Property values in Walker County, Ga., are going up by about $50 million this year.
In a posting on its website, the county's board of education announced all property within its jurisdiction holds a combined value of about $1.312 billion. Last year, that value sat around $1.259 billion.
The increase comes after property values stayed flat for several years.
The county's appraisers had not evaluated the worth of the properties in more than a decade, but a state agency forced the local government to re-assess its land because the state believed the property values were inaccurate - some too high, others too low.
What does this change mean for tax bills? It's too early to say. Essentially, local taxes are determined by a simple equation: the value of your property, multiplied by a tax rate. So if the property values go up, the county could lower its tax rate and get the same amount of revenue.
The school system, meanwhile, is rolling back its taxes by about 2.6 percent.
But Commissioner Bebe Heiskell has not yet announced next year's rate. A public decision should come soon, as the county will need an established tax rate before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
To be clear: The $53 million jump from last year's property values to this year's does not cover the entire county. It is the amount for all properties within the school system's jurisdiction.
But the school system does not cover the whole county, because Chickamauga runs its own system. As a result, the property values for the whole county are traditionally about 9 percent higher than that of the county school system. If that trend continued this year, the whole county's property values would actually increase by $57 million.
Heiskell did not return a call seeking comment Monday. But in a Facebook post earlier this month, she said the property values are increasing because the Georgia Department of Revenue forced the county to re-assess all of its land.
"There may be some changes there," she said.
Ellen Mills, director of the Department of Revenue's local government services division, said the county needed to appraise its values again because for two years in a row the property values were out of whack. Every year, a member of the Department of Audits randomly looks at some sales in the county. He or she also looks at the assessed value of the land in that sale.
If the sale prices are too far away from the property's assessed value - either too high or too low - the Department of Revenue will issue a consent order.
In this case, the department issued a $165,000 threat to Walker County: Obey our orders, or get fined. In addition to other commands, the department told Heiskell to hire three more appraisers to help make sure the property values are accurate.
Although the department recommends reappraising all land every three years, Heiskell said the county had not re-assessed commercial property for 18 years. The county also had not re-assessed any other property for 12 years.
Terry Gilreath, Walker County's chief appraiser, did not return multiple calls seeking comment Monday. But in 2014, when the county first received its consent order from the Department of Revenue, he said the county should not have ever received the order.
Gilreath said the Department of Revenue ignored a loophole that allows home buyers to pay lower taxes for one year. If a home is valued at $400,000 but you buy it for $300,000, Gilreath said, state law allows you to pay taxes on it at a $300,000 rate for one year.
If the Department of Revenue took that rule into account, Gilreath said, the county would never have gotten into trouble.
"It's really not right," Gilreath said at the time. "If they would have used our actual numbers like our system has if they would just use those current values, we wouldn't even be sitting here talking about this."
Nevertheless, property values are now higher. One property owner in the county, who asked not to be named, shared her tax bill with the Times Free Press. It showed that while her property was valued at around $40,000 last year, it is up to $90,000 this year.
In hopes of paying less tax, property owners can appeal the new value with the tax assessor's office.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.