The Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors have, apparently, sent their 2014 property tax assessment notices. I say apparently because we had been hearing that the notices would be dated June 6, and mailed on June 6. However, a client in Marietta has received a 2014 tax assessment notice from the Fulton County Assessors today. Which means the notice was probably mailed yesterday, the 4th. The notice however, is dated TOMORROW June 6.
Not that it matters much, other than having 46 days to appeal your assessment instead of the standard 45 days. I wonder if anyone went the the tax assessor's office today to file a property tax appeal on a tax assessment notice dated tomorrow. I would have loved being a fly on that wall.
It was reported in reporternewspapers.net on Tuesday that the Fulton County Board if Education had decided to raise their portion of the county millage (tax) rate. At the time I only thought that the Fulton County Tax Assessors had probably just finalized their 2014 values and the Board of Education had access to that information. Apparently the values were finalized last week and the total value of the tax digest was shared with the interested parties, along with the rollback millage rate.
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Georgia law requires that when tax assessments are increased the county must calculate the rollback millage rate, or that rate that would produce the same amount of revenue as the previous year. When values are rising, the rollback millage rate falls. If the county wants to use a tax rate that is higher than the rollback rate they must advertise the proposed increase, hold a series of public meetings, and let the public speak their minds. Apparently the Board of Eduction decided that their portion of the rollback rate was not high enough.
These early assessments are not harmful to anyone, but symptomatic of Fulton County's continuing tax assessment notice issues. Remember the tax assessment notices with insanely high tax estimates on them? That was much worse, and caused many cases of high blood pressure.
