To the editor:

Recently I received my tax assessment for taxes due by the end of 2012, and to my horror and amazement the amount that our tax board has valued my home and land at has caused a 100 percent increase in taxes.

How can any tax assessment board even begin to think that an increase of taxes on property is justified in such a depressed real estate market?

Numerous reports from the radio and television media in recent weeks have stated that Atlanta, and specifically rural Georgia, have not rebounded at all, and in fact since the slump of 2008, real estate values are 40 percent lower than in previous years.

I live in a neighborhood much like many of my fellow Spalding County residents. Just down the street there have been three homes sold “short,” two foreclosures, and a number of homes that have been for sale for years with no offers. On two sides of my residence are hundreds of acres of foreclosed land. Land that was bought for far less than the fair market value.

Today’s county government is always searching for ways to increase its tax revenues, but to impose higher taxes on those who are continuing to pay their taxes and avoid foreclosure is unacceptable. I am sorry that the current situation is that we have depressed land and home values in this county, but to put on the backs of hardworking people additional taxes is not what this great country was founded for.

It’s time for others in this county to express their outrage at this assessment. I encourage every taxpayer to go and protest their tax rates. File a notice of assessment and let the paperwork swamp their system.

Get involved, maybe it’s time for a class-action lawsuit against this horrific taxation. I, for one, will not take this increase sitting down. I intend to fight for my rights, and stand up to the tax increases.

RALPH DOUGHERTY JR.

Griffin resident