Public hearing scheduled for Sept. 19

COLUMBUS – Polk County has released its schedule of values and set a public hearing on those values for Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m.

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Monday, Aug. 22 and heard from county tax administrator Melissa Bowlin and Robert Haskins with Wampler Eanes Appraisal Group about the current property revaluation.

The schedule of values is a book or guide on how the county is valuing properties. The county is scheduled to adopt the schedule of values during its Oct. 3 meeting, following the Sept. 19 public hearing.

Haskins said the schedule of values is a book to be used by the appraiser, which tells the process an appraiser goes through to value properties in Polk County.

Haskins also updated commissioners on the current revaluation. He said the field staff has completed 99 percent of its field reviews and should be finished in the next week to a week and a half with those reviews. Haskins also said there are properties he wants to revisit, such as properties with locked gates.

In November, Haskins said he will go to new properties currently under construction.

“Everyone wants to know what’s happening with real estate,” Haskins said. “We’ve got areas that are down from 2008, particularly Bright’s Creek and Lake Adger.”

Haskins said there are also properties that tend to have higher values, such as in Saluda.

“The property market there (in Saluda) is real strong,” Haskins said. “The area around the equestrian center is real strong.”

Commissioner Ray Gasperson asked about properties on Pea Ridge Road in particular that people are concerned about because of the equestrian center.

Haskins said they definitely won’t have the same value as equestrian center properties, but the area of the equestrian center (Tryon International Equestrian Center), “has been interesting to watch.”

Gasperson also asked Haskins’ opinion about the county being on an eight-year cycle for property revaluations and if Polk should change that cycle to a four-year cycle.

Haskins said he would recommend the county have that discussion of changing to a fewer-year cycle. He mentioned Mitchell County  was on an eight-year cycle and then changed to a four-year cycle. In four years, Haskins said Mitchell County saw a reduction in values. He said doing revaluations every two or four years as opposed to every eight years cuts down on counties seeing huge increases or decreases in values at once.

Gasperson suggested after the current revaluation is complete commissioners discuss having revaluations more often.

The current revaluation will be effective Jan. 1, 2017. Haskins said Jan. 1 is the snapshot until the county does it again.

Commissioner Ted Owens asked whether revaluations should be done in-house if the county moves to go to a four-year schedule.

Haskins said currently Polk doesn’t have enough staff to do a revaluation in-house but people could be hired. He said Polk County could probably handle it in-house but it would need to have a lot more staff.

Owens also asked about the cost of doing it every four years.

Haskins said compared to eight years ago, his firm is doing it for about half the cost. He said if the county had enough staff, they may be able to do a walk around for part of the county or a drive by and that could save money.

“If I’m understanding you correctly,” said commissioner vice chair Keith Holbert, we could hire you to do the commercial and have staff do the resident, correct?”

Haskins said that would be an option.

The public hearing will be for residents to comment on the schedule of values. Owens also asked Haskins to do a demonstration during the public hearing actually appraising a house to show how it’s valued.

Once commissioners adopt the schedule of values, four notices will be advertised. Nov. 7 will be the last day that an appeal to the order adopting the schedules can be filed with the Property Tax Commission.

The proposed 99-page schedule of values can be viewed at the county manager’s office or found at www.polknc.org by visiting the tax department on the left margin titled “Schedule of Values.”