County tax appraiser defends work, refutes survey findings

Knight: Survey misleading, misunderstands tax appraiser process

Tommy Knight has been the chief appraiser for the Walton County Tax Commissioner’s office for 10 years and in all that time, his annual audits by the state of Georgia have been glowing, registering Walton County as one of the most consistently accurate counties in the state when it comes to local property appraisals.

So he’s less than pleased at recent allegations his appraisals are skewed, inaccurate or corrupt in any way.

“This all stems from the survey done by the city of Monroe,” Knight said. “But it says an anecdotal survey. That’s their wording. It’s not based on facts. They say it’s based on their opinions.”

Knight said the survey is not overall convincing that the tax appraisal process in Walton County is compromised.

“It does not mean the county is operating improperly in any way,” Knight said.

Knight said the survey does not take into account various issues on the properties it draws into question, saying any increases must be based on hard data.

“We have the burden of proof with commercial properties,” Knight said. “We can’t just go randomly up. We have to verifications. We have to have proof. We can’t speculate. Without market data, I can’t go up.”

This can leave corporate properties like Walmart or Home Depot seemingly undervalued, as there’s not much sales data available for such lots, and restaurants can end up valued less than some expect based on name brand.

“We can’t appraise intangible property,” Knight said. “We only appraise land and buildings. We can’t appraise on business value. We have to look at comparable sales data.”

Knight also denied online chatter that claims his office is intentionally undervaluing properties owned by County Chairman David Thompson, saying his office is independent from the Walton County Board of Commissioners and does not receive orders on how value any property from them.

In particular, he mentioned two properties of Thompson’s that have come up repeatedly in such discussions, saying thier seemingly low value is because they have no actual buildable value.

“One of these lots has a sewer easement and the other is basically a swamp,” Knight said. “They’re basically good for nothing except holding the earth together.”

Since their conditions make the prospect of building a commercial business on the lots virtually impossible, Knight said the property value is accordingly lower than otherwise comparable lots in size and location.

And this process, he said, is done with every property, regardless of owner or other issues, as the county seeks to put the best value on every property in its purview.

“The name doesn’t matter to us,” Knight said. “The value is the value.”

Knight also said the county’s commercial property values have actually been rising in recent years.

“We look at market sales every single year,” Knight said. “And we have gone up on commercial properties.”

Knight said he’s done his best to focus on the data and not entertain the various allegations coming from all sides on social media and other sources.

“I’ve chosen to stay away from rumor and innuendo,” Knight said.

But the appraiser said he wishes the city of Monroe had discussed their survey with him in detail before releasing what Knight sees as a misleading document.

“No one from the city contacted us,” Knight said.

Monroe Mayor John Howard responded to that charge, saying it was misleading, as Monroe City Manager Logan Propes had discussed the city’s issues with property values extensively.

“He had not seen the report beforehand, but he and Logan emailed back and forth a lot,” Howard said.

Howard defended the city’s survey, which alleges that numerous commercial properties in the area are valued at far lower levels than they should be, denying the city additional tax revenue from commercial sources that it must instead take from taxpayers’ residential properties.

“The numbers are what the numbers are,” Howard said. “These numbers are vastly underestimated.”

Howard said he does not think anyone with the county is taking orders to undervalue properties to benefit anyone illicitly, however, saying he’s convinced the numbers just need to be adjusted to better suit the current market needs.

“I don’t think there’s anything nefarious going on,” Howard said. “It’s just a formulaic thing.”

Knight said he’s willing to meet with the city at any time to discuss his process and defend their results, arguing he’s happy to correct any misunderstandings or misinformation contained within Monroe’s survey.

“We hope to have a meeting with Monroe in order to discuss the survey,” Knight said. “We want to sit down with the city.”

Howard said preliminary discussions are being held to determine the best time and place to hold such a meeting and address each side’s concerns raised by the survey. But a meeting will happen, he insisted, and sooner rather than later.

“We are going to meet,” Howard said.