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Hart County Property Owners Association finished it schedule of monthly meetings for 2022 with a "Hike through Hartwell History" with Dr. Allen Stewart, pastor of First Methodist, presenting. He offered an interesting, comprehensive view of Hart County and Hartwell through its founding, settlement, and growth. He focused on the patterns of growth and development, the businesses and churches involved, and economic forces confronting the county in different periods. He provided ample documentation through vast collection of pictures and slides he has gathered and combined. Dr. Stewart is an amateur historian and member of the Hartwell historical organizations as well. This is one of those lectures that you must attend again to get a good feeling for the background of our county. For the year, HCPOA offered a wide, diverse range of topics and issues from battery power for vehicles, to fishing in the lake, to school safety, and the annexation issues. Various county and state officials participated like Alan Power and Marshal Sayre. In the middle of the year we offered seminars on "assessments, appraisals , and appeals" that ended up saving property owners significant amounts of tax money. See our website for details of all the monthly meetings. www.HCPOA.info Our biggest accomplishment (begun a couple years ago) was seeing our ballot issue for the increase in the senior school property tax exemption pass overwhelmingly in November. It will take effect for the next tax year. Then we can develop another ballot initiative to continue to build that exemption to assist in equalizing the dramatic increases in property appraisal values. With no December meeting, HCPOA will convene again January 16th 2023. Our speaker will be the new CEO of the College and Career Academy Steve Burton. 7PM lower level library.

For many of us, the growth in the City of Hartwell has been something that we all have thoughts, ideas and valid concerns about. Tomorrows City Council Meeting will have the First Reading of a new annexation into the city that may be of great concern to the residents of Hartwell. Please take time out of your day tomorrow and show up at 6pm at the Hartwell City Hall. The main concern is this planned residential development has not gone through the Planning and Zoning Committee yet it appears that they are still planning on moving forward with the process of annexing the 274 acres necessary to allow the developer to move forward with his plans. Click BELOW to see the documents and information as it stands today. Thank you.... We look forward to seeing a large audience in support of the City of Hartwell residents......

At our monthly Hart County Property Owners Associations public meeting we had the honor of hearing Brian Fleming speak on the State of Agriculture. Brian shared some information that most of us had not heard and found the information to be very exciting..... Click on the button below to see his presentation that he delivered to us.

Hello folks from your HCPOA leadership. Well it is finally here. About many years of work we have brought the Senior Homestead Exemption for Schools Property Tax Issue to the ballot.l You will or are voting on it right now. Some years ago we got the idea that seniors should be exempt from the school property tax or at least have significant exemption. To that end many of us started developing a plan to accomplish that aim. Mike Buckel, in particular did a large amount of research to identify which counties in the state of Georgia actually exempt seniors as much as 100% from the school property tax. Interestingly enough there were about a dozen counties, including Gwinnett which did so. Others offered exemptions up to 50%. Of course we brought it to the Board of Education and received an overwhelming degree of non interest. Nevertheless we persevered. In 2018 we worked with the HC Republican party and submitted a ballot initiative for the primary ballot that year that would reduce the school property tax for seniors to zero. Essentially a ballot initiative is a referendum but it is submitted to all party voters in a county. We are proud to say that our issue received about 6000 votes; very similar to what Sherriff Mike received for his primary and victorious contest. That's good company. Our plan was to use this overwhelmingly vote to convince the Board of Education to write a letter to the State Legislature to approve a tax exemption of some amount for seniors. Such a letter would be carried to the Legislature by Rep Alan Powell. Again our efforts fell on deaf ears. The 3 minute gag rule at school board meetings was in effect numerous times. Finally several of us including "Snip" White and Tom Komatz approached both Alan Powell and Jbez Floyd, Superintendent of Hart County Charter System, to a meeting whose purpose was to approve such an initiative and letter.. Luckily we chose wisely and Rep Powell was very dedicated and effective in working with the Supt. and the Board members to develop such a program. While the final out come was not as much as we would have wished, it never the less is a start. And Rep Powell was successful in getting legislation approved that put this increase on the ballot right now. Why should you vote for it? Simple: it is a first step in assisting seniors particularly those on fixed income in dealing with the rising school taxes. The Homestead Exemption is unique in that it is real money and a real deduction in taxable value. The assessment states the values to be taxed; then the state has ordered that the assessment be 40% of that value. Then the homestead exemption kicks in, and that assessed value will be reduced $15,000 on both the BOC and BOE tax levies. So there will be an immediate positive effect on your taxable value next year when this exemption is approved. Remember everyone becomes a senior at some point. Vote YES on this ballot issue.

