Cherokee Tax Digest Rises, Giving Hope To Economic Turn Around

After nearly five years of negative growth, things could be starting to turn towards the positive in Cherokee County.

Cherokee County's gross tax digest grew to nearly $7.4 billion in 2013, up from $7.2 billion in 2012.

Cherokee County Chief John Adams said after exemptions, the total net taxable digest is up by 3 percent for the county and up 2.8 percent for the school portion of property taxes.

Adams said it "looked for a while like the net digest could be flat, which would have still been an improvement over the last few years."

"The real estate market has finally turned around and is on the upswing here in Cherokee County," he said. "Not all properties in the county have increased in value, but a lot have and the ones that still went down didn’t go down as much as they have each of the last few years."

The digest is used by city, county and school leaders to set the millage rate to collect revenue for the upcoming fiscal year.

The county will mail out 95,625 real property notices and of those, 37,297 increased in value, mostly 10 percent or less; 13,731 had no change in value; and the remaining 44,597 decreased in value of 5 percent or less.

Those notices will be mailed on Monday, and residents will have a deadline of Thursday June 27 to appeal the assessments. The county's website will also be updated with current information on all parcels. 

Appeal forms will be listed under the "Forms and Documents" section of the Tax Assessor's website. If residents choose to appeal their assessments, those forms can be printed, filled out and mailed to or brought personally to the tax assessor's office.

The office is at 2782 Marietta Highway in Canton, directly behind the Cherokee County Tax Commissioner's office. 

Adams said property owners or authorized agents must sign the appeal notice and they should include an estimate of their property as of Jan. 1, "along with any information that supports the value." 

The chief assessor said he believes the increase could be welcome news for many property owners in the county. 

"While no one wants to pay more taxes, most of the people I have spoken to say they are glad to see the market finally going back up so they can gain back some of the equity that has been lost since the down turn started back in 2008," Adams added.

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