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Questions About Fayette County's
Revaluation Will all properties be revalued, even those that were recently appealed? Who is performing the Update process? Will my taxes go up? Questions about Fayette County's Revaluation Why is Fayette County conducting a property revaluation update? The County is committed to keeping its assessment records current. This in turn ensures that current market conditions, as well as improvements to properties and/or deterioration of properties, are taken into consideration in placing market values. The continuing effort of having an up-to-date assessment system ensures that taxpayers pay only their fair share of taxes. Will all properties be revalued, even those that were recently appealed? Yes, the County has revalued all properties with a new base year of values of 2009. Property owners that may have filed appeals from 2003 to present will also see a new valuation; however, every effort has been made to incorporate information gathered at their previous appeal in setting the new value. Who is permorming the Update process? Current county assessors are performing this “in house” reassessment update. The county had previously utilized the mass appraisal firm of Cole, Layer & Trumble in the 2003 effort. CLT has a small role in this update, assisting with computer models and software. However, it was the local assessment office personnel who performed the vast amount of the work. An independent review of the data was performed by Resource Technologies Corporation of State College to assure its accuracy and completeness. RTC utilized the county’s GIS (Geographic Information System), or computerized tax mapping, as a base for neighborhood comparisons. The goal of the program is to assure that property owners are treated fairly and that no one pays more than his/her fair share. The project is “revenue neutral”, which means the taxing bodies, i.e County, Municipality, and School Districts, can collect no more after the revaluation than they did before. Individual property owners may have their tax liability go up or down, based upon their new valuation, however, the total taxes collected by the taxing bodies will remain the same. As in 2003, the school districts reduced their millage rates from an average of 65 mills to an average of 12 mills, a similar adjustment will take place in 2010 although not as dramatic as values are now going from 2003 to 2010, and not 1958 to 2003. |
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