If there is any doubt about the nature of Putnam County’s tax base, this year’s preliminary figures in the county tax assessor’s office should settle it.
Putnam has become a residential county.
The county’s wealth rests in residential properties. Agriculture? Not so much. Electric power production? Not so much. Nor shops, restaurants, and service stations. Nor manufacturing. Not even service jobs like construction, teaching, government, and accounting.
As of Jan. 1, Putnam had 19,185 parcels tracked by the tax assessor’s office. Of these, 16,528 – or 86 percent – were classified as residential. Agricultural uses accounted for 1,374 parcels; commercial, 773; industrial, 48.
Utilities’ properties are computed by the state Department of Revenue and are added to the county’s tax digest later.
Not included in the county’s total acreage tracked by the tax assessor’s office are “exempt” properties like churches and government-owned buildings, road rights-of-way, and Forest Service lands.
As to values – attested to by more than a few raised eyebrows from those receiving tax assessment notices a couple of weeks ago – last year’s 25-30 percent rise in the county gross tax digest is proving to be no COVID-related “bump.”
The 2021 digest, which reflected sales in 2020 (the first year of the COVID pandemic), went up 10 percent. “And I thought that was pretty good,” said Chief Appraiser Chuck Anglin.
Then came the 2022 digest (based on 2021 sales). Fair market values across the board last year went up 25-30 percent.
And now, while still in the estimate stage, the 2023 digest looks to be more of the same. Anglin first suggested this year’s increase might range between 20 and 30 percent, but a few moments later he said, “I’m going to go ahead and say 25-30 percent again.”
“There is an awful lot of new construction going on. We receive notices of new permits almost daily,” he said. “It’s happening all over,” but especially in off-water developments in the Lake Oconee area."
In the annual dance that ends with the Dec. 1 due date for local property taxes, the assessor’s office has already completed most property re-evaluations, subtracted exemptions (the most common are conservation-use exemptions from farmers and two types of homestead exemptions from homeowners), and sent out assessment notices.
The next few weeks will be given over to settling appeals, followed by submitting a gross digest and a net digest to the county’s three taxing authorities – the city, the county, and the school board.
The taxing authorities use the net digest, which is based on “assessed” values (40 percent of the gross digest’s fair market values) minus exemptions, to determine millage rates based on their anticipated spending for the coming year’s budgets.
Given the large increases in the last two years’ gross digests, it is possible that the taxing authorities may be able to lower their millage rates.
However, lower-but-continuing inflation and the state pushing some of its costs down to local governments put pressure to maintain, or raise, local property taxes.