On the agenda for tonight's finance committee meeting at Evansville City Hall is the following item:
"New Business:A. Motion to recommend to Common Council disallowance of Claim for Excessive Assessment at 566 Vision Drive.
"Some years ago, I had the pleasure of speaking with our former assesor, and asked her about this matter. I said;
"If one can assume that value goes up and down, what are the obligations of the assessor to review or reassess a property if due to flood, or adverse happenings, the proerty value goes down---there appears to be no interest on the part of the government, the banks, the mortgage secondary market, the insurers,....or anyone...to reassess a property lower. Where is the imputus to reassess lower."
She paused for a moment,....then replied:
"'An assessor has an ethical obligation to reassess lower---it is part of the ethical obligations of the job"
To which I replied:
"Good. I look forward to seeing it."
Stay tuned. Finance meets tonight at City Hall.
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If houses in one part of the city have been damaged by a flood, then yes, they clearly should be reassessed. If everyone's houses have decreased in value roughly the same percentage, then it would be a waste of time and money to reassess everyone, because it would have no impact on anyone's property taxes. The property tax rate is determined by the tax levy (total dollars) divided by the total assessed value of all property in the city. If the assessed value of all property goes down by the same percentage, the total tax base goes down, the rate goes up, and everyone ends up paying the same amount. Similarly, if all houses increase in value about the same percentage, increasing the assessments has no impact on how much property tax anyone pays. There are only two things that can affect your property tax: the property tax levies set by the local governments during their budget processes, and a reassessment that changes your houses value differently than most other properties in the same jurisdiction. If you want to pay less in property taxes, focus on the local governments' budgets and levies, not on the assessments.
ReplyDeleteBill Connors
Former Evansville City Administrator