Sticker shock. It comes in all forms from a variety of places. Right now, though, many residents of Douglas and Coffee County are getting sticker shock when they see their newest property value assessments, which have been mailed out and are arriving now.
When property owners receive their assessment notices, they will likely see that their property values have increased, quite significantly in many cases. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that their property taxes are going up.
According to county administrator Wesley Vickers, Coffee County’s assessments have been out of compliance with the state values for a long time. If a county’s assessments are not compliant with the state, that county is subject to various penalties until those values are brought back in line.
The assessment process itself can be a rather complicated matter to discuss. It is out of this writer’s level of expertise to adequately explain it. Vickers, however, said that the county was preparing to reassess residential property when Hurricane Helene hit. The storm damaged and destroyed so many homes that reassessment wasn’t prudent. “So we said that we’d just wait. Now the state has finally gotten to the point where they’ve given us the information we need. Our values haven’t been where they need to be according to the fair market value,” says Vickers.
There is some recourse that homeowners have if their property values have increased significantly. If you own a home and live in that home, your home should be in homestead exemption. That will keep your taxes low, in some cases almost exactly where they currently are. If your home isn’t in homestead exemption, your property taxes will most likely increase significantly.
However, if you aren’t in homestead exemption, you have 45 days from the time the assessments were mailed to appeal the assessment and file for a homestead exemption. The last day to appeal is September 18.
If you own agricultural land, you have some recourse there as well. The assessments won’t increase significantly if ag land is in conservation programs. You have the same 45-day appeal window to place ag property into conservation programs as well.
You can file your appeals online via the qpublic website. Go to qpublic and it will walk you through the steps. If you aren’t comfortable navigating the site, you can go to the tax assessor’s office and speak with someone there. “It’s very important that people come in and file homestead exemption this year versus next year. They won’t get nearly the tax benefit if they wait and sign up next year,” says county tax assessor Monty Vickers.
There is still one more action that the county will take that could provide some relief to taxpayers. When assessments increase substantially, counties must roll back the millage rate accordingly. Later this year, the county will likely roll back the millage rate by three mills. Those with homestead exemption could actually see their property taxes decrease in spite of the higher assessment.
The message from the county is clear: Don’t immediately be alarmed when you see your assessment. If you have homestead exemption, you shouldn’t see a significant tax increase. If you don’t have homestead exemption, you have 45 days to file for one. And if you have agricultural land that isn’t in conservation programs, you should also look into that. The last day to file these appeals is September 18.
