While Sandy Springs Escapes Error, Other Residents Want Answers on Tax Notices

Fulton County Chief Tax Appraiser Burt Manning has assured Mayor Eva Galambos and City Council that Sandy Springs , but there are plenty of residents around the county upset about their erroneous notices.

On Saturday, Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves promised those taxpayers that errors on tax notices would be corrected.

Speaking at a town hall meeting at Northside United Methodist Church sponsored by the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, Eaves said that he and the Fulton County Commission will meet next week with Manning and the board of tax assessors to determine what went wrong with the incorrect notices and come up with a "fair course of action."

In response to continued questions, Eaves said that he would come up with answers and notify the Fulton Taxpayers Foundation and its president, John Sherman, about action that will be taken.

At first, Eaves said "hopefully the errors will be rectified." As the meeting went on, he grew more certain that he and the commission would force Manning and the Board of Assessors to take corrective action, although Eaves said the appraiser and the assessors are independent of the commission.

The commission, he said, "will be putting our foot down and forcing them to come up with a corrective course of action."

Last week, many city Atlanta taxpayers received incorrect notices showing that they would have to pay much higher property taxes although assessed property values sharply declined. The notices also showed an incorrect property tax exemption of $25,000 instead of $30,000 as approved by the Legislature.

As of last Tuesday, there was a slight chance that some Sandy Springs residents had not received an assessment notice. About 500 notices had not been sent out countywide.

Taxpayers in attendance, Saturday, asked about how they could determine their correct tax to make appeals. Eaves said that he understood that new, corrected notices would be sent out, but taxpayers worried whether they would receive them before the June deadline for making appeals.

Eaves said that a glitch in computer software caused the mistakes, which prompted questions about whether the software vendor would have to pay for the cost of sending out new notices. The chairman said that would be included in the discussions with the tax officials.

District 8 City Councilwoman Yolanda Adrean, in response to a question, said that she had been assured by the city's revenue chief that the proposed Atlanta budget is based on the correct assessments in the city tax digest, and "not the data you received in your mailbox."

In response to questions from Sherman concerning the Board of Assessors frequently issuing "corrupt" 50 percent tax abatements to luxury businesses like the St. Regis and Intercontinental hotels in Buckhead and Cousins Properties' Terminus building, Eaves said he would also discuss that matter with the assessors.

After the meeting, Sherman, a longtime critic of local government and advocate of lower taxes, confirmed that the Taxpayers' Foundation is taking legal action against JLB Pharr Road LLC's plan to build 375 luxury apartments on Pharr Road. The Atlanta Development Authority in March approved the issuance of $62 million in bonds and a $2 million tax abatement for the project near the Streets of Buckhead site. 

NPU-B at its May meeting expressed its opposition to the ADA action, and District 7 Councilman Howard Shook has expressed his concern about the vote. (See Buckhead Patch article .) Shook, present at the meeting Saturday, declined to discuss the ADA action because of the pending litigation.

The first part of the meeting was dominated by questions about the APS accreditation probation, to such an extent that Sherman eventually cut off discussion.

School board member Yolanda Johnson, who left to attend a board retreat with mediators seeking to resolve board conflicts under requirements set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, answered a series of general questions about the school system's efforts to improve dropout rates. She said she welcomes the efforts of Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta city government to develop after school programs. Eaves pledged the Fulton government would assist the city schools, as well as the Fulton school system, in developing after-school programs.

In response to a question about her views of SB 79, the legislation that allows Gov. Nathan Deal to remove school board members for lack of progress on meeting accreditation conditions set by SACS and its parent organization, AdvancED, Johnson said with a resigned air that she is focusing on doing the job to which she was elected and would accept whatever occurs. Then she added, "I can't understand how removing board members will be of benefit to Atlanta or the entire state of Georgia."

Democratic Rep. Stacey Abrams, who represents several intown neighborhoods and is the House minority leader,  supported the board's efforts toward ending probation. "They've done a much better job than they're given credit for."

Abrams, one of Deal's liaisons monitoring the school board's efforts to end the probation, said she voted against SB 79 because "I don't think it solves the problems that SACS wants solved."

She said that Deal taking such action "resets the clock." SACS placed the APS high schools on probation because of board conflicts, not because of the quality of the schools, she said.

The action was "because of governance, not performance." The appointment of a new board "creates a new governance issue," she said.

Every notice comes with information on how to file an appeal. The back of your property assessment notices shows a list of upcoming public meetings.

Adrianne Murchison contributed to this story.