DeKalb County Property Assessor Shannon Cantrell (Can-trull) has requested that the county commission adopt a resolution to change the reappraisal cycle from every five years to every four years.
Cantrell said he requested the change after legislation changed a law that allows for a four-year cycle and would not require a sales ratio to be included. Cantrell said one of the primary benefits of not having a sales ratio would be seen in tax relief programs, as it is used to calculate the discounts. Cantrell said no sales ratio would have made a difference for those who qualified for tax relief programs in 2023.
“They only received $104 instead of receiving $155 of discount,” Cantrell said. “So it negatively effects that program. You don’t get the full amount of discount that you could get if the sales ratio didn’t exist.”
Cantrell said DeKalb County properties are selling for 41 percent more than what they were appraised for with the county’s latest sales ratio. Cantrell said he wants to clarify to people that this change would not be a money grab and would actually lower taxes in the county.
“It’s not the intent of my proposal for anybody to have any more tax burden than they already have,” Cantrell said. “Actually, it’s in this proposal that it would be for them to have less of a tax burden. So, just because we are getting the reappraisal sooner does not mean that your taxes are going up.”
DeKalb County has a reappraisal year in 2026. Cantrell said many people misunderstand how reappraisal works and impacts their property taxes.
“I said that they (county) could change the tax rate in any year that they chose to,” Cantrell said. “A certified tax rate tells you what to set the tax rate at to bring in the same amount of revenue. Reappraisal is not supposed to be a time where you gain revenue for the county. It’s supposed to be revenue-neutral, and so appraisals go up and certified tax rates go down, and most people pay essentially the same thing as they did the year before.”
Cantrell said the commission should have a resolution ready in January to make the change.