Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada County To Go Through Reassessment

All property in Nevada County will be reassessed within the next two years, with property taxes being changed accordingly.

According to Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown, the reassessment is being done by state mandate under Acts 440 and 836.

Brown said Act 440 went into effect in 1998 and will set the market value of the property being assessed, both real and personal.

The county has hired a company to do the reassessing, but this will cost $408,000. The hiring was done through a bid process, as the county advertised bids on the job.

The company will be paid from revenue the taxes generate with those who receive these funds picking up part of the tab based on how much they get.

The three school districts in the county, he said, will pick up the lion's share of the fee as they get most of the money from the property taxes. Each district, Brown continued, will be billed based on the amount it receives.

"It irritates me," Brown said, "the state makes these decisions and the county has to pay for it."

Once the reassessing begins, he said, it will take about two years to complete. According to state regulations, one assessment will be done in 2001 and another again in 2004, with assessments to be done every three years thereafter.

The purpose of Act 440, Brown said, is to compensate for the difference in the value of homes from when they were first built to now, with the new assessments being done at today's market prices.

Under Act 440, if the assessment ration for market-value real estate, business personal property or individual personal property is outside the range of 18 percent to 22 percent; or if the weighted coefficient of dispersion for the real property is more than 20.00 counties are considered to be out of compliance.

In Nevada County, Brown said, this ratio was 24.5 percent.

This issue has also been addressed by the Nevada County Quorum Court.