Black Acre revaluation costly for town, county

Last week’s Martin County Board of Equalization and Review’s decision to lower the assessment of the Black Acre property at 600 North Smithfield St. substantially cost the taxpayers of the county and town of Williamston, according to Williamston Mayor Dean McCall.

McCall originally stated his concerns in a letter to the Martin County Commissioners, asking them to not approve a reassessment back in April.

Over the past two years, the property’s valuation had dropped significantly from its originally assessed $4 million value. In 2023, after a county visit at the urging of property owner and Black Acres, LLC, CEO Jeremy Collins, the property was reassessed and the value lowered to $2 million.

Last week, the E&R board lowered the valuation to $255,366 on the recommendation of Martin County Tax Assessor Melissa Phillips. Phillips drew the assessment valuation from vacant building and school comps from other counties, primarily Bertie County. The Bertie school district recently sold Askewville Elementary School for $1 million.

However, Collins and his attorney had previously asked the property be reevaluated at the purchased price of $125,000 and continued to express those thoughts throughout their various meetings with county officials.

The recent revaluation will cost the county approximately $34,000 per year, adjusted from the property’s assessed value from 2022 when Collins placed an upset bid of $125,000 to acquire the former Williamston Middle School. The tax bill for that period was $36,162.29 before interest.

In 2023 the adjusted tax amount based on a lower valuation was $17,828.18. The 2024 valuation of $255,366 reduced Black Acres Tax burden to $2,068.46.

The town of Williamston will also need to absorb an approximate three percent reduction in revenue.

Williamston Town Administrator Eric Pearson raised concerns regarding the decision.

“The loss of that evaluation causes about a three percent drop in property tax revenue. That is huge for the town,” he said. “That, combined with the hospital, means we will lose about seven percent of our property tax revenue. We will need to find the savings either in our expenditures or find additional revenue to make up the difference.

“By the County granting this major reduction, it pretty much offsets the additional funding that the county provided the town for EMS,” explained Pearson. “The difference is the additional county funds can only be used for EMS where the lost property tax revenue was available for any General Fund use. We'll have to find the savings or additional revenue somehow. Staff will begin looking for ways to offset this loss immediately after the beginning of this new budget year.”

Collins’ plight began when he missed the deadline for filing an appeal with the E&R Board when he originally purchased the property. According to Tax Assessor and E&R Board Clerk Melissa Phillips, Black Acres did not file a timely response for an appeal for 2022 or 2023 since the E & R board was not in session.

Collins’ attorney Clay Turner has claimed Collins never received a tax bill, therefore could not have known taxes were owed. Collins and Turner did not return requests for comment.