FROM THE KENNESAW WATCH:
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10-3-16
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Davey Crockett asked Jim Sebastian Kennesaw City Councilman:
Inquiry: Revival on Main Street
Cobb County 2015 Tax Records show that last year this 4.9 acre property, (Parcel ID #20013800950) usually referred to as Revival on Main Street, was owned by ‘SCP Kennesaw Main Owner, LLC’ and it was sold on Aug. 10, 2016 to ‘Wilkinson Kennesaw I, LLC’ for $44,500,000.
So far so good, but the 2016 Cobb County Tax Bill shows the owner information for this parcel as ‘Urban Redevelopment Agency of The City of Kennesaw Georgia 2825 S Main St” with its mailing address at City Hall.
How does this municipal agency come into play for what we call the Revival on Main St?
I also note that this county temporary tax bill of $180,611.29 is under appeal with the Board of Tax Assessors. Can you provide any clarity on this?
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Jim Sebastian • Oct 4
Get the Story about Kennesaw
Regarding the URA, the name on the tax bill is due to tax billing procedures . . .
Cobb Tax Site >>> Ownership/Appraisal Data is based on the ownership as of January 1 of each year. Any purchases of property or other changes in ownership after January 1 will not display until the next Tax Digest is posted to the website in June.
As for the appeal, I am guessing it has to do with the ownership change that happened after January 1st making only a portion of the development taxable as the parking deck is owned by the city and municipalities are tax-exempt. This is more complex than a normal sale of property . . .
Cobb Tax Site >>> If you own property on January 1, you are responsible for the tax for the entire year even if you sell the property on January 2. Buyers and sellers usually agree by contract to prorate tax as part of the closing process.
I will double check to assure the above answers are correct.
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Jim Sebastian • Oct 5
Get the Story about Kennesaw
I have some further information to clarify what was found regarding the tax bill . . . I trust this will satisfactorily address this question.
As mentioned, the entire property (residential, retail, parking) was assigned to the URA as the owner before the development was completed. When completed, the property was subdivided into two parcels with the city purchasing the parking deck and associated surface parking. Cobb County did not capture this correctly in their records and issued an incorrect 2016 tax bill for the property. They issued an assessment and tax bill in the name of the URA.
The city does not have record of ever having received the tax notification. Consequently, we were unaware and were never notified of the error until approximately 10-12 days ago when the Finance department discovered it when doing some research to prepare for our audit.
Cobb County was contacted and has been working to sort out the issue(s). In addition, we contacted the city attorney to work on it with Cobb County and South City Partners closing attorney to correct. We received an update from the County on Friday that the error has been confirmed, revised and corrected tax bills will be issued.
Finally, since the transfer of ownership to URA occurred after January 1, it will not be tax exempt until 2017. The city has already filed for exemption for 2017.
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Craig Kootsillas • Oct 6
Had this paperwork error not been discovered, would taxes have been paid?
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Jim Sebastian • Oct 6
Get the Story about Kennesaw
I assure you it would not have been paid.
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Davey Crockett • 10-9-16
Cobb County Tax has had a poor track record for years so this latest goof should not be a major surprise to Cobb residents. At least this minor screw up is sorted out.
Getting online access to records via
cobbtax.org is now much more difficult as I found out when doing research on what turned out to be this incorrect Kennesaw billing.
In August their web service provider put into effect the ‘AVALON’ program and if you spend what they consider ‘to much’ time looking at their Cobb Tax records your IP address is banned and you have to put in an ‘appeal’ to get the ban recinded.
Tax Comm. Jackson, who took over from Downing, when she quit with 2 wks notice, is of the opinion that such banning for to much looking at records is just fine. Cobb Tax remains a very poorly run operation.