The Center Post - August 2011 Edition

The August edition of The Center Post is now available via the following link:

The Center Post

Survey

Most Lee County residents began receiving their 2011 property tax bills today, July 28th.  Please do not immediately discard of your envelope.  You may have noticed, but on the back of the tax bill envelope is a QR Code that, when scanned with your smartphone, takes you to a very brief survey being conducted by our vendor. 

To scan a QR Code with your smartphone, you'll need to simply download a free scanner app from your phone's app market such as "i-nigma", "Barcode Scanner", etc.  This survey should take less than a minute as I believe it asks only three questions. 

Steps:

1. Download a free QR Code scanner app from your phone's app market (two free app examples given above)
2. Open the app
3. Scan a QR Code
4. Discover/explore the code within the QR Code (survey in this case)

For additional assistance, email linked@leecountync.gov

Announcing Lee County Government's Google Calendar!

We have developed a Google Calendar that highlights important county dates and events.  While this calendar is viewable on our website and Facebook page, the uniqueness comes in that we have discovered how someone can integrate our calendar with his or her personal electronic calendar, i.e. Micrsoft Outlook, iCal, etc..  This way when you go to view your schedule you also would be able to see area happenings and dates.  If we update our calendar then it is automatically pushed out to you!  Click here to visit our download page! 

Information is becoming increasingly important in today's society.  Here at Lee County Government, we have a lot of events and dates in which the public has shown interest.  This calendar is a simple, one-time download and the benefits are endless.  By default, we usually set no reminder for events (so it won't be burdensome), but the beauty is that any user can define a personal event reminder if she/he chooses. 

Currently the calendar shows important property tax dates and will highlight revaluation dates and presentation information shortly.  It is growing, and the potential of this calendar is endless given the many events/programs each county department is responsible for. 

Download our calendar, and as we see the usage expand we may include more event postings.  How nice would it be, for example, to pull up our calendar from your mobile phone at one of our wonderful parks and see upcoming events?  This calendar potentially puts the information right at your fingertips.

Trouble downloading the calendar, have a general suggestion or comment?  Email us at linked@leecountync.gov

Tonight's Games Cancelled

Lee County Parks and Recreation has cancelled the games scheduled for tonight, July 28, 2011, due to dangerous heat conditions for outdoor activities.  Coaches will be notified of re-schedule dates for the affected games.

2011 Property Tax Bills

Today the 2011 property tax bills were mailed.  You should expect to receive your bill(s) shortly.  These bills are for only real property (house, land, etc.) and personal property (boat, business equipment, etc.).  Registered motor vehicles are billed separately depending upon your license tag renewal, generally. 
An option many have taken advantage of is to divide their tax bill into multiple payments.  If payments are started immediately, one can stretch out a tax bill into 5 or 6 payments.  These bills are due September 1, 2011, but can be paid without interest through January 5, 2012.  Enforced collection actions (and additional fees) begin once a tax becomes delinquent.

As you will notice, the 2011 property tax bills reflect what was on your property or what personal property you claimed as of January 1, 2011.  North Carolina law dictates that we assess a property in accordance with the improvements present as of January 1st of each year. 

To see a summary of the 2011 tax rates and fees, please click the link below. 

2011 tax rates and fees

2013 Property Tax Revaluation

The Lee County Tax Office has begun the process of completing the next countywide revaluation effective January 1, 2013. A primary goal of a revaluation is to bring tax assessed values up or down to current market values. Current tax assessments are based on the adopted schedule of values from our last revaluation, January 1, 2007, but North Carolina General Statute 105-287 states that local governments cannot adjust for economic conditions in a non-revaluation year, i.e. 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. Market conditions may have changed since 2007, and tax values will be updated accordingly effective January 1, 2013.

At this point real estate appraisers from the tax office are conducting field reviews and compiling and analyzing qualified market sales. You may see an appraiser in your neighborhood verifying the property data we have and inspecting properties. As part of the revaluation process the tax office will conduct a series of public presentations and reports to disseminate revaluation information. We hope to provide Lee County taxpayers with information such as what we are seeing in the market, what the revaluation means to you and applicable laws, among other information.

For questions about the 2013 revaluation and other tax-related information, call us at 919-718-4660 or email us at appraisals@leecountync.gov

Closure: OT Sloan Park

OT Sloan Park will be closed to the public all day on Saturday, August 6th.