Assessor’s Notes

By Richard Tregnago

Randolph County Assessor

At this time of year a few questions or misconceptions about the county assessor’s work arise. Some people believe the assessor’s office mails the statements and collects the property taxes. In third class counties, such as Randolph County, the county collector has the responsibility of preparing and mailing the tax statements and collecting the revenue.

The assessor and his office staff are a major component in establishing the appraised and assessed values which are a part of the collector’s tax statement. The other component is the levy applied to the assessed value by each taxing jurisdiction. The assessor and the collector do not set the tax amounts determined by the certified levy of each entity. Those levies are set by a budget approved by the Board of Directors of each district, such as a school board, or a city council, which approves their levy in August after a public hearing. Each board member is voted on to the board by the voters of that district, so, in reality, the voters of each district are annually represented by the action of the board or council.

Countywide, for 2010, there are 30 taxing jurisdiction, and any tax statement may have at least six taxing districts accumulated. Some have more districts per statement, depending on where you live, for personal property assessment, or, where the real estate is located. Currently, the individual taxing jurisdictions have authorized levies that range from 0 to $4.7618 for each assessed value.

Following is an example of the above discussion:

If you own a vehicle that had a trade-in value for January 1, 2010, of $9,000, then the assessed value is 3,000. If you lived in town of Higbee, your personal property tax for that vehicle may be $197.90 (the total combination of levies is $6.5967/$100 assessed). If you resided in the rural area and are in the Westran School District, then, that same vehicle assessed value of 3,000 would generate a tax bill of only $135.15 ($4.5049/$100 assessed) or about 32% less that in town Higbee.

The assessor’s work is to value this vehicle at 3,000 assessed, regardless of who owns it, or where it may be taxed, or, how much the levies may total.