HART COUNTY PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION SUMMARY - SEPT 19, 2022 The meeting was called to order by Mike Buckle in Bill Fogerty’s absence. Those in attendance were reminded how hard the Property Owners had been working for the past several years to get the seniors a property tax break from the School System. A $5,000 increase in your homestead deduction will be on the November ballot. It is not all we want but, it is a start. Vote YES on this ballot initiative. Early voting starts October 17, the same day as our next meeting. Deadline for registration is October 11. On the subject of the school system the report on the ‘21/’22 school year has been published. In spite of the ever-increasing tax burden our schools are not doing well academically. As a system, Hart County is ranked 88 of 198 school systems in Georgia. Up 19 places from last year and out of the lower half. Our best ranked school is the South Hart Elementary School at 359 of 1244 elementary schools in the state. Up 154 places from last year, which is also our most improved school. Our worst school is Hartwell Elementary at 754 of 1244 elementary schools in Georgia. A clarification was presented for those that have filed an appeal of your property assessment. If you show up for your hearing and present any kind of reasonable story your appraisal cannot be raised for the next two years. It can be lowered if a recession comes upon us. So, don’t go in and say, “My taxes/appraisal is too high.” Have a reasonable story. Even if you lose and don’t get a reduction you will still get the current appraisal frozen for the next two years. Check Georgia Code Section 45-5-299. Parks White, our District Attorney, spoke on crime issues. There was just recently a $7m drug bust in Canon, GA. Drugs were being transported dissolved in diesel fuel. All the equipment was in operation to recover the drugs from the fuel. He also got a conviction of a double murderer that received two consecutive life sentences. He pointed out that we in Hart County have two of the three Superior Court judges that seem to be soft on crime. And the one of them seems to offer probation to most convicted females rather than jail time. The judges seem to focus on probation rather than jail time. Our speaker next month will be Brian Fleming presenting the types of farms in the Hart County area, and the values they bring to the County. Brian won the 2022 Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture Award.

1. First appeals are scheduled for Tuesday October 4th and will be held at the Hart County admin/EMS bldg. You will receive a letter with details. 2. You can pick up comparables for your appeal 5 days before the appeal. Go to Cade st. the appraiser's office. It would not hurt to confirm that these are the properties to be used in your appeal. If for some reason, you are given the list of sales for 2021 instead of a specific list of same type, same grade etc. , you might want to sit down with an appraiser and ask that the list be reduced to properties that will be used. Don't be put off if the appraiser says they are not ready. 3. Remember to gather your evidence and make a case using pictures, documents, maps etc. Have a specific value in mind when you appear. 4. All appeals are open to the public. If you should want to sit and watch, check the schedule in the clerks office for times and properties being appealed. Be on time and silent.

This is the first edition of what we will call the Appeals Corner. The object is to keep property owners as up to date as possible on appeals requirements, dates, and decisions. All appeals are open, so there is no reason a visitor cannot report what decision was made or what strategy was used. So far no dates for 2022 have been scheduled. Value Freeze Some recent research has uncovered a state law which we will print ( OCGA 48 5 299;) essentially it says that an appellant who loses his appeal but has reasonably argued his case will have his current assessment frozen for two years; obviously appellant has to appear. Other conditions apply: that the appellant can not appeal again or submit a return with another value and maintain the freeze. It would be appropriate to bring copy of this law to the appeal, just in case. The Board of Equalization has not used this law in recent cases. But they may need a general reminder. Outside Appraisal Practically an appraisal by an outside appraiser has been automatically discarded by the BOE. A recent case study in the BOE computer training module brought a review of this practice. Essentially an outside appraisal can be used but there are requirements: 1. must be conducted between 1 April and 31 December of assessment year (same year sales figures used)'; appraiser must be fully certified in state and with certifying organizations; must have no disclosures like "not to be used for tax purposes". The take away here is that any one considering an appeal in 2023 and is also considering an appraisal must get it done before end of year. No reason not to ask appraisers about details. OCGA 48 5 311 B -1 included here does address process with appraisers. 2023 Appeals Remember that conditions for an appeal are as 1 January 2023; so documentation should show conditions at that time. for instance if you are building a house, and it is 80% completed at year end; document that, perhaps not in move in condition yet; also file a return to support that fact. When completed, appraiser should visit new status for next tax year. Contiguous parcels If such parcels are owed by same owners and deeded that way, they can be combined for tax purposes. They need not be surveyed and joined. They remain separate but are taxed as one unit. Any comments are welcome.

