Page 26 - Georgia Forestry - Summer 2018

Inequity from
Improper Valuations
Each of the 159 counties in Georgia has its own board of tax assessors. Despite uniform guidance from the state on how timberland values are appraised, the guidance is interpreted differently by each county, resulting in a very wide range of timberland values for landown- ers. Many smaller rural counties are also at a disadvantage because they do not have the budget to employ trained staff to perform the complicated process in valuing timberland. In fact, according to The Department of Audits, only one out of four counties has properly extracted the value of standing timber from the land as required by the Constitution of the State of Georgia.
Inaccurate valuation has also impacted counties with land enrolled in FLPA. Each year, the state is required to provide local assistance grants to counties, school boards and cities to offset a portion of the property tax revenue lost from FLPA. The current law provides a specific formula for calculating the assistance grant payments to the counties by requiring
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24 | GEORGIA FORESTRY