FAIRHOPE — “Our first heads-up came when lessees got their notices and began coming in saying, ‘Look at this!’” said Larry Thomas, Fairhope Single Tax Corp. president.

The volume of calls are significantly more than usually happens, and the calls are still coming in, he said, adding their advice to the lessees is to “Hang in there and file.”

Thomas said he talked with one lessee Monday morning who has yet to receive his appraisal but filed an appeal anyway — last Friday.

A number of the calls are lessees with double- or triple-digit increases, but Thomas added that some callers say they are just fine with their appraisal.

“I am sure some of the appraisals are fine but certainly not all, and time was running out to file,” Thomas said explaining the Single Tax Corp.’s Aug. 9 letter to the Baldwin County Board of Equalization, requesting a blanket hearing on all parcels owned by the corporation.

“Traditionally, lessees file their own appeals, but we did this out of concern for them,” he said.

According to the letter, the corporation has about 3,000 parcels that comprise roughly 4,400 acres in and around the city. The letter also protested “all of the increases in excess of 25 percent.”

Last year, the FSTC paid almost $2.7 million to the county. “The lessees pay their rent to us, and their rent is based on the county tax,” Thomas said. “Our function is more concerned with land value than improvement (due to the single tax theory); we collect exactly what the county does.”

State Rep. Joe Faust has discussed the issue with FSTC, Thomas said, “but the solution to this problem, we feel, will involve the state,” which is the reason copies of the letter were sent to Tom Surtees, Alabama Department of Revenue commissioner, as well as Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Phil Nix.

“The county revenue office has been very cooperative with us,” Thomas said. “Sometimes, there are just mistakes — human error.”

The FSTC has developed a software program that is compatible with the one used in the county revenue office, Thomas said. When they receive their bill on disk, they import it into their software application, which automatically compares last year’s appraisals with the appraisals of the current year. “We can review parcel by parcel and see any changes that took place over the year, increases or decreases,” Thomas said.

“We are waiting to get our bill now. We have to have this to go to the next step in the matter,” Thomas said. “We are expecting it any day.” It had not arrived as of press time.

The FSTC board also sent a letter to all their lessees reminding them that the appeal process involves both land and improvement values, but the FSTC will only appeal land values appraisals, if deemed necessary.

They also expressed strong concern about the increases in property taxes, stating they had voted to pursue the matter.