Fulton spent roughly double that of Cobb and Gwinnett administering each parcel

Posted by Daniel Jones on Mar 21, 2013 5:55:00 PM

Fulton County Tax Assessors

This is the full quote from Jan Jones, R-Milton, is House Speaker Pro Tem:

“Fulton spent roughly double that of Cobb and Gwinnett administering each parcel in the tax assessor’s and tax commissioner’s offices.”

For some reason, this doesn't surprise me. Perhaps the fact that I worked for the Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors for almost four years gives me insight. Also, the fact that I have been appealing taxable values for nine years now and have been in the Cobb and Gwinnett assessment offices more times than I can count gives me further insight.

I can’t speak to the current situation in the Fulton County Tax Assessor’s offices, but when I was there, there was plenty of waste. There are people there that know their jobs and do their jobs well, but there are also people that take advantage of the system. They know that it is very hard for anyone to fire them, and they have an entitlement attitude. If you give someone a bad review, or write them up for an infraction, they will file a grievance against you without a second thought.

As an appraiser you have to go to your work. Real estate is, of course, fixed in its location. County appraisers may stay out “in the field” all day, picking up new construction for the tax roll or checking permits for additions. This “out of sight, out of mind” situation can and does lead to abuses. Fulton used to have “data collectors” that spent most days in the field. Once I went out and checked permits that a data collector claimed they had checked and I found additions that hadn’t been picked up.

When you’re out in the field and out of sight and not interested in being productive, that’s when taking extra-long lunches to do some shopping, or working through lunch and then quitting early is not uncommon. I’m not saying everyone does this, because they don’t, but if you work for Fulton long enough you begin to hear what people are up to.

The Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors also have more parcels and more appeals than the other counties mentioned. This takes up a lot of man hours which will add to the cost to administer each parcel. One of the reasons Fulton has more appeals is because their data isn’t very good. When data collectors don’t do a good job you have poor data to work with. A property may sell for a much higher price than the assessment, and when you go out to check the description, you find that the description is inaccurate.

I don’t envy anyone that has a mind to change that department. I don’t think Burt Manning had the intention of changing much when he took the Chief Appraiser job a few years ago, yet he called it “a thankless job” before he left. John Cunningham, who was Chief Appraiser a decade ago, was pushed out of his job by a few assessors with a political agenda and a desire to micro manage the Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors 100+ personnel on a part-time basis.

Topics: gwinnett county tax assessor, Cobb County Tax Assessor, fulton county tax assessors

property tax appeals

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