NEWSLETTER
Dear Patriot:
At the outset, we want to remind the members who appealed the excessive 2007 mass revaluation of their property that all the legal issues we raised in our 17 count Class Action lawsuit can be raised in the Dougherty Superior Court if raised before the Board of Equalization. By raising uniformity, you clearly have a right to a hearing on this issue if you appealed to the Superior Court. You are not required to have an attorney.
To our knowledge, the Superior Court has not ruled on these issues.
The Court of Appeals simply ruled that each property owner had a right to appeal to the Superior Court under O.C.G.A. sec 48-5-311 (g) and did not have a right to file a lawsuit raising the same issues. Thus, the court never ruled on the merits of our complaint.
One of our objectives is to be a “watch dog” group in analyzing the significant actions of our city and county government.
As an example of our objectives, we have discussed the legality of the City Commission in circumventing the law against a government granting gratuities by using ADICA as a conduit to make grants to their favorite organizations. Additionally the city has designated the new
When the city commission ruled on the recent questionable bond issue, we filed with the commission a multi page petition pointing out the legal flaws in our opinion. The commission never responded to this petition.
Basically it is our opinion that our governments and the school systems make no effort to conserve our tax dollars and in many instances squander our money.
We have to pick our legal fights based on the likelihood of a favorable ruling coupled with adequate legal funds. One of our problem is the Court will not provide any relief in the form of an injunction if the alleged action is completed. Our relief would prevent future actions.
We are not flushed with funds and we solicit your donation or pledge.
We feel our local Tax Assessors allow public utilities a pass as the law allows the Assessors 30 days to question the valuations which are received from the Department of Revenue. This department basically rubber stamps the value a utility places on their property and the department have no “field” employees to verify what property the utilities have in a county. Additionally they do not tax the utilities distribution right of ways. Thus the owner who or whose predecessor granted the easement pays the total land value. To our knowledge the local Assessors do not verify the volume of petroleum products on the pipe lines storage tanks on January 1st of each year.
Thus if those utilities paid their share of the tax burden, it would reduce our burden, which can be overwhelming.
We also feel the assessors are too liberal in allowing exemptions from taxes.
Some six or seven States have eliminated ad valorem taxes in favor of extra sales taxes, primarily these states’ Supreme Court has ruled the use of ad valorem taxes to fund education is unconstitutional because of the great value disparity between the tax bases of the various counties.
The last State to do this, to our knowledge, was
In 1981, the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court said in a concurring opinion: “the ad valorem tax system is antiquated, outmoded, unfair and violates equal protection.” His use of the words “equal protection” was based on the failure to tax intangibles.
One of our ultimate missions is to join with taxpayers groups across this state to challenge the constitutionality of the use of ad valorem taxation to significantly fund education.
As you can see we need many “brain sessions” to make the right decisions.
Our current situation is tantamount to the situation facing our revolutionary ancestors whose battle cry was “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.”
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