The Piedmont Chronicles
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Greetings, fabulous readers. What's the word on the street?
The tax assessment situation has now gotten officially beyond ludicrous. There have been multiple additional instances of incredulous valuation increases on top of the several TPC had already been made aware of. I think most real estate & finance professionals would tell you that some parts of our county have perhaps seen rates of appreciation of 10-15% in the last year; not, however, valuation increases of 40%; nor of 87%,; and certainly not over 200%.
Upon first glance, it appears that the Board of Assessors are getting very aggressive with their valuation & assessment techniques. We'd hope they're not practicing the illegal act of "sales chasing." Not to cast any aspersions on anybody, but what we've witnessed here in the home county just doesn't seem possible. We certainly understand that there is a methodology used that places emphasis on comparative sales, but not at the numbers we're seeing.
This publication reached out to the Newton Co. Tax Assessor's office to try to speak with the Chief Appraiser, Marcus Jordan. I was informed that he was in class until Friday & not available until then. I asked the lady who answered the phone if there was anyone else in the office that could answer some questions & she responded that there was not. In the meantime, I'm going to send him an email.
This story is very much developing. Check back in.
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Various people & media outlets covered the recent flap concerning allegations made by Gene Wills, the 2nd Vice-Chair of the Newton Dems, at the most recent Covington council meeting that the Newton Co. GOP was getting preferential treatment in the form of getting to meet for free at the Covington Municipal Airport's meeting room.
What Mr. Wills later found out, and what many others knew to be true - including the Chair of the Newton Dems, was that several different groups & organizations had been meeting at the airport, free of charge, as the the airport was trying to drum up interest & exposure for the facility with a plan of eventually instituting a fee schedule.
Later, in a public post on Facebook, "Bunt Harvey," Gene Wills' alleged Facebook persona, made accusations of racism & later described the act of some persons who were correcting his false assumptions as "a lynching."
Rhetoric like this is, in our estimation, completely beyond the pale. It serves no productive purpose, and it discounts 400 years of struggle & history.
It's 2018...
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According to our sources, more deputies have left the Newton County Sheriff's Office the last few weeks continuing a trend that's been seen the last several months. According to one source - "people are jumping ship...they feel like things aren't getting better."
Also, as we understand it, several shifts are still undermanned - including the night shift - because they simply don't have the deputies to fill the slots.
If true, this is a concerning situation.
Also, as we understand it, several shifts are still undermanned - including the night shift - because they simply don't have the deputies to fill the slots.
If true, this is a concerning situation.
That's it for now.