Some Gilmer County residents will receive another bill for their property taxes. Over 2000 taxpayers received incorrect tax bills recently. Last month, the Board of Commissioners approved 1 mil to pay the county’s G.O. Bond. When the bond mil was passed, the board was asked if the decision would affect conservation property. The board said it would not. Before the decision was made, land under conservation use received an exemption, meaning these land owners received lower taxes. However, when the tax bills were recently sent out, the exemption was not applied to these owners.

James Priest was one taxpayer who noticed the difference in his bill. Priest owns 113 acres of land, which he uses for agricultural, hay, and timberland purposes. The tract in question, though, is his 31 acre parcel. His bill without the exemption is $88. But, his bill with the conservation exemption would be $16. The monetary difference, here, is significant, particularly in consideration of the 2075 bills with similar variances. In short, these variances add up and is significant to taxpayers in light of the recessional economy.

Gilmer County Tax Commissioner Melba Bennett said she’s not sure how the mix-up occurred, but speculated that perhaps because the millage bond is new this year that it was simply over-looked. Tax bills for the county are printed at Harris Printing Company. Mr. Priest seemed to be familiar with Harris and said that the company has software that should catch mistakes like this one. Bennett too said that Harris should have caught the change, but also implied that the change should have been identified before it made it to Harris.

So, the question is: what is the cost to the taxpayer? What will it cost to process and re-mail the 2075 tax bills? According Commissioner Bennett, the cost of the first mailing was an estimated $23,000 for approximately 30,000 pieces of mail. Conceivably, since the new tax bills will be significantly smaller, the tax corrections mailed out will cost much less. Bennett said that the correction mail-out will take several weeks, but could not say specifically when the new mail-out would occur or when taxpayers should start receiving their corrections.