The Assessor's Duties

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The Assessor is charged with several administrative and statutory duties; however, the primary duty and responsibility is to cause to be assessed all real property within his jurisdiction except that which is otherwise provided by law. This would include residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural classes of property. Real property is revalued every two years. The effective date of the assessment is January First of the current year. The assessor determines a full or partial value of new construction, or improvements depending upon the state of completion as of January First.

Misconceptions About the Assessor's Role

The Assessor does not:

• Collect taxes
• Calculate taxes
• Determine tax rate
• Set policy for the Board of Review

The Assessor is concerned with value, not taxes.

Taxing jurisdictions such as schools, cities and townships, adopt budgets after public hearings. This determines the tax levy, which is the rate of taxation required to raise the money budgeted.

The taxes you pay are proportional to the value of your property compared to the total value of property in your taxing district.
 

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©2006 Woodbury County Information and Communications Commission