The Hart County Property Owners Association began its August meeting with a visit and exciting presentation by Lindsey Ingle, the Executive Director of the Hart County Chamber of Commerce. Ms Ingle discussed the many features of the chamber through a well designed and practical slide show. She included a nice drone visit to the Gum Branch park and mega ramp. She also talked about the upcoming holiday events the chamber sponsors like the Christmas tree lighting, the parade, and the new festival of lights on Depot Street. Well done. Next Bill Fogerty continued his session on"Assessments, appraisals, and Appeals" focusing on appeals strategy and construction and presentation of evidence to the board of equalization. Several hart county property members volunteered that they had met with appraisers and actually reduced their valuations significantly: one specifically had his value lowered about $60,000. It does not hurt to review your property record card and visit with an appraiser if some items require some explanation. Merely asking an appraiser how the appraisal value was figured can always be educational. Fogerty noted that even though a property owner has returned the appeal, there is plenty of time to visit the office for questions or explanations. Appeal hearings are not likely to begin until after Labor Day. One item that has occurred a couple of times is the year built date of a structure like the residence. That should be the year in which it was finished. The value is figured at per cent of completion as of 1 January 2022 even if the appraiser visits the property later in the year. Plan ahead for the next year if necessary. Next meeting is September 19th, 7pm lower level of library. Bring a friend. Visit our website https://www.hcpoa.info/

The Hart County Property Owners Association is inviting all residents of Hart County and any others that might be interested in our monthly public meeting on August 15 at the Adult Learning Center under the Hart County Public Library. We will have as our guest speaker the new Director of the Hart County Chamber of Commerce, Lindsey Ingle. She'll bring us all up to speed on whats happening with the Chamber of Commerce and some of the issues that they face in our area. Also, we will talk more about the 2022 Property Tax Assessments and the ins and outs of an appeal and what you should expect. Make plants in your day for this Monday, August 15 at 7pm.... We look forward to seeing you all there......

Appeals Deadline is Monday August 1st. Even if you’re not sure, but still have questions about your property values then Appeal by Monday. You can always withdraw if you decide not to go any further with the appeal process. The important thing is to reserve your right if you are still in doubt. On the appeal put what you think the value should be. That’s a starting point. Sitting down with an appraiser at the tax assessor’s office and getting your property record card is important. Now that time is running out and you’ve not done your due diligence, then the appeal process buys you more time. As always, your Hart County Property Owners Association exist to be of help. Let us know if you have any questions.

The city of Hartwell monthly meeting was held on Monday July 11th at 7:00pm. The items of Interest to property owners would be the Woodlake landing proposed development that the city approved almost a year ago allowing 8 single family units on a 2-acre track on Lake Hartwell. This is 2 single family homes on a half-acre. When the realtor Charlene Fields who has been proposing this development, was requesting that the 8 units be put together as townhomes so as to look like one single family home with two outside doors therefore being a duplex. The community in and around Woodlake landing ,Spear Circle and Rainbow Lane have embraced this, however there is still great concern on whether these will be rented units or owner occupied. The good news is that they will not be duplexes and can be owner occupied as a single-family townhome. The density of putting too many houses or units on a small piece of property has been the issue as well as rentals vs owner occupied. The board took the recommendation of the City Zoning and Planning committee to allow 2 townhouses per half-acre. It was a unanimous vote. The other items that would be of interest to property owners was the Cyber Mining operation that wants to occupy the old Tenneco building. There were many concerned property owners there to express their concern over having a business who will generate an ongoing noise situation. Some of the council members including the mayor, were concerned because they live close to the old Tenneco plant. Much discussion was on this issue and the city council indicated that they would not stand in the way if they can meet all the noise ordinance that the city has been working on. Definitely an item for property owners to keep their eyes on in the weeks ahead. There were other items on the agenda that did not really apply to property owners but might still be of interest to you. As always, you can go to the city’s website and see the upcoming agendas and minutes of these meetings. We will do our best to keep you informed.

At the July 18, 2022 the Hart County Property Owners Association put on an excellent presentation of our Hart County Property Tax Assessments and what to do now that they have showed up in our mail boxes. Click below to go through an excellent presentation on what to do now...... Thank you to Bill Forgerty and Mike Buckel for the excellent content and presentation.