Decatur Resident Wonders About DeKalb Tax Increase
Decatur Metro | August 19, 2011I’m going to hand this question over to the mob, since I’m not entirely sure why the increase was so large. We saw a similar jump on our DeKalb tax bill. A City of Decatur resident writes in…
Anybody but me notice a big jump on their DeKalb property tax bill? I understood the increase to 26%, but my bill reflects a 40% increase. Just wondering…
First off, I thought that Decatur’s millage increase was just 7%. Secondly, I thought that Decatur residents’ increase would be mitigated since we had opted out of paying for many DeKalb services. What am I missing?
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My Dekalb County tax bill increased around 40% as well. I wonder how the City tax bill will be affected by the higher milage rate the city schools adopted?
I contested my valuation using some data from zillow.com and they met me halfway in the valuation of my home. I’m so happy that I took thirty seconds to fill out the form and mail it in. It will save me 400.00 in taxes!
“Claudia” – I’m glad you saved $400, but meeting you halfway doesn’t not make the process fair and equitable. Assessing way above real market value to begn with just gives them more wiggle room to still come out ahead. Can you sell your home for the revised assessment? No? Didn’t think so.
It would help to know how much the valuation went up.
I’m the Decatur resident, and my valuation hasn’t gone up in two years, nor did it rise this year.
my valuation hasn’t changed in at least 6-7 yrs.
Sorry. Wow, I’m dreading opening mine. I talked to someone outside of the city limits the other day, and their bill went down. They didn’t say why, but they must have had a big drop in valuation if rates went up this much.
DeKalb bills are going up even when assessed values are not.
My bill was about 40-45% higher this year from dekalb.
fun times.
Comparing 2010 to 2011 tax bills, it appears that the millage rate has increased by 8.7%. However it also appears that the total homestead exemption amount has decreased substantially. I’m not sure why, but this is the real reason for the sharp increase in the tax bill.
Ours was about 1/3 higher this year, entirely because of the increase in millage rate. Our value has been the same for years.
I know DeKalb county is in some rough financial shape, but this is a huge jump when our Decatur taxes are already quite high (though worth it for the services we receive, I must add).
I think there are two variables at play here; 1) the millage rate went up, and 2) the HOST factor, which is the percentage of your taxes forgiven by revenue from the HOST, went down.
I appealed mine in July and my rate came down $300.Easy to do.
The millage rate for unincorporated DeKalb properties was was raised 4.35 mills to 21.21 mills, which is almost a 26% increase from 16.86 mills. That increase translates differently for every municipality depending upon the intergovernmental serice agreement the city has with the County. That service agreement spells out what services the city and county will respectively provide to city properties. Cities in DeKalb did not receive the full impact of the 4.35 increase. Never the less every city in DeKalb except Dunwoody has a higher millage rate than in unincorporated DeKalb.
In addition to the millage rate, the other key determinat is the assesed value. In many parts of DeKalb, foreclosures have reduced the the appraised value of homes. That will have a mitigating impact on the millage increase. In many close-in neighborhoods, assesed values stayed the same and in realtive terms to other taxpayers they will suffer the greatest increase, particularly if they are in unincorporated DeKalb.
Residents in Decatur must contend with one other wringle. As far as i know decatur is the only city that applies the city millage rate on a 50% assessed value compared to 40% of assessed value in every other jurisdiction. That makes comparing Decatur’s millage rate to thers a little less straightforward.
To see the millage rate for each city go to http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/TaxCommissioner/pdf/Millage.pdf
Thanks for the explanation. I’d never heard that about Decatur being exceptional in assessing at 50% instead of 40%.
Note that the 50% applies only to your COD tax bill; the County tax bill is still at the 40% rate.
My total bill in DeKalb County (Decatur city limit is the street in front of my house) decreased by more than 50%, which is due to a far lower valuation. A house similar to mine, directly across the street, sold in the spring for about 2.5X the alleged valuation of my house. But that was in Decatur, and I am not. I am worried for the county budget.
So my question is, if I contested the valuation of my home, is it possible that it might go UP? The reason I ask is because we have a couple of things that add to the value of the house that are not captured in the county tax assessment. They were on the plans, inspected and approved with all the proper paperwork and signatures when we had them built, but they do not appear on the county tax records.
It doesn’t seem like you have a worthy case for a reduction.
Not 100% sure, but I don’t think so. DeKalb Co. has the burden to prove that the estimate reflected on your assessment notice is fair market value. I don’t believe they can argue for a higher valuation in an appeals process.
Our valuation stayed constant (again), but we failed to challenge this before the July deadline. Guess we’re stuck with this inflated basis for 2 more years.
Dekalb is under a moratorium right now and they can’t increase the fair market values. In many areas of the county, values have dropped and even with the increase in the millage rate, folks are paying less this year than last year. I live in the C.O.D and my value has remained the same for years. I’ve never appealed it because it’s fair for tax purposes. However, there are plenty of errors in the assessor’s records and sometimes people should appeal their assessments.
Until this year, Police Service was included in County Operations, but now they have split it out. Why did they do that?
My assessment did not increase, but my County tax bill went up by 34%, which is somewhat maddening.
I’m guessing because legislation passed during the last session that allows the city’s to opt out of services. Decatur specifically opted out of general DeKalb police, but kept the “special” stuff, like K-9 and SWAT.
Right, that’s ringing a dim bell in my memory. Somehow, the tax discussions become so much more real once I have a bill in my hand!
Does anybody know where to find an itemization of “County Operations”? I did look quickly around the Tax Commissioner website while I was on hold, and didn’t see anything.
It was done so that police were a separate item and could have their own distinct millage rate and not be under the general services umbrella. That way, if the county commission chose to cut the budget, they would have to cut the police budget as a separate, identifiable item. Although Decatur taxpayers don’t see it, county fire services have been done that way for a while now.
I have a question….according to our 2011 bill, the combined (land + bldg) county appraisal value of our home hasn’t changed in the 3 years we’ve owned it. However, this years appraisal on the land increased 63% yet the building decreased by 68%. This is a townhouse that was built in June 2008. Is this common?