If you own a home in California, chances are the assessed value of your property just dropped.
County assessors statewide are releasing this year's property tax rolls — the total assessed value of all properties in a given county — and most are lower than last year.
Sacramento County's tax roll dropped nearly 2.2 percent to $128.8 billion. Yolo County's is down about 1.9 percent. And El Dorado County and Placer County both saw the value of their taxable property drop more than 6 percent.
The falling values represent good news for many homeowners, who will see lower property tax bills this October.
However, the second straight year of shrinking tax rolls is another blow to local governments that rely on property tax revenue to fund programs and services.
"It's a significant hit," said Mike Applegarth, a principal analyst in El Dorado County. "It translates into people (losing their jobs). It takes people to deliver services."
Last year marked the first time most counties saw property tax rolls drop since voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978. That's because the market value of many properties dropped below the assessed value. In such cases Proposition 8 — a tax measure passed as a companion to Proposition 13 — requires assessors to temporarily lower the taxable value of properties until the market value climbs again.
Market values have continued to plummet, and as a result, most county assessors have continued to lower the taxable value of properties in their region.
To read the complete article, visit www.sacbee.com.
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