Tax assessor board chairman: ‘I didn’t make the law. I didn’t make the rules.’

The Muscogee County Board of Tax Assessors voted unanimously Monday morning to table a resolution from Columbus Council calling for current tax assessments to be rolled back to the 2016 values.

Council passed its resolution last week as political pressure grew from upset taxpayers who took issue with their current property tax assessments. Thousands of Muscogee County property owners have appealed their current assessments.

Randy Lomax, a Columbus attorney that represents the Board of Tax Assessors, urged the members to use caution and to not rush into a decision on council’s request. Lomax attended the council meeting on Aug. 8 where the resolution was passed and said he had three concerns.

“My concerns are around the legality of us acting upon the resolution,” Lomax told the board. “My concerns are around the logistics of implementing the resolution. And there are also concerns about the message it would send if we actually adopt the resolution.”

About a two dozen residents and two councilors — Judy Thomas and Walker Garrett — attended Monday morning’s meeting. Garrett was the only person to address the board. While the board’s five members are appointed by council, they act independently of the elected body.

“We have heard these doomsday stories of how this will effect the budget — $1.3 million on the general budget and I believe $2.6 (million) overall,” Garrett said. “That is not on y’all. That is something we have to fix as a council. If you decided to follow what we have recommended and roll back to 2016, then we will figure that out.”

Garrett said this process has shifted the burden of getting the assessments correct to the taxpayers.

“I don’t like the idea of the burden being put on the taxpayers to prove their value,” Garrett said. “I don’t like hearing from Realtors — and it’s not one Realtor and it’s not one company, it’s across the board — that they are not getting any interest in real estate as an investment any more. Not from people in Columbus, not from outside major investors because they are concerned about what can happen with their property taxes.”

Lomax argued that the process is working.

“We need to let the process to continue to work,” Lomax said. “By allowing the process to continue to work, I think a lot of the problems that Councilor Garrett talked about are going to be addressed — the valuations that are over 1,000 percent, increases over 100 percent. If those people filed their appeals, they are going to be addressed and we are going to fix them. I truly do not see the urgency of having to act upon the resolution.”

Chairman Chester Randolph said this is a citizen board and they are working to get it right. He pointed out that politics did not and should not come into play.

“The reason this board was set the way it was by state law was to keep politicians from forcing issues and forcing this board to make tax changes for a few,” Randolph said. “I didn’t make the law. I didn’t make the rules. If we want to change things, don’t get mad at me, go change the law in Atlanta. We feel we are following the law.”

The board is mandated by law with uniformly assessing the property in the county, Lomax said.

“My concern is if we revert back to the 2016 digest, maybe we are not following the mandate and we will not be uniformly assessing property,” Lomax said. “I don’t know that is the right action for us.”

There is also the issue of notice, Lomax said. When taxpayers have received is the assessment for the properties they own. Those assessments have to be forwarded to the Musocgee County Tax Commissioner’s office by the end of this month. Property tax bills are scheduled to be sent out on Oct. 1.

“To go back to the 2016 digest, are we going to have to send out new official tax matter notices?” Lomax asked the board. “That is a legal issue, but it is also a logistical issue that I am concerned about. Because if we send out new official tax matter notices, are the property owners then going to have 45 days to appeal like they did when we sent out 2017 notices.”

When the tax assessors office opened Monday morning, there are been 5,696 appeals filed. Taxpayers had until 7 p.m. Monday to file an appeal and the line was out of the office door at mid-morning. To file an appeal, you must fill out the form included in your tax assessment and submit it to the Board of Tax Assessors for review. The Tax Assessors Office is located in the City Services Center, 3111 Citizens Way.

The appeals total $97.988 million worth of assessed property, or 1.79 percent of the tax digest.

For the 2017 tax digest to be automatically rejected, the number of appeals must exceed 8 percent of the property owners and the amount of the property in question must exceed 8 percent of the digest.

The 8 percent threshold for number of appeals has been met, but it seems unlikely the dollar amount will be met, Lomax said.

Of the 5,696 appeals, 1,870 have been reviewed, Lomax said. Of those, 1,066 have had the assessment reduced, Lomax said.

If you’re dissatisfied with the conclusion, you can go before the Board of Equalization, which will listen to both sides and make a determination. If that doesn’t work, you can appeal to the Superior Court of Muscogee County, where you will have the option of a jury trial to determine the value of your property. That option requires a fee.

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Tax assessor board chairman: ‘I didn’t make the law. I didn’t make the rules.’."