Marion County Supervisor of Assessments Mark Miller is sending out 7,529 Change of Assessment Notices on Thursday. He says the notices will go to owners whose property value has been re-assessed resulting in an increase or decrease in value. Miller says the number is up slightly from last year.
Those wishing to come before the Board of Review for the purpose of contesting the valuation of their property may pick up a complaint packet at the Supervisor of Assessments Office in the Marion County Courthouse. Any property owners, regardless of whether they received a change notice or not, can file a complaint. Complaint forms must be received in the Supervisor of Assessments Office during the period of November 4th through December 4th in order to be considered by the Board of Review. Any complaint form received after December 4th will not be accepted. For answers to any questions concerning the hearing process, you may call 548-3853 or stop by the Supervisor of Assessments Office in the courthouse.
Miller says for anyone receiving a change notice, before filing a complaint he encourages you to look at the notice directly under the “Reason(s) for Change” box at the top of the page where it will show your “2021 Fair Market Value”. Ask yourself if you believe this is a reasonable estimate of what you would consider to be a fair price if you were to sell your property. Miller says if you honestly believe your property is valued too high or too low, you may want to come before the Board of Review.
Miller has also announced that he will be placing an equalization on properties in the county due to the 2020 sale prices for properties being the highest in quite some time and averaging well above the 33.33% assessed valuation of property required by law. He notes 2021 has seen sales prices even higher than they were in 2020, creating an even greater deviation. The equalization factor will add 7-percent to the valuation to all property outside of Salem Township and 4.6-percent in Salem Township.
However, Miller notes the actual increase compared to tax bills paid earlier this year will be smaller because the state multiplier issued for the one year will be removed resulting in an actual increase of 3.2-percent over this year’s bills in all but Salem Township and .8-percent in Salem Township. Miller says the increase in property value will not necessarily increase property taxes. If taxing bodies do not increase their budgets when property assessments increase, the result is tax rates go down and there is little if any change to an individual tax bill. Miller notes that is what happened in 2020 as property owners experienced minimal changes to their property taxes paid this year. Miller says the same will be true for the tax bills you receive next year unless there is an increase in the budgets of taxing bodies.
The 7,529 Change of Assessment notices will be published in Thursday’s Centralia Sentinel and can also be found by clicking the link below:
