Delores sent along this note along with a note from a neighbor.  It by no means settles anything, and seems to indicate that the County is still dealing with this as a piecemeal issue, which is sort of shocking since I haven’t heard or seen oone assessment yet that didn’t see huge increases/decreases in land/building values.

The County admits error with respect to some of the tax assessments. I live on Kirk Crossing and our entire street received the outrageous notices. A few of us were able to reach Joyce Lackey (the appraiser for our street) and Bryan Jennings (her supervisor). We were informed that there was an error and that we will receive revised assessments later this month. Not sure what other streets were affected. Likely Candler Oaks Drive and parts of Kirk Road near the Seminary were also affected.

Here’s a more detailed report from my neighbor:

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Yesterday, I called Joyce Lackey the woman listed on our Notice of Assessment as our “staff contact”. . . . [A]t 8:30 this morning she did call back and this is what she said. Every house on Kirk Crossing would be receiving a “re-evaluation” as all the houses had increased by at least $150,000 to $200,000. I reminded her that our increase was $270,000 and some were even higher but I digress. She acknowledged that there had been a problem with the numbers inputted in to our formula. So, the entire street will be receiving re-evaluations. They will be done by June 7th and will then go to the board to be signed off on. She didn’t think there would be a problem with that, it sounded like a formality. I asked her how this would be categorized, she said “this will be a re-evaluation”. Fearing the lose of our appeal process, I asked how that would work. She said that once this new evaluation goes out on June 7th or thereabouts, we would then have 45 days from the date of that evaluation to appeal. NO LOSS of APPEAL!

I’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?

On the heels of the DeKalb County Commission’s final vote to raise taxes by 26% – though I believe we said Decatur residents’ county taxes would only increase around 7%, right? – Patch reports the Decatur School Board finalized the announced 1 millage point increase in their taxes.  (Over the last couple months, CSD has cited the cost of the new 4/5 Academy, growing tuition, disappearing federal assistance, and shrinking State funding as the primary reasons for the increase.)

Patch also reports that CSD announced last night it would probably have to raise the millage again next year, though the article doesn’t give any detail as to why.  Personally, I hadn’t heard that before.  I’ll see what I can find out.

Sounds like more budget cuts and higher taxes coming from DeKalb County.  From the AJC…

In February 2008, the county adopted a $635 million budget. This year it’s lower by $29 million. And county finance officials have been projecting a gap of around $50 million between expected revenue next year and the current level of spending.

To close that gap, the county can cut spending and raise property taxes. [CEO Burrell] Ellis said both options were on the table as he was considering the final draft of his plan last week. He said he was aiming for a budget of between $575 million and $580 million — a decrease of about $25 million to $30 million from the current budget. “Without a millage adjustment, it would fall further than that,” he said.

Ellis is scheduled to release next year’s budget tomorrow.