Tax Assessor Board Under Pressure After $793,892 Mistake

The Fannin County Board of Commissioners held its second meetings this week on Tuesday Oct. 8th. The room was unusually crowded as news of a $793,892 data entry error was shared earlier in the week.The Fannin County Board of Commissioners held its second meetings this week on Tuesday Oct. 8th. The room was unusually crowded as news of a $793,892 data entry error was shared earlier in the week.

While completing the Fannin County tax digest for 2013 a data entry error occurred costing the county over $750,000 The mistake took place when three zeros where added to the assessed value of a piece of property.

The error occurred on the property taxes of Nicholson Tire Co. #1 on Murphy Hwy. The error listed the value of improvements to the property at $103,421,000 instead of $103,421.

FYN spoke with the property owners. They stated that they had quite a shock upon opening their tax bill, it showed they owed close to $800,000. Following instructions on the tax form the owners called the tax assessors board to see what happened.

The owners are still waiting to receive a new property tax bill.

How does a mistake like this affect the county? Each year a tax digest is done. This digest is an assessed value of the county’s property. Once the county has the certified digest it starts to plan its budget on anticipated tax revenue.

The $800,000 dollars the county “charged” Nicholson Tire Company will no longer be received as originally anticipated after the correction is made.

This mistake is costing the school systems $574,446 and the county $213,248. The school system is set to take action on how to over come the loss of money on Thursday Oct. 10th.

The county is still in the planning stages of its budget. $200,000 is a rather large amount to “shrug off” which created an apparent tense mood in the room as the meeting progressed.

In the past two meetings, the commissioners had stated that safeguards need to be put into place by the Tax Assessors office to prevent mistakes like this from reoccurring.

A motion to have a Performance Review Audit on the Tax Assessors was unanimously passed.

The board members include Jerry Whitehead, Mary Jo Towe and David Lewis. The Chief Appraiser for the county is Lorie Galloway.

Stay with FYN as we keep you updated as more comes to light on this $800,000 mistake and a statement from the board of assessors.

Click below to watch the Tuesday Oct.8th Commissioners meeting.