Assessing Value...

Jim Rooney, Assessor

Mission: "Our mission is to create equitable, timely and accurate property tax assessments to fund public services. We will strive to be a source of accurate and timely property information for local government and the community."

Link to the Assessor's Website

Phone: (209) 223-6351
Assessor's Email

For those that have already felt the sting of depreciation, there may be some relief on the horizon. The Amador County Assessor's office is reporting that property taxes may be lowered because of property value declines.

The Amador Ledger Dispatch reports in Reassessing your property values:

With a decrease of property values over the past year or so, the Amador County Assessor's Office is in the process of reviewing and reducing some assessments throughout the county and we are also receiving numerous inquiries about the reduction of assessments.

The key word here is "some". It is not likely in the county's best interest to have mass reductions in assessments being that they receive a large portion of yearly revenue from property taxes.

However, we are obligated to reduce assessments when the assessed value of a property is greater than fair market value.

The issue then is to provide evidence that your property has in fact lost value since your purchase. My suggestion would be to do all that you can to assist in this process. Hire your own appraiser and push the Assessor's Office to examine the results.

A family member of mine that lives down in the Stockton area has lost a bit of value in her home. She asked for the county to reduce the assessment based on the market conditions. Their response was that there were no reliable comps in the area to support her claim. She responded that there have been multiple foreclosures and that there are comps from FC purchases and bank buy-backs. Their reply was that foreclosures do not count toward comp values.

Amazing that FCs seem to affect everything else prompting so much government action to help and bail out the banks, but they don't affect your tax rate. Maybe if you worked for Citi Bank, MBIA, or AMBAC you could get a break.

Expect the Assessor's Office to drag their feet on this, but keep pushing.

Assessment review requests may be submitted to the assessor's office at any time. Requests for assessment review that are received between July 2 and Nov. 30 will be reviewed for the current tax year. Requests received between Nov. 30 and June 30 may be examined for the next tax year.

Like with most things in the government, these time frames make no common sense. Strange how there is a 5 month window in the middle of the year that is applicable to the current tax year, but there is a 7 month window (including the first 6 months) that is applicable to the next tax year. Does that make sense?

In any case, the best advice is to keep pushing and make a lot of noise. Be the squeaky wheel and demand that grease!

So, give Jim Rooney a call and let him know that you also support "equitable, timely and accurate property tax assessments".

More Taxes...

The general idea of government is fairly consistent: when revenues increase (like when a boom in housing brings in more taxes) create new expenditures in order to burn through this new surplus. But, when revenues decrease, the opposite does not occur - the budgets rarely get cut. Instead new "fees" (taxes) are created to fill the gap because of the shortfall.

The Calaveras Enterprise is reporting one of these increases that California is planning for all current homeowners. The idea is that they cannot count on taxes coming through your property tax, because...well, your homes are depreciating and there are so many vacancies now that they are not reaping the harvest that they used to. So, instead of trying to budget appropriately like any common citizen would do, they need to increase revenue in order to cover their mismanagement.

They know that they cannot raise your property tax - many people are fighting the current valuations that the county has assessed in this depreciating market. But, they figure the best way to collect on a large scale would be to insert a fee or "surcharge" - not on the value of your home - but on your insurance policy. That way they will be sure to get it.

Leave it to California politicians to increase the tax on your house, without increasing the tax on your house.

Nice - here is the link. Calaveras Enterprise: Governor proposes new Cal Fire fee for 2008-09

Take It Higher...

Well, here is a bit of news that should not take anybody by surprise. All that building and prosperity has a price.

The Calaveras Enterprise is reporting that CCWD mulls higher water, sewer rates.

When the county "mulls" over raising prices for water and sewer, they are not just musing and noodling around with the idea; they are beginning the PR campaign to allow the constituents plenty of time accept reality before it is initiated. In other words, they are going to raise prices.

They are "debating" the plan that "would raise base water rates from the current $22 a month" to "$39.50 per month" "at the end of five years". Wow! If you calculate that over 12 months, then you are going from $264 per year to $474.

Sewer charges will also be raised from the current $45 per month to $67.50 over the same 5 year period. That is going from $540 per year to $810 per year.

For water that is about a 79% increase and for sewer it is a 50% increase. Wouldn't it be nice if they could just keep up with the rate of inflation instead of going through these kinds of spikes?

Ah, what's a couple hundred extra dollars in today's get rich in real estate market? Ask any realtor and they will tell you it is a seller's market and always a good time to buy. Hurry, there are few properties at this price...and other clichés...ad nauseam.

Well, I think there is a key toward the bottom of the article:

Like all other special districts, CCWD receives a portion of property tax revenue from all county land owners, even if they are not district customers.

That property tax revenue is used to offset operations - costs that otherwise would be covered by monthly rates.

As explained at Thursday’s meeting, the reliance on property taxes will be decreased by 5 percent each year over the next five years.

The revenue would go into a fund that could be used for major projects that have more of a countywide impact, such as protecting water rights.

Is this an indicator that the county understands that property values are decreasing and future development won't bring in the tax dollars that they had once projected? Hmmm...I wonder.