Judge Walter J. Matthews is scheduled to hold a hearing on Monday, Oct. 7, at 9 a.m. to hear a petition from the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners and the city councils of Dalton and Varnell seeking to allow the local governments to collect property taxes based on the 2023 tax digest plus a 10% increase in all assessments, according to board Chairman Jevin Jensen.
Matthews, a senior judge from the Superior Court of Floyd County, was assigned the matter earlier this month after Whitfield County Superior Court judges recused themselves. The hearing will be in the Whitfield County Courthouse.
Also, Leslie Waycaster, an attorney for Whitfield County Tax Commissioner Danny Sane, said he has filed a notice of appeal with the Supreme Court of Georgia challenging a writ of mandamus from Superior Court requiring Sane to sign the 2024 county tax digest.
“I believe we have a strong case,” Waycaster said. “As Danny pointed out (in an earlier hearing also before Matthews), there is strong evidence that the digest is not accurate or fair.”
The petition from the commissioners and the Dalton and Varnell council members said the “preliminary 2024 Whitfield County tax digest is potentially not enforceable or collectable by law as a result of numerous alleged inaccuracies.”
“Unless the court authorizes the immediate, temporary collection of the taxes in this circumstance, the county authority would not be able to maintain an orderly and normal function of county business and governmental affairs,” the petition said.
The town of Cohutta and the city of Tunnel Hill do not collect a property tax.
The petition cites Sane’s testimony from the hearing when the county Board of Assessors obtained the order for him to sign the 2024 tax digest.
Sane had previously sent a letter to the members of the Board of Assessors and other officials expressing concerns about the proposed digest. Sane has said he cannot in good conscience sign the proposed digest. Sane has until the end of the month to sign it under the judge’s mandate.
“Even though the average values of our commercial and industrial properties had increased, the assessors had dramatically reduced more than 800 of our commercial and industrial accounts by more than $50,000,” Sane wrote in the letter. “Some of the decreases were in the millions!”
“This decrease in specific commercial and industrial property was coming at a time when over 7,000 homes had been increased by more than 50%,” he wrote. “I knew immediately what this meant. It meant that there was about to be a dramatic shift in Whitfield County’s tax burden from business and industry to homeowners.”
Waycaster said the transcript of that hearing will be sent to the Supreme Court next week. The judges there will decide whether to accept the appeal and set a date for a hearing if they do.