Leesburg, Ga. (WALB) - Friday, April 24, the Lee County Board of Commissioners announced that they are working with the Department of Revenue, the Board of Tax Assessors, and their legal counsel to determine how to refund residents who paid $1.5 million more dollars than they should have in 2025 ad valorem taxes.

This discovery was made after the Chair of the Lee County Board of Tax Assessors, Philip Husain, was asked to review the previously set 2025 rollback rate after taking office in Dec. of 2025, according to the Lee County commission. Husain was not a member of the Board of Tax Assessors at the time that the 2025 rate was calculated.

Once he began his review, he informed the Board of Commissioners that there were “irregularities in the data used by the staff of the Board of Tax Assessors to determine the correct rollback rate for 2025,” also affecting the tax digest.

After they were made aware of the issue, the Board of Commissioners hired McCormick Solutions Inc. to review the records, and their findings were “consistent with Mr. Husain’s findings.” These errors resulted in residents overpaying for 2025 ad valorem taxes, the notice said.

Now, the Board of Commissioners said that they are developing a plan to “determine the best and simplest process to finally determine the amount of property tax refund due to each Lee County taxpayer, and to distribute those refunds in an orderly manner.”

The Board of Commissioners said the refunds will be sent out “as soon as legally possible.”

You can read the full notice below:

WALB has reached out to the Board of Tax Assessors for an interview and will update this story once more information is available.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Copyright 2026 WALB. All rights reserved.