Athens-Clarke County’s Tax Assessor’s Office is functioning well. That’s according to a report from the county auditor’s office, which spent several months earlier this year evaluating the office. ACC Commissioners received the report at their meeting on Tuesday.
The report found that the Tax Assessor’s Office was operating at an “above-satisfactory” level, but it also found several ways to improve. The report suggests that the Tax Assessor’s Office use electronic means, rather than postal mail to send out some notices when possible. It also recommends that the office add more staff to its current 14-person roster to handle increasing workloads in the coming years.
The Tax Assessor’s Office is responsible for valuing real estate in Clarke County, over 42,000 parcels according to recent data. That property value, along with the county’s property tax rate, determines how much property tax is due. Collecting property taxes falls under a different department, the county’s Tax Commissioner.
This was the first internal audit of the Tax Assessor’s Office since unification of the city and county governments in 1991.
