Who we are and what we do:
Someone has ruefully noted, “The Assessment & Taxation Departments
are a county government’s greatest political liability and its greatest
economic asset”. Klamath County has 74 taxing districts and 16 special
districts for whom fifty-seven million dollars ($57,000,000) in property taxes
and fees will be collected and to whom that money will be distributed in 2008-09.
The purpose of the “ad-valorem” property tax system is to provide
a financing mechanism for local governments such as cities, school districts,
fire districts, park districts, vector control districts, road districts, cemetery
districts, sanitary districts and special districts.
While county government is among those local taxing districts that receive property
tax revenues, only 14.5 cents out of every dollar assessed (14.5%) is for the
Klamath County General Fund. In effect, most of the work we do is on behalf
of all the other taxing districts in the county and the patrons of those districts.
The Assessor’s Department is organized into two sections:
The Technical Support Section led by Rafael Hernandez, Office
Manager;
The Appraisal/Sales Data Section
The Technical Support Section is comprised of the following positions
and responsibilities:
Two Mobile Home Techs: In addition to customer service, this
team handles all the traditional assessment functions such as moving permits
and the creation and maintenance of assessment records, plus all the functions
of titling and registration that were formerly the responsibility of the Department
of Motor Vehicles.
Two Data Entry Techs: In addition to customer service, this
team enters into the assessment computer system all the data from the reappraisal
of ten thousand existing accounts. They also create new accounts from the appraisal
of three thousand and more new properties and buildings per year. They are also
in charge of the various exemption programs including the all important veterans’
exemptions and senior citizen deferral programs.
Personal Property Tech: In addition to customer service, personal
property returns and equipment lists must be prepared and mailed to four thousand
business accounts each year. Each business must file a confidential personal
property return each year that must be reviewed for changes and accuracy, and
processed into the assessment computer system.
Senior Cartographer: In addition to customer service, maintains
the over 2,000 assessment maps by computer drafting all segregations, partitions
and subdivisions. The cartographer works closely with County Surveyor, Planning
and Information Technology departments.
Cartographic Tech: In addition to customer service, thousands
of deed records and other recorded documents must be reviewed each year to track
owners and their addresses for each of the 70,000+ accounts; this person also
reviews deeds for correctness, and enters all changes into the assessment computer
system.
In addition to the statutory requirements of each position,
the Technical Support Section is responsible for responding to the telephone
and public counter inquiries on a wide variety of assessment topics.
The Appraisal/Sales Data Section is comprised of the following positions
and responsibilities:
A team of three appraisers handles the following:
a) Residential/Urban Appraisals & Segregations—one-sixth
of the county (an average of 12,000 properties) is reappraised each year as
well as all new parcels created by segregation, partition or subdivision, and
all new residential construction.
b) Agricultural/Forest/Rural & Special Use—an extensive
part of Klamath County is made up of agricultural and/or forest lands on which
four separate values must be maintained and up-dated, and all of which come
under special assessment provisions.
Commercial/Industrial appraisals—an extensive inventory
of commercial and industrial properties must be appraised and reappraised each
year. One appraiser specializes in this category of properties with part-time
help of the Chief Appraiser.
Sales Data Analyst—collects, collates, verifies and analyzes
all sales in the county each year. From this data a Certified Sales Ratio Report
book is produced that sets the property value ”trends” for each
year. The Sales Data Analyst also specializes in the reappraisal of manufactured
structures (mobile homes).
Chief Appraiser—supervises all the above appraisal responsibilities,
checks for accuracy and is a commercial/industrial specialist.
“Ad-valorem” means “according to value”. Since property
taxes are assessed “according to value”, accurate real market values
are all-important. Market value directly determines the amount of taxes assessed
against a property for about 10% of the property accounts in Klamath County.
It indirectly determines the amount of taxes of all other accounts by determining
the “change property ratio” by which the “Assessed Value”
of all other new properties is established. Additional reasons for maintaining
“Real Market Value” under Measure 50 are presented in the section
“Reasons Why We Need To Maintain Real Market Value”.
Since it is not feasible to physically appraise each of the 71,000 total property
accounts every year, mass appraisal techniques have been adopted statewide.
This involves appraising a limited number of properties each year and using
area sales to adjust the prior years’ value of those properties not reappraised
via the “trending” program based on the sales ratio study. State
law requires that the assessor’s office make every effort to adjust the
real market value of every property to as close to “100 percent of real
market value” each year as is possible via the mass appraisal process.
Some properties are exempt from taxation, such as government buildings and property
or that of charitable organizations. Some properties are assessed at less than
market value such as farm or forestland. There are over 40 such statutory programs
the assessor’s office administers.
It is the responsibility of the appraisal staff to determine the taxable status
of each property. Appraising new construction is obviously a priority since
new properties add new value, which add new revenue for each taxing district
under Measure 50. Over three thousand new accounts were appraised last year.
Once values are established questions often arise as to the accuracy of the
appraisal. This can be done by requesting an appraisal review at the assessor’s
office, by appeal to the Board of Property Tax Appeals or to the Oregon Tax
Court.