Archive: News

Tompkins County’s countywide property revaluation next year, increasing values to 100 percent of fair market value, is projected to produce an increase in the local municipal tax base.   Assessment officials maintain, however, that the revaluation will not be responsible for tax rate increases for local taxpayers.

Tompkins County Director of Assessment Valeria Coggin states that, while the revaluation in the third year of the County’s triennial revaluation cycle is projected to produce an increase in the tax base for local jurisdictions in the range of 10 to 15 percent, that does not mean that  taxpayers will see their tax bills rise by that amount.  Absent a taxing jurisdiction increase in spending as part of its budget, the increase in tax base would offset an increase in tax rate.

“Our office has received a number of inquiries concerning recent statements about the upcoming revaluation, and we welcome this opportunity to provide information about what the reassessment will mean for property owners” says Coggin.  “We want to stress that it is not property assessment that causes tax bills to increase, but rather spending decisions by taxing jurisdictions.”

New York State real property tax law mandates that all properties must be assessed at a uniform percent of market value each year.  In 2006, the County Legislature approved the triennial revaluation schedule, as an alternative to annual reassessment.  In a triennial cycle, only in the third year are assessment changes made to ensure that all properties are assessed at full market value.  In interim years changes are made to assure that all properties are assessed at a uniform percentage of market value, known as the Level of Assessment.  For the 2006 assessment roll, all assessments were based on a 90 percent Level of Assessment, and in the 2007 roll at market value multiplied by a Level of Assessment of 85 percent.  The Level of Assessment for 2008 will be 100 percent of fair market value as of July 1, 2007.

The triennial revaluation cycle does not prevent a property from experiencing an assessment change in the interim two years.  “The County did not and cannot mandate what has been incorrectly called an ‘assessment  freeze’,” Coggin stresses.  “That is not permitted under law.  In 2006, the County switched from annual reassessment to the triennial cycle, but still preserved the equity on the assessment rolls by assessing all properties at uniform percentage of value in the interim years between revaluation.”

In its budget process, a taxing jurisdiction establishes the tax levy - the total amount of tax revenue needed to balance the budget.  The tax rate is determined by dividing  that amount by the total assessed value in the assessing unit, with the rate stated as a certain amount per thousand dollars assessed value. “While a property’s assessed value typically follows a trend in market value, the assessment increase generates an increase in taxable base, which in turn should lower the tax rate,”  Coggin states. “Bringing values up to 100 percent next year will provide property owners with equity, transparency and fair distribution of the overall tax burden.”

The Assessment Department is posting information and forms on their website at http://www.tompkins-co.org/assessment