How we got the story
After property assessment notices were mailed to DeKalb County residents this month, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the increase in home values that will result in higher property tax bills for many residents. In DeKalb, residential real property assessed values have jumped 17 percent since last year, and they increased 6 percent in Dunwoody.
Both the city of Dunwoody and the DeKalb Tax Commissioner’s Office originally told the AJC that Dunwoody didn’t have a tax break to mitigate the effects of rising property assessments on city taxes.
After the article was published Tuesday, Sen. Fran Millar pointed out that the Georgia General Assembly had passed and voters had approved the tax exemption in 2010. DeKalb Commissioner Nancy Jester confirmed with the county tax commissioner that the tax deduction hadn’t been given to Dunwoody residents, and the county began a review of previous tax bills.
The city of Dunwoody acknowledged it hadn’t notified the county about the tax change.
Dunwoody residents who were entitled to the tax deduction will be mailed refund checks.
Dunwoody residents whose homes gained value over the last three years will get money back because they were overcharged on their property tax bills.
The refunds will be paid as a result of reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and questions raised by Sen. Fran Millar, R-Atlanta, and DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester.
The error occurred because Dunwoody officials didn’t notify the county, which handles the city’s tax billing, after voters approved a tax exemption during a November 2010 election, said Dunwoody Finance Director Christopher Pike. The measure passed with 81 percent of the vote.
The tax break provides residents with a discount on the city portion of their tax bills to negate tax increases caused by rising home values.
“It’s great news that the oversight was uncovered and remedied, but it’s still disturbing that this could be something that’s voted on and then all of a sudden it’s one big nevermind,” said Al Tiede, who has lived in Dunwoody for 24 years and believes he’ll receive a refund.
It’s unknown how many people are owed refunds and how much money they’ll receive. DeKalb Tax Commissioner Claudia Lawson said her office is reviewing tax bills from 2012 to 2014, and she plans to have more information next week.
Once the county recalculates taxes, the city will be billed and then refund checks will be mailed to residents, Lawson said.
Nobody apparently caught the mistake until the AJC asked why the tax break wasn’t included on property appraisal notices that arrived in residents’ mailboxes this month.
“We, as a city, had a responsibility to notify the county,” Pike said. “Our sentiment is we want everyone to pay no more or no less than what’s legally owed. If someone paid more than they owed, we’re happy to refund it.”
He said the city government will be able to absorb the cost of the refunds without taking funding away from government services like policing and road paving.
Only residents whose homes have risen above the base value they were assessed at in 2009 or later will be eligible for a refund.
Millar said he was disappointed that residents overpaid their property taxes.
“We actually had this on the ballot … and it was missed,” he said. “People are going to be getting money back, and again the whole idea here was to make sure that people are going to be treated fairly.”
Millar supported legislation this year, House Bill 596, that extended the exemption on the county level until 2022. That tax break, known as a property assessment freeze, applied to the county portion of residents’ property tax bills.
Dunwoody and Brookhaven are the only two cities in DeKalb that give residents an assessment freeze for the city portion of property taxes. School taxes aren’t covered by the tax exemption.
“I’m pleased to have this come to light so we can properly assess the taxpayers and get them a refund,” Jester said. “Going forward, we know that in 2015 they’ll get their assessment freeze for the city taxes.”
Dunwoody, which became a city in 2008, included the assessment freeze in its city charter, with the provision that the tax break would expire after 2011. The Georgia General Assembly and residents voted to make it permanent in 2010. Each year, the city sends a form to the county with its tax exemptions and rates, but the assessment freeze hasn’t been included on that form since 2012, Pike said.
The county has only identified two properties that are owed refunds from 2012, amounting to about $300, Pike said.
But property values have been increasing since 2013, meaning many more people may receive money back, Lawson said.
Residential real property assessments in Dunwoody dropped 8 percent in 2012 and then rose less than 1 percent in 2013, increased 6 percent in 2014 and are projected to go up another 6 percent this year, according to an AJC analysis of tax records.
