After paying their 2009 property tax bill, Duchesne County property owners may have been shaking their heads over the amount their homes, businesses and land were valued at this year.

Assessor Greg Garff said that is understandable because the assessed property values for 2009 do not reflect the rapid economic downturn that has gripped the nation for almost a year now.

2009's property tax payments were due Monday, Nov. 30. Property owners received their tax disclosure notices in July, but the value of the property was determined months before, in late 2008 and in January 2009, Garff said.

In accordance with state law, Garff’s office uses figures from the sale of property prior to Jan. 1 to help determine the assessed values for the upcoming year. Although foreclosures and declining property values are not as dramatic locally as they have been in other areas of the state, there is a marked difference from the county’s property values of late 2008 — the time it was being valued for tax purposes — compared to July 2009, which is when tax disclosure notices were mailed.

“We're looking at the sales that we can find on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) or other sources for the first quarter of the year trying to see a trend and making some preemptive adjustments to match that,” Garff said. “If it shows that we're going down, we're going to stay as close to the statutory level as we can, but on the low side.

“Statutorily we're required to keep our values between 90 and 110 percent (of fair market value) with 100 percent being optimum. This year I'm looking at 90 to 91 percent as the number I'm trying to keep it at.”

Garff is currently working on the 2010 property tax roll. He aid he does anticipate that taxable values will likely be lower next year because of the continued decline in the real estate market.

“We're starting to see more foreclosures which is going to drive the values down. We'll be trying to make those adjustments for next year, all indications are that those values will be going down,” Garff said.

However, Garff noted that lower property values don’t always mean that property taxes will decline. “Each taxing entity is allowed to collect the same dollars as the previous year, so the tax rate goes up,” he said.

Another factor in the formula that determines property tax rates is centrally assessed property such as utilities and large companies — which pay a large share of the county’s property tax bill, but mainly when business is good.

“If centrally assessed property rates go down faster than locally assessed values it shifts the tax burden to individual property owners,” Garff said.

When it comes to disputing property tax assessments, the time is past, at least for this year’s assessment. In fact, complaints about 2009 property tax assessments should have appealed months ago. Board of Adjustment hearings were held the week of Sept. 3. The dates and times scheduled for the hearings are advertised on tax disclosure notices that are mailed in July. By the time the final property tax bill is mailed in October, it is usually too late to appeal.

“At this point, unless there's an error on the county's part or some circumstance why they couldn't come in, we're not making any adjustments,” Garff said. “We can talk any time about values if we need to for next year, though.”
For more information on property tax assessments, call Duchesne County Assessor Greg Garff or his staff at (435) 738-1110.

Duchesne property assessments
 
Type                      2008                               2009
   
Residential       $518.2 million              $579.7 million  

Commercial         $78.6 million                $99.8 million