Could Decatur Do Its Own Property Tax Assessments?
Decatur Metro | June 5, 2012I actually asked Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss this question around this time last year after the last go-round with wacky DeKalb County tax assessments. She confirmed to me last week that her explanation is still up-to-date.
The short answer is “Yes”.
The long answer…well, it’s a bit complicated so I’ll let her explain the process for herself…
In terms of the tax assessment issue, there were actually several things going on at the time the decision was made to use DeKalb County. One, the City was performing what is considered a county function in Georgia (tax assessment) under special local legislation that as I understand it, only applied to the City of Decatur and it was set to expire. Second, the cost of keeping the tax assessment function was increasing and we were going to have to invest money into systems, people and training in order to keep up to date. Third, there was a vocal group of commercial property owners who felt that their properties were overvalued and wanted the City out of the business. Lastly, it is also my understanding that a number of City Commissioners at the time did not feel comfortable serving as the Board of Assessment Appeals. However, I was not the City Manager at the time so I may not know everything that was happening.
So having not done extensive research into reestablishing the tax assessment function, here’s how I see what would need to happen. We would need to determine whether or not a city can actually perform the service, and if not, is it possible to formulate the appropriate legislation and get it adopted by the Georgia General Assembly.
If it is possible, we would need to determine costs including staff, space, equipment, software, etc. and then determine whether the benefit exceeded the cost which I think could be marginal given all of the things that are currently required for the assessment process. We would also have to appoint a Board of Assessors to hear appeals. But, if all that worked out, we would then have to amend the Service Delivery Strategy between the City and DeKalb County and that’s another bureaucratic process that would be challenging.
All in all it would be a rather daunting and complicated process that would take a lot of political will and cooperation as well as a use of resources but ultimately, it’s up the City Commission to decide if they want to explore that path.
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So…CoD could, but would rather not. Can’t say as I blame ‘em.
Does any city in the state assess property values? I doubt it.
This is daunting. But in terms of doing a good enough job, the City shouldn’t worry about that. I doesn’t seem that they could do much worse than the County has this year.
To keep it separate allows both parties to have political deniability. The city can say that the county assessments went up , and the county can say the millage ( my Iphone auto corrected “millage” to “mullahs” – haha ) rate imposed by the city is too high.
Exactly. That’s the same reason why county commissioners don’t really want to do away with the CEO position. Both sides like to blame the other when something goes wrong and the public gets mad. If DeKalb had a county manager then the commissioners would take all the heat for every decision they made.
When the city shifted tax assessments to the county, the rate went from 40% to 50%. The only change I want to see is 50% going to 40% like most jusridictions in the state of GA.
It wouldn’t make much difference – they’d have to adjust the millage to produce a similar amount of revenue.
yes, it’s a shell game designed to give the municipality wiggle room. But the difference is there is a legal limit to the millage. Decatur is close to it now. 50% is 25% more than 40%. Is Decatur 25% better place to live? In my opinion 10% better.
in my opinion, %100 better.
I don’t want to get into an argument over whether Decatur is X% better to live in than unincorporated Dekalb, because that obviously depends on what area of Dekalb you’re talking about, and it also depends on what sorts of things you care about to make an area better or worse–different strokes for different folks and all that.
But are the services provided by the City of Decatur and the City Schools of Decatur at least 25% better than the services provided by Dekalb County and the Dekalb County School System? Hell yes.
“But are the services provided by the City of Decatur and the City Schools of Decatur at least 25% better than the services provided by Dekalb County and the Dekalb County School System? Hell yes.”
I’d probably go with 50 percent better, though obviously that would vary based on what school district in DeKalb we’re comparing with. IMO, for those with kids in the Decatur system the taxes are a very good bargain.