In some counties of Georgia residents over a certain age don't pay school taxes .. nor do they get to vote on school board budgets. The logic is that many senior citizens "forget" how important public education is.. It also eliminates seniors from droning on about vouchers, charter schools etc .. not sure what percentage people of a "certain age" are of the overall Sumter county tax base, but putting some permutation of this most likely wouldnt work.. The one Atlanta county I'm referring to is a wealthy suburban county with some of the best schools in the greater Atlanta area and the state. Last I looked, the ratings of the Sumter county schools weren't exactly something to be proud of.. That's a reflection it isn't a money issue, but something way more systemic / social.. which is something off topic and for another post.

Did you think of calling the tax collector’s office?

I was thinking that they will notify the homeowner, like everywhere else. But how? I realize this is a newbie question, I have not owned property in TV before. I am concerned that notice will be sent to the TV address which I may not get for months.

Looking at the Sumter County Property Appraiser website, many seasonal residents list their other address as the mailing address instead of the physical address here in Sumter County. Of course the flipside to this is also a problem when they are living here.

Sorry everyone - rant now complete. Please return to your previously scheduled griping about Trim notices and tax increases. I totally agree the proposed increases are insane, but my guess is they will lower it to 5% and everyone will be ok with that.

Carry on.

remember folks if your market valve increased (which mine did by 60k) each year your assessed value can go up 3% a year,SMH.
They are setting us up for massive increases over time. There is no way even close; my property increase 60k in one year.
They get the market values from a mass appraisal algorithm done by the state which more than 1/2 the time is wrong.
There are two many variables in the villages with a wide range of different homes.
Don't be of the mindset; "oh boy my house is worth that" is a bone head move. The FMV (fair market Value) doesn't come into play until the cash hits your bank account for your sale of the home. We are being herded to the kill to raise are taxes in the future to there 25% increase over time.
How in gods name do you think these bridges are being paid for on 44 and the turnpike, including all the maintenance on them.
What kind of bonds do you think people will see in the new sections of fenny to pay for it. Why do you think they started 5 miles away from 44 first? they wanted to get those sections populated first before the big bonds hit near 44. Common sense 101.

On my trim notice it says you should call Property Appraiser's office if you feel your market value is inaccurate. What did they say about yours???

I think I have read all the comments here and I didn't see this point being raised.

The only 2 columns worth looking at on the TRIM are 5 and 6 and 7 and 8. 5 and 6 show you what your tax rate and liability is IF the taxing authorities had decided to stay revenue neutral this year (collect the same amount of taxes as the previous year even with higher assessments) Columns 7 and 8 are the tax rates and your liability if they don't AND they implement the tax rates shown on the TRIM.

You should also look at your assessed value for this year versus last year. I have never figured out how or when Sumter County reassesses property values. Where I moved from, they did it once every 8 years. Here, they reassessed my property when I bought it and now they have reassessed it again the following tax year.

So, they are actually doing a double whammy on the taxpayers this year or at least on me. They raised my assessment by .8% this year (last year it was raised 13%) AND they are not staying revenue neutral.

Column 5 of my TRIM says that if they had stayed revenue neutral my county tax rate would have been 5.0342 with the new assessment. Instead. my county tax rate will be 6.70 since they are not staying revenue neutral.

How do they spin that as a 24 or 25% increase ? They did it by simply saying that if they kept the rate from last year the same (again, not revenue neutral) then we would only have a 25.5% increase in county taxes. However, oftentimes, a taxing authority will decrease their rate when they reassess to keep the revenue the same as the previous year and that is what they are showing in Column 5. This is not the case here.

Based on that, the actual tax increase is much more than 25.5% it is more like 33% when you taking into consideration the upward assessed value.

The simple math

(The new rate) 6.7 - (Revenue Neutral rate) 5.0342 = 1.6658. 1.6658/5.0342 = a 33.08 % increase in county tax from what it would have been if they stayed revenue neutral compared to what they have done by raising my assessment and the tax rate.

My TRIM Notice indicates a 13% increase in tax (county, school, and water management) from last year. My assessed value increased by 1.9% from last year. My assessed value decreased the previous year by 0.6%. The county tax is about half of the total tax bill. The school taxes are basically the rest and they changed by a very small amount.

I was only referring to the county tax

The tax here is 1/8 of what I was paying in NJ in 95--still a bargain

Which is why you left NJ

Do you mean they raised your market value (not your assessed value) by 0.8% this year and 13% last year? I thought SOH limited the increased in assessed value to 3%.

I left NJ because of a winter from hell, was not going to have a heart attack, trying to make more $$, we already had enough to retire-- my business lost 52 working days-the governor closed the roads during the storms--had enough--unlike others never had a business/job except for being in the navy--that I enjoyed

Thank you, I got the TRIM notice in my mail today, they must have my north address on file.