Commissioners Question Property Revaluation Process

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. – Dawson County Chief Tax Appraiser Kurt Tangel’s request for county commission approval of a two-year, $588,300 county-wide property revaluation sparked a flurry of questions from commissioners during Thursday’s work session.

The county’s last revaluation was conducted in-house in 2006 and Commissioner Julie Nix wanted to know why it could not be done in-house again.

Tangel said, “It can be done in house.” But, he pointed out, it could take up to five years to complete since the number of homes in the county has doubled in the last three years. “The staff we have is just trying to keep up with what we have going on now,” he said.

“(GMASS) has a larger knowledge of doing projects like this. I don’t have the number of staff with the same level of knowledge that I can rely on to do all those things.”

The county has 15,000 parcels, 200 pre-bill mobile homes, 1,800 commercial/industrial improvements and 12,000 residential homes.

If approved, the project would be done in two phases. Phase 1 would be revaluation of residential and agricultural properties and would be completed the first year. Phase 2 would revalue commercial and industrial properties.

Tangel said county staff contacted 487 vendors through Georgia Procurement Registry and Vendor Registry and GMASS was the only company to submit a bid.

Commissioner Jimmy Hamby said, “Just having one bid is what concerns me. We don’t have anything to compare it too.”

Tangel said the majority of GMASS staff lives in Dawson and nearby Pickens County and he speculated, “That may be why some other companies didn’t bid on it.”

He added that many of the companies that do this type work are located in south Georgia which would require them to add the cost of travel, hotel accommodations and meals over a two-year period to their bid.

The purpose of a revaluation is to ensure equity and uniformity of assessment. While adding new construction is part of the process, the process also involves reflecting market changes (up or down) in property values.

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