The Polk County Board of Commissioners is currently considering having a property revaluation every four years instead of every eight years.

Commissioners met Monday, Oct. 3 and approved the schedule of values for the current property revaluation. New property values will be effective Jan. 1, 2017.

Polk County Tax Administrator Melissa Bowlin told commissioners last week that once the board adopts the schedule of values, she’d like commissioners to consider going to a four-year revaluation.

Commissioner Ted Owens said he thinks that’s a great suggestion for the county, but in all fairness thinks the new board should be the ones to make that decision. The upcoming election on Nov. 8 will mean three new commissioners will be elected, as current commissioners up for re-election did not file to run this year.

“In all fairness, I think it’s a great suggestion but think the new board should make that decision and not this board,” said Owens.

Commissioner chair Michael Gage asked about the timing of making such a decision.

County manager Marche Pittman said another thing the board needs to evaluate is the budgetary implications of changing to a four-year revaluation. Pittman also said it would take staff a little time to put that together for the board.

Commissioner Keith Holbert said there are positives to a reval every four years, including that a lot of the work could be done in-house.

“And if property values increase, eight years can be a substantial amount,” Holbert said.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to put it off or not,” Holbert said, “but it does make sense.”

Commissioner Ray Gasperson agreed with Holbert and suggested the current board move forward sooner rather than later.

Gasperson said the reality is the county is going to have three new members on the board and it’s not necessarily easy when they come in and are overwhelmed.

“Whereas we’ve been dealing with this for a while,” said Gasperson.

Gasperson said he doesn’t want to take anything off the new members coming on board, but this decision might be a good one to give them relief from.

Holbert also said for new board members, the current board may be doing them a favor by “taking that monkey off their back.”

Commissioner Shane Bradley also said he’s in favor of a reval every four years and Owens said he doesn’t have a problem with the current board moving forward but it will be the new board that will have to deal with the decision.

Commissioners directed staff to gather information, including factors for the budget, with Gage saying the board will discuss the costs at either at next week’s meeting or the first meeting in November.

The county held a public hearing on Sept. 19 on the schedule of values for the current reval, which has been referred to as the book appraisers base the new values on. Commissioners have received several updates this year on the current reval’s process, including last month.

Field reviews were almost complete last month and appraisers are working on revisiting properties that were missed or had locked gates and any properties that look wrong on paper.

The new property values will be sent to property owners in January. Property owners will have an opportunity to speak with staff informally if they feel their property has been valued incorrectly. After the informal meetings, any property owner that still does not agree with the value will then have the opportunity to appeal the value with the Polk County Board of Equalization and Review and if they do not agree with that decision can appeal to the N.C. Property Tax Commission.

The state requires counties conduct a property revaluation at least every eight years, with many counties across North Carolina doing revaluations every four years to minimize the difference in values. The county hired Wampler Eanes Appraisal Group LTD for this year’s revaluation with a contract of $332,330.

Polk’s last revaluation was effective Jan. 1, 2009.