Alabama Property Tax Collections are UP????

...that's what an online story by The Birmingham News reports today.
It's only a small part of the story, but the 13.8% increase jumped out at me.

• Home values have plummeted just about everywhere...
• Foreclosures are abundant...
• Sales are almost uniformly down...

How can property tax collections be UP compared to last year? Virtually all other taxes are down...even cigarette tax collections are down!

Isn't this an example where our controversial  every year appraisals should be working for us?