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Property tax assessments:
A May 7 Property tax assessment town hall was sponsored by Commissioner Marty Clark. I think this was a fair summary of the meeting. If you missed this meeting (with about 700 citizens attending), here is a summary from Mandy Clark, posted on the Living in Jackson County Facebook page:
Jackson county is not happy. This turnout tonight at the Tax Assessment Town Hall showed how much our community cares about our property taxes increasing by as much as 200% over last year.
For those who missed it, here are some key takeaways.
1. The school portion of your bill is controlled by the Board of Education for your school district. Funnily enough, the Jackson district meeting was tonight… at the same time as this meeting. The tax assessors office cannot change the amount or even really discuss it.
2. The millage rates were finalized in September 2022. There’s nothing we can do about the millage rates we got in the mail recently, but we can speak to legislation representatives about our opinions and suggestions for next year’s letter.
3. To me, the biggest takeaway was this. Our assessment of fair market value of our properties, at least initially, is done by a computer algorithm. When I asked the Tax Assessor’s Office representatives how they determined my house’s value, they said “the computer did it.” I asked what formula the computer uses. They said it compares my house to other houses. What other houses? They’re not sure. The computer does it. The computer spits out a number. I cannot believe that it is legal for the government to tell me my house is worth X and not show me why they think that. “Because the computer says” is UNACCEPTABLE.
4. If you file an appeal by June 8th, here’s what happens. An assessor will come to your property and re assess it in person. According to info received tonight, three things can happen. Your home value could be assessed at a lower amount than the letter you just got, it could stay the same, or it could go UP and you’d actually owe MORE TAXES.
If you’re not happy with the reassessment, you can file a second appeal. The second appeal would be reviewed by a board of citizens who are not associated with the tax assessors office.
I believe I understood that if you win a second appeal, your assessment value is frozen for the next two years.
Notably, the “fair market value” of your land is required by the state of Georgia to be between 90-110% of what it would sell for tomorrow. So actually, we could all have 10% higher amounts (of our land’s fair value assessment) than they should be, and that would be legal.
I hope this info is helpful if you weren’t able to be there tonight. Here’s my advice:
Decide if your situation is suited to filing an appeal. Some people have huge increases in “fair market value” this year, and others aren’t as huge. Filing lots of appeals would make a huge statement, but if your amount has only increased by typical amounts, you may not want to take the risk.
Reach out to your government representatives to address these absurd issues for next year.
Vulcan Quarry proposal for the Rt. 441/Center/Chandler Bridge area of South Jackson:
Apparently, Vulcan Materials Company has been secretly buying up to 1,000 acres in the Chandler Bridge/Center/Rt. 441 area (across from Rt 334) and will propose to build a quarry on the 700 acres in between Chandler Bridge Rd. and Rt. 441.
Here is a summary of the proposed quarry, provided by a S. Jackson citizen who seems to have has done his research:
The proposed quarry has a minimum 100 years worth of rock in the ground. With a quarry you get noise, air, and traffic pollution. The dust generated is a very fine silica that is hard to control. You can then expect somewhere around 5 concrete plants (that run trucks and equipment day and night), their main raw materials are sand and gravel. You can also expect around 3 asphalt plants. And all these have to move their products with big trucks. Not to mention the Oconee river basin that will absorb all the drainage. Also a second quarry has inquired about leasing land behind the Athens stonecasting plant for another quarry. The Athens quarry will be closing in 2028. They have to have a new quarry ready to serve Jackson, Clarke, Madison, Oconee counties. This is not going to be a small operation.
I received an email reply from Gina Roy, our Assistant County Manager. She said Vulcan has not submitted any applications. I know that Vulcan has spoken with at least one of our commissioners, and therefore I would guess (but do not know for sure) that they have spoken to County staff. I cannot imagine Vulcan investing money to purchase 1,000 acres before making any official inquiries, but perhaps that is so.
WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:
If you are opposed to this project, you may contact S. Jackson Commissioner (District 4) Marty Seagraves and register your opposition. His email is mseagraves@jacksoncountygov.com mseagraves@jacksoncountygov.com.
When you contact Commissioner Seagraves, ask him to schedule a Town Hall to allow citizens to discuss this project. All of our Commissioners should be invited to this Town Hall meeting.
I recommend contacting ALL of the Jackson County Commissioners, since all 6 will vote on the rezoning request when it comes before the BOC.
District 1: Jim Hix: jhix@jacksoncountygov.com
District 2: Chas Hardy: chardy@jacksoncountygov.com
District 3: Chad Bingham: cbingham@jacksoncountygov.com
District 5: Marty Clark: mclark@jacksoncountygov.com
BOC Chair: Tom Crow: tcrow@jacksoncountygov.com
Note that Vulcan already operates a quarry in N. Jackson and perhaps 2 years ago, Vulcan applied for an expansion. Despite massive citizen opposition to the expansion, our BOC voted in favor of the expansion. The only BOC vote against the expansion was Marty Seagraves.
Note that this expanded quarry opened in early May 2023.
Vulcan is a large company with an expert PR department. They will be prepared to counter ANY suggestions of negative community impact. I watched that happen in the BOC meeting that resulted in their expansion in N. Jackson.
From the Vulcan Website: Vulcan Materials Company is the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates—primarily crushed stone, sand and gravel—and a major producer of aggregates-based construction materials, including asphalt and ready-mixed concrete. Our coast-to-coast footprint and strategic distribution network align with and serve the nation’s growth centers.
BE PREPARED:
When Vulcan applies for rezoning, they must first go to the Planning Commission. It would be good to overflow the room for that vote, but the critical vote is cast by the BOC. The BOC makes the final decision.
CSJ is looking for a group of citizens to take this project on.
Please note that the CSJ Coordinating Committee is not able to take the lead but will provide support for the effort. If you are willing to get involved and perhaps take the lead, please contact me and I will facilitate getting you together.
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Are you thinking about serving on a Board or Commission?
To be considered to a standing board or commission in which members are appointed by the BOC, there is a process where citizens can be considered for such established groups. On the county website there is a page called Boards & Commissions and on the top right hand corner is a “button” to click on which will direct you to a fillable form which gets submitted back to the Deputy Clerk. At that point, she will collect or accumulate those applications and when there is a vacancy she will add the application(s) to the BOC packets at the appropriate board meeting for their consideration. Often times the County gets inquiries about many different boards, and staff or commissioners usually point the person to the Deputy Clerk for assistance on how to fill out the application for consideration. This program is web based.
LINK TO JACKSON COUNTY BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS:
http://www.jacksoncountygov.com/428/Boards-Commissions
FACEBOOK PAGE: Don't Gwinnett Our Jackson
This group is created to be a forum for the people who love our great community of Jackson County. Here, we can work together to hold our county reps accountable to manage the growth. In doing so, we can ensure it remains a beautiful, safe place!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1834129563424883/
GET INVOLVED in CSJ! Text Babs at 706-372-9067
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