewide have noticed an increase in their tax bills because of the repeal of the state homestead tax relief grant. It funded an increased homestead exemption for homeowners for the last several years.
"Declining state revenues during the current recession means there is no money for the state to give the tax relief to homeowners," says Kevin Payne, right, Floyd County Tax Commissioner. "This will mean a property tax increase of $200 to $300 on the 2009 tax bills for many Georgia homeowners."
The grant -- appropriated by the Georgia General Assembly and the governor for the last several years to counties, cities and schools--had given tax relief to homeowners in the form of a credit on their tax bills. However, there is hope that this grant will return in the future.
"According to the legislation, the grant will only be made available in the future if the state revenues grow at least 3 percent plus the rate of inflation," Payne says. "But the tough thing to realize is that the elimination of this tax credit will not provide any additional funding to local governments or schools. This extra money is going to the state." (For more, click here)
On the flip side, the state passed legislation to freeze all property assessments until 2011.
"Assessments are frozen and we can't raise assessments unless the property has been sold or there has been an improvement made or addition to the property," Payne says. "And, since assessments have been frozen, we haven't had as many appeals this year."
In Floyd and Bartow, assessment appeals are down: There are approximately 50,000 parcels and personal properties in Floyd County. In a normal year, the county averages 900-1,100 appeals, says Bill McWhorter, Floyd County Tax Assessor.
"This year, we had just over 700, so not as many as in years past," McWhorter says. "Probably because we didn't raise values and in some areas, we reduced values because of market conditions. Even though the assessment is frozen, we still have to consider market conditions, so the tax may go up or down depending on the market."
Bartow County officials also noticed a decrease in the number of appeals they received. The county sent 47,369 tax notices and had about 700 appeals, down from 1,200 in 2008, says Michael Floyd, Bartow County Tax Assessor.
"We sent a notice out with our tax bills about the homestead grant being removed, so if we hadn't sent that out, it would have been a nightmare with people filing appeals," Floyd says. "But because we notified them upfront, we've not had any trouble."
Polk County officials had about the same number of appeals as in previous years. The county sent 22,341 tax notices and received less than 100 appeals, says Janell Cox, Polk County Tax Assessor. "Since assessments are frozen, we've been low on appeals and had less than 100, which is what we averaged last year," she says.
Gordon citizens group questions spike in assessments: The situation in Gordon County is quite different. Even though the state froze assessments, Gordon was in the middle of a county-wide reassessment project and received special permission to complete the project before setting the 2009 Tax Digest.
All county tax digests are due to the state by Aug. 1 for approval by the Georgia Department of Revenue before tax notices can be sent to property owners.
However, only 5 percent or less of the total tax digest can be in dispute or under appeal, says Scott Clements, Gordon County Tax Commissioner.
"We have 26,000 parcels in the county and we had an extremely high number of appeals in excess of 5,000," Clements says. Five percent of Gordon County's tax digest would be 1,300 appeals.
Judy Bailey, a Gordon County commissioner, says the appeals are so high because of the reassessment.
"We have not had a countywide reassessment since the early '90s so there were a lot of unequal assessments," says Bailey, left.. "Our goal was to equalize the assessments and we feel that has been done."
However, some property owners-- more than 5,000 by the number of appeals -- do not feel their reassessments were equal or fair. Several citizens have formed a group, "Concerned Citizens for Good Government," to fight what they believe to be unfair and unequal assessments.
"We are just fighting for everything to be equal and fair," says Norris Sexton, group chairman. "According to local Realtors, property values in the county have dropped by 20-30 percent from last year, so it just doesn't make sense for the increases we have."
Sexton says one of his properties went up 433 percent from last year's assessment. He owns an empty .45 of an acre adjacent to his home and property in the Skyline subdivision. The lot was valued at $5,623 last year and was assessed at $30,000 this year. He did appeal the notice and has gotten a reduction down to $20,000.
His home and property of .45 of an acre the house sits on also increased by 31 percent up to $109,321 from $83,312 last year.
"It's not just my property, it's like this all over the county," he says.
The group is concerned that some elected officials benefitted from the reassessment and only had minimal increases. Gordon County's tax assessments are a matter of public record and can be viewed online at http://gordon.binarybus.com/
Says Bailey of the assessments: "I know for me and other elected officials, when we run for office, we go to the tax assessor's office to make sure our property is in-line with the market. So, when I ran for office five years ago, they reassessed my property at that time, so it doesn't go up that much. I'm sure others did the same."
However, Bailey says aside from her home, she has a lot of farmland that was recently reassessed in the countywide project.
"My farmland was under appraised, so it went up $600,000," she says. "And I think it is now equal and fair to those around me. The appraisal is not out of line."
Since there are more than 5,000 appeals, way above the 5 percent cap, the county has not been able to set the tax digest or millage rate, thus having to use the reserves to meet current budget requirements.
"Once we get the numbers in and set the digest, we'll be able to set the millage rate and get everything approved by the state," Bailey says. "We are working hard on the appeals and hope to have the digest set within the month."
Until then, the county has enough reserves to last through April but the same cannot be said for the county school board, according to Randall Dowling, Gordon County administrator.
"I think they are pretty close to needing to borrow money until we get the tax bills out," he says. "They would just have to borrow it from local banks to meet their budget needs."
Once tax bills are sent, payment would be due within 60 days. If officials meet their goal of getting bills out in December, taxes would be due in early February.
To make paying your taxes easy, Floyd and Bartow County now have online payment options.
-In Floyd, go to www.floydcountytax.com to pay by credit card.
-In Bartow, go to www.bartowcounty.paytaxes.net or you can pay by phone at 1-866-549-1010, enter bureau code 3424997. All information is on your tax bill.
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