Newtown Macon released a statement this week saying downtown's property value has increased more than $91 million from 2012 to 2016. They say that generated more than $1.3 million in additional revenue for the county in 2016.
We talked to Brandon Hancock and Andrew Eck from LandLink analytic services, the group Newtown brought in to find these numbers, and to Bibb County Chief Tax Appraiser, Andrea Crutchfield.
For six weeks, Eck and Hancock analyzed the values behind downtown Macon properties.
“All of it's out there publicly, but it’s just having the right people to go in there, crunch the numbers, and provide it back to them,” says Hancock.
First, they took a look at the properties within this grid and determined their overall value by looking to the tax assessors website.
“So, that’s no models or anything. That’s just a fact that they grew by $91 million,” says Eck.
They found that from 2012 to 2016 property values went up $91.7 million in downtown.
“Increase of $1.3 million of annual generated tax revenue,” says Hancock.
So how did they get that number? They found in 2012, the assessed property value of downtown was $256 million. Based on the tax rate at that time, it generated $3.7 million in revenue.
Four years later with higher values, they say downtown property owners paid $5 million in taxes. That is an extra $1.3 million for the county in 2016.
Bibb County Chief Tax Appraiser, Andrea Crutchfield, says those numbers sound right to her.
“Mainly because, I think, the growth in certain areas has generated more growth lots of people want to revitalize their buildings to keep up with other buildings,” says Crutchfield.
So we verified that, yes, downtown Bibb properties have increased and that raised money for the county.
Eck and Hancock say they have also started looking at the numbers for 2017 and 2018, and they have seen growth in terms of revenue from downtown property taxes.