A team of Alabama Department of Revenue analysts will meet Monday to begin a review of 63,000 parcels along the Eastern Shore and central Baldwin County as part of a comprehensive property tax appraisal project.

The ADOR move follows a Sept. 12 order removing Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Phil Nix from supervision of appraisals after more than 18,000 appeals were filed by property owners protesting tax bills which will be due Dec. 31.

Another factor in the state assuming control of assessment of properties is a report issued earlier this year critical of appraisal methodology in Baldwin County, and cited an appraisal staff which lacked training, supervision, tools and equipment to do their job.

Nix maintains the ADOR used skewed data to generate the report and that his department is following state guidelines and recording accurate appraisals for the county’s 135,000 taxable properties.

State and county appraisers will meet at 8:30 a.m. Monday in the Baldwin County Central Annex Building in Robertsdale to create appraisal teams and initial work assignments, according to a Sept. 21 memorandum sent to Nix by Bill Bass, director of the ADOR property tax division.

Nix said Monday the review will include Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope, Central Baldwin south to the Elberta area. The assessments will be valid for the 2008 property tax cycle and will not affect 2007 tax bills.

Nix said those areas already have been reviewed by his department as part of the 25 percent review established three years ago.

“We have no written plan yet from the state,” Nix said. “We still have 16 percent of the county not looked at in four years that is due this year as part of the 25 percent yearly review.

“Now, the state said to look at areas we already have done. What about the 16 percent that has not been looked at? We are waiting for a firm plan.”

The Baldwin County Commission is expected to meet Wednesday in a special meeting to approve hiring 10 to 15 temporary data entry clerks to input property information compiled by the teams.

Nix said 10 teams reviewing properties may collectively generate 1,000 reports per day that must be keyed in the next day for continuous state review.

Coupled with soaring insurance rates and policy cancellations in high-risk areas, the six-fold property tax bill increase from last year caused an uproar in Baldwin County which reached statewide notice.

Nix said Monday the state’s mandate that properties should be assessed between 98 percent and 102 percent of fair market value was against the Alabama Code and unfairly taxed property owners.

“I am adamantly opposed to the practices the state has required my office to follow and which results in the intentional over-appraisal of property, Nix said.”

He said the state’s 98-102 ratio guidelines “caused us to over-appraise 39 percent of the properties” in Baldwin County and is forcing property owners to pay more than fair market value.

Nix said 3,000 parcels sold in 2007 were within 94 percent of assessment values.

“We are supposed to be at 98 percent,” Nix said. “If we go into an area that is 94 percent and need 98 percent, we must apply a trending factor. Then other properties in the neighborhood will be over-valued.”

Nix has asked District Attorney Judy Newcomb to review the state code. She was not immediately available for comment.

Nix said he also is considering hiring an independent firm to check his methodology and spot check properties.

The state order also includes supervision of informal meetings with tax protesters and appraisers. Nix said as of Friday, 520 property owners had been contacted. About 260 canceled their appeals after being satisfied with explanations of their bill or a changed tax bill; 302 will continue to the Baldwin County Board of Equalization hearings and 40 have been contacted, but not returned messages.

The BOE will hear appeals while informal hearings are being conducted and the process may filter into 2008, Nix said. If an appeal is active before the BOE, no taxes will be due until the case is concluded and no late fees will be added.

Meanwhile, State Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Orange Beach, said Monday there were no firm plans for Gov. Bob Riley to call a special legislative session in October to address property tax issues among other tentative agenda items.

“The governor has reservations about a special session,” McMillan said. “He felt if the legislature was not ready to work, it would be a waste of money.”

However, McMillan said he has received public input about returning to a four-year appraisal cycle or maintaining annual appraisals with a percentage cap.

“I haven’t talked to other legislators in the state, and we have not sat down and discussed it with other members of the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation, but the annual appraisal idea with a cap has been well received by the public.”