By Patrick Yost - Editor  
    For the past one and half years Chuck Anglin has served as Morgan County’s real property appraiser. Anglin worked with former Morgan County Chief Tax Appraiser Todd Paschal during the county’s recent controversial tax reassessment that increased county wide property values more than $1 billion.
    Starting February 4, Anglin will officially begin as the county’s chief tax appraiser, a role he also held in Madison County.
    Despite the recent and sudden resignation of Paschal, who alleged that property owner threats led to his decision, Anglin said he is not concerned for his safety. During the recent revaluations, Anglin said he had met with many property owners who disagreed with land values but he was never confronted in a threatening manner. “I never saw anything that bad,” he said. “Some of the county citizens are upset because he said he was threatened. They just can’t believe someone would do that.”
    Since the revaluation that saw Morgan County property values rise from $2.2 billion to $3.3 billion, Anglin said the tax appraisal staff will now concentrate on maintaining the county’s tax digest. “It has to be constant or you end up getting in trouble.” The Georgia Department of Revenue will spot–audit Morgan County’s values in 2009, Anglin said, to check on compliance.
    Anglin said the revaluation allowed appraisers to locate property that had not been recorded and adjust values that were well below fair market value. “When we were out in the field we would find houses that weren’t on the books,” he said. He said the appraisal office and other county offices had established cooperative communications to insure that all property was located and that the burden of property taxes was equally shared among property owners.
    “Taxes are not easy. We just try to make this process as comfortable as we can.”