Newton spoke strongly on what he said were flaws in the system, saying pressure from residents and local governments will make property tax issues dominate the upcoming state legislative session.
"The mass appraisal methodology doesn't work in coastal counties, and the laws need to be changed," said Newton, who called for "alternatives to mass appraisals" that wouldn't penalize long-time residents.
County officials have weathered some criticism since last year's reassessment from residents who complained about what they saw as an unfair and error-stricken process of valuing property.
Like many other counties, Beaufort County uses the mass-appraisal process to reassess properties. Mass appraisal relies on computers to analyze voluminous data on an area's land and buildings, including recent sales prices, then assigns new values to properties based on the computer's comparisons. Assessors don't personally inspect each lot and house.
A review that The Island Packet conducted of about 1,000 properties in southern Beaufort County turned up hundreds of inconsistencies and abnormalities in last year's reassessments. Many involved beachfront properties, where some lot values skyrocketed by as much as 800 percent.
"The harsh reality of appraising 106,000 parcels every five years is that some human error will happen," Newton said in his remarks, a written copy of which was provided to The Packet. "However, numerous mistakes and flaws within the process are unacceptable, and I offer you council's commitment to working to fix them for future reassessments."
Newton said the priority for the county's new chief assessor, Ed Hughes, is to resolve appeals filed by owners who think their property was assessed too high and "the correction of neighborhood anomalies in land valuation."
Hilton Head Island Mayor Tom Peeples came out strongly in favor of a measure proposed by state senators to eliminate personal property taxes for school operating costs by increasing the sales tax by 2 cents.
Peeples pointed out that the current sales tax was enacted to go toward schools, but state lawmakers kept tapping the money for other uses.
He said increasing the tax should be done through a constitutional amendment that dedicates the money to education only so the state can "keep (its) own filthy hands off of it."
Newton said the state should allow the county to consider school impact fees for homes and businesses.
The state should use wages instead of property taxes in determining the county's ability to pay education costs. Too much money is being taken away from local schools and used elsewhere in the state, he said.
Bluffton Mayor Hank Johnston restated the town's position in favor of point-of-sale updates for all property assessments, along with increases to reflect inflation for properties that don't change hands.