The Fulton County Tax Assessor's staff just can't get enough of being one year behind on their property tax appeal work. Twice in the past month I have been at Fulton County Board of Equalization hearings for tax year 2012 and the staff appraisers have requested a "field check." Once the appraiser produced an aerial photograph of the property in appeal and proclaimed that the size of the building in the County record must be wrong based on the photo alone. The other time the appraiser just seemed unprepared and wasn't willing to present what he had and let the Board make a decision. Again, he claimed that he needed to inspect the property before making any recommendation.
This would be a reasonable request if this was July of 2012 but it is July of 2013. The worst part is that the Fulton County Tax Assessors have really just begun the process of pushing all of the 2012 appeals through to the BOE. Just like the Fulton County Board of Equalization was hearing 2011 property tax appeals earlier in 2013, they will be hearing 2012 property tax appeals in 2014.
Now we have new 2013 tax assessment notices dated June 15 with a property tax appeal deadline of July 30. If you have an outstanding 2012 appeal, even if you didn't receive an increase in assessment, you don't really have much choice but to appeal the 2013 value too. You have no idea what the result of your 2012 property tax appeal will be. You have no idea if it will be settled in 2013 or 2014. If the appraiser and BOE side together and issue a "no change" decision on 2012 you need to be in appeal for 2013 to get another chance at a reduction.
And so it goes year after year. Issue new values before prior year appeals are heard. Force the taxpayers to appeal year after year for a chance at the relief they seek. Add other taxpayers to the growing number of appeals by increasing values agressively. The Fulton County Tax Assessor's staff apparently has no incentive to get these appeals settled and through the system.
I know that the Fulton County Tax Assessor's office has more appeals than other counties in the metro area, but they also have more parcels and a larger staff. For the life of me I cannot remember being this far behind when I worked for Fulton County. My last year there I was the commercial manager and I know that we worked 2003 appeals in 2003. Prior to that I was a residential manager and I don't remember working appeals into the next year either.
At some point somone in the room has to recommend that they send out thousands of 30 day letters with reductions on them and hope to cut the number of outstanding appeals way down. They need to motivate the staff to complete appeals in the same tax year. Many people are happy with a reduction regardless of magnitude. Most are amazed that the Fulton County Tax Assessors would give them any relief at all. That's the image, and image is reality.
