BAY MINETTE, Ala. — More than 13,000 Baldwin County property owners have filed property tax appeals and state officials have extended the deadline for filing.

By 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Baldwin County Revenue Commissioner Phil Nix said 13,300 appeals had been keyed in and an estimated 800 appeals remain to be processed.

The deadline to appeal was 5 p.m. Friday. Nix said Wednesday he learned the Alabama Department of Revenue has extended the deadline at least through this week.

“People can still file an appeal if they fill out an affidavit saying they didn’t know about the deadline for appeal or that they did not get appraisal notices,” Nix said. “I am sure the number of appeals will go up.”

Al Thompson, who chairs the Baldwin County Board of Equalization, said  said all appealers will soon receive appointment letters setting up informal meetings between appraisers who reviewed the properties and the owners.

Property owners have the option of discussing their case over the phone, sending written documentation or meeting in person.

Following the informal hearing, an “approve” or “disapprove” letter will be mailed to property owners who have the option to present their evidence to the BOE for consideration.

“We plan to start the BOE hearings in early February but it’s too soon to tell,” Thompson said. “If we have 12,000 or 15,000 appeals our number one priority is a fair and impartial review of each property.”

Thompson said the BOE  is capable of reviewing about 3,000 cases per month. An informal review two weeks ago indicated about 45 percent of the protests were generated by property owners in Pleasure Island.

The BOE heard about 12,000 cases last year, not including one appeal from the Fairhope Single Tax Corp., which combined more than 2,900 appeals. More than 18,000 appeals plus the FST parcels were filed in 2008.

Many cases were resolved in informal hearings or dropped by land owners before BOE hearings, Thompson said.

While appeals are down from last year, Thompson said many property owners are experiencing “sticker shock.”

He said significant parts of the county were not appraised for six to 10 years and property owners may think values should have gone down as a result of a sluggish economy. He also said property owners may not realize tax bills  reflect the previous year’s value.

“The appraisal department got so far behind, and it was compounded by a stagnant economy,” Thompson said.

Nix said appraisals were not neglected for years and were completed on a timely basis. He said some mass appraisals involved factor applications, while adding dates required individual keying.

“We might be updating a whole neighborhood and apply a value over several parcels,” Nix said. “That might change a base number in the neighborhood, but didn’t change the appraisal dates.

“We would have to go to each record and change  it. What we were doing were hundreds at a time.”

Property owners who filed appeals do not have to pay taxes until the BOE makes a ruling.

Terry Wilhite, a spokesman for the Baldwin County Board of Education, said Friday the delay in receiving funding was a major concern for the financially strapped school system.

“This delay in revenue could not have come at a worse time when we are facing unprecedented financial woes in the school system,” Wilhite said. “But we are encouraged that the appeals are down from last year.”