Reappraisals force half-million dollars in county spending cuts

County government will face about half-million dollars in budget cuts as the county's latest combined property valuation has dropped by about $142 million.

Property Appraiser Doris Barber Pendleton told county commissioners Tuesday morning that she has revised downward the preliminary valuation of about $3.597 billion she gave them in July.

The valuation now stands at a little more than $3.454 billion, representing a drop of about 4 percent, and the valuation could drop even further following a report this week by Special Magistrate Paul Cureton.

Cureton's report is based on his findings following last month's two-day Value Adjustment Board hearing, in which 147 petitions were heard.

"We're supposed to have it in by end of this week," said Pendleton, who will have the option of recommending to the county that they either accept or reject Cureton's recommendation. In the event they reject it, the Value Adjustment Board will reconvene.

This is the second consecutive year in which the preliminary valuations, certified in July, and the final valuations have varied by a significant amount. Last year, the difference was about $100 million.

"Last year this same thing happened," said Pendleton. "You would have thought they (the county commission) would have looked at that. Whenever we send these TRIM (Truth in Millage) notices out, that is an open door policy for the public to come in and question their values."

TRIM notices are sent in mid-August and homeowners, including developers who represent several parcels, have until early September to challenge their appraisals.

"They may bring in appraisals, surveys, they can bring in most anything they want to," said Pendleton. "These last three years have been real sticklers."

She said the disparities occurred because there was a limited amount of information available to her office during this down time for the real estate market. "We had minimal sales and minimal new construction and most of the sales that we did have were bank foreclosures and auctions and unfortunately we're not allowed to look at those," Pendleton said. "You have very little to go on. With what few sales we had, we went across the county and came up with a 12 to 14 percent decrease."

Those who challenged their TRIM notices drew on several tools to convince Pendleton to exercise her statutory authority to lower their appraisals ahead of the Value Adjustment Board hearing.

"But when people started coming in with new information, a lot of people actually had independent appraisals on their property and we're allowed to look at those," she said. "When they started rolling in you had to go across the board and had to change all the ones involved in it."

While both the county and school district will each sustain a roughly 4 percent drop in their valuations, both the Eastpoint Water and Sewer District and the city of Carrabelle will be harder hit.

Eastpoint will see a drop in valuation of a little more than 4 percent, while Carrabelle's property valuation will drop by 5.35 percent.

The Alligator Point Water Resources District's valuation will drop by 2.46 percent, while Dog Island will decline by 0.65 percent, and the city of Apalachicola by 0.11 percent.

Clerk of Courts Marcia Johnson said this type of discrepancy is unusual. "This has never happened before that I know of, other than last year," she said. "This is the second year we've gotten an amended certification that's caused us to have a reduction."

Johnson said she polled commissioners and none favored raising the millage to account for the decline in valuation. "I informally called each one, and signed off on the form that we weren't going to raise millage," she said.

As of now, no specific cuts have been proposed by the county to account for about $473,000 less to spend than originally forecast.

Johnson said she expects that the county will draw on its reserves as it monitors its spending.

"Hopefully our expenditures won't be as high as were estimated in budgets," she said. "And revenues will come in as expected. We'll just keep an eye on it and I'll have to assume we'll have to take it out of reserve for contingency unless expenditures aren't spent as estimated."

Commissioner Smokey Parrish said he felt the taxation system needed changes so that preliminary valuations served as an accurate basis for budget forecasts.

"In years past that was pretty much what it was," said Pendleton. "But that means we don't have any recourse to help the taxpayers if there's a problem."