Flawed Fulton assessment notices show taxes skyrocketing

"I almost fell out of my chair," said Ernie Tharpe, whose home near Piedmont Hospital dropped in appraised value from $375,000 to $349,000, while his estimated taxes leaped from about $5,500 to $8,500. "Obviously, it's a mistake. At least I hope it is."

The error, on notices sent last week, appears to have hit the majority of Atlanta's property owners, Fulton Chief Appraiser Burt Manning said. Atlanta's 140,000 parcels make up about 40 percent of the county.

Paul Burks' Virginia-Highland home remains valued at just under $500,000, but his notice says this year's city and county taxes will be almost $13,500. Last year, he paid $7,500. "It's pretty frightening," he said.

Manning said a computer program that was supposed to tally estimated city and county taxes into a grand total flubbed up somehow. It might be that a special assessment that was supposed to be applied to some Atlanta properties inadvertently got applied to every property.

"It's almost like it's an imaginary special assessment," Manning said.

Manning said he did not know yet whether county staff or contractor Tyler Technologies Inc. is responsible. Samples of mailings were reviewed before being sent, including Atlanta notices, but they all checked out.

In a news release, the Board of Assessors assured taxpayers that the notices are not bills, and that if their home values stayed the same, taxes should stay the same as last year so long as millage rates don't go up. If home values go down, so should taxes, the news release said.

Manning said that other than the erroneous figures on the "total estimate" line, the line items for county, city and school taxes look correct. He said he and his staff were debating what to do if the error is the county's fault.

Sending out letters with corrected estimates could cost around $50,000 to $60,000, he said. Overtime labor costs are already adding up.

"We're trying to figure out what is the right thing to do," said Manning, whose office's phone lines stayed jammed most of the day Monday. "I don't intentionally waste Fulton County taxpayer money."

A 2010 state law that went into effect this year requires counties to send assessment notices to all property owners, even if values stay the same, a change expected to result in masses of appeals. The notices must include estimated tax bills based on last year's millage rates.

Several officials criticized it as an unfunded mandate. Generating the mailings in Fulton cost about $250,000, Manning said.

The new law, Senate Bill 346, aimed to simplify the appeals process for homeowners following complaints of over-assessments in the wake of the real estate bust. It followed an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation showing that thousands of metro area properties were overvalued.

Attorney Carl Crowley, who handles tax appeals, said he's heard complaints from clients about the assessment notices, and he has his own problem with an Atlanta rental property -- its estimated taxes going from $5,200 to $8,600 even though the fair market value is still $297,300.

He and others who contacted the AJC said they've sat down with calculators and tried to figure out where the error lies, but nothing makes sense.

Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation Executive Director Barbara Payne said an elderly woman came to her office Monday saying she didn't sleep the night before because her taxes were shooting up $3,600 -- another botched estimate. Payne's phone lines stayed tied up most of Monday, too.

"People are flipping out. They don't know what to believe," Payne said.

Public meetings

The Fulton County Board of Assessors will hold a series of public meetings to help taxpayers understand notices and changes to the appeals process brought on by Senate Bill 346. Four meetings are scheduled in May:

Information: 404-612-6440 or www.fultonassessor.org