Marion County Supervisor of Assessments Mark Miller says the Governor’s declaration of Marion County as a disaster area will result in property tax breaks for homeowners who had their homes damaged.
He says his office is required to re-assess all of the damaged properties.
“If your property is impacted by this disaster whether it’s a small amount of damage or a total loss, I need to be notified. We are going to go out and reassess that property and lower that assessment on it and leave it like that for the rest of this year. If at the end of the year, you have had it repaired and back to full value then we will put it back up but if not we will leave it until such time as you are able to get it repaired.”
Miller says for those who had their home destroyed a natural disaster homestead exemption is available.
“I’m going to rebuild right here and rebuild a new one. Well, obviously the new one may be worth $90,000. We will still keep the value at $60,000 going forward even after it’s rebuilt we would keep it like that until they sold or moved out of the property.”
And for those who had damage, a home improvement exemption is available for any improvements made above just repairing the damage. The exemption would cover the difference between the current assessed valuation and what the new assessment would be with the improvements.
Miller says the goal is to have homeowners rebuild or make improvements within the tornado zone.
He noted due to the work of the Salem Emergency Management Agency they have a list of 39 residential and business properties that received damage or were destroyed in the City of Salem. But he notes the help is available to those outside the city limits where information has not been gathered.
Miller is encouraging those who have damaged property from the tornado to contact his office at the courthouse for more information and assistance.
