Taxpayers will see higher bills

By A.K. Dugan, Lebanon Express writer

The total taxable property value in Linn County for 2008 is $7.4 billion, up about five percent over 2007. The 2008 taxable value in Lebanon is $772,804,609, an increase of 8.63 percent over 2007. The increases reflect a 3 percent rise on existing property plus new value from new residential, commercial and industrial development.

Tax revenue for taxing districts in Linn County is up and most property tax bills will be too.

Lebanon residents will pay about $4.8 million in taxes to the city. Slightly more than $10 million in taxes will go to Lebanon Community Schools.

The consolidated tax rate in the city of Lebanon for 2008 is $22.1315 per $1,000 of accessed value; in rural areas outside Lebanon it is about $15.9 per $1,000.

The consolidated tax rate includes all taxing districts, which, in the city, is the city of Lebanon, Linn County, Lebanon Community Schools, Lebanon Rural Fire, Linn-Benton Community College, Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District and Lebanon Aquatic District - including the permanent rates plus bonds and local option levies.

City taxpayers also will see two urban renewal districts on their tax bills, the Northwest Lebanon URD and Cheadle Lake URD, but those rates are not added into the consolidated tax rate, said Mark Noakes, Linn County assessor. Instead, URDs draw tax revenue away from other taxing districts.

Property owners outside the city do not pay city taxes but may pay taxes in any of the three water districts near Lebanon or pay the forest timber surcharge on treed land in rural areas.

Taxes on individual tax accounts sometimes are adjusted in a process called compression because of two ballot measures passed in the 1990s. Compression is calculated separately for each property.

From Measure 5, every property tax account is limited to a rate of $10 for general government plus $5 for schools. Bonds aren't included in the limit but local options levies are. Those rates are multiplied by the real market value in a tax account to get a Measure 5 tax bill.

Measure 50 established assessed values - lower than real market value - for all properties; and mandated that assessed values can rise only three percent a year unless improvements are made. The actual tax rates (in the table) are multiplied by assessed value to get a Measure 50 tax bill.

If the Measure 50 tax bill is greater than the Measure 5 bill, the tax rates for all districts on that account are compressed down to the Measure 5 limit.

The city is losing $38,549 in tax revenue from compression this year, about $10,000 more than in 2007, on the 6,453 property tax accounts in the city.

Noakes said assessed values are about 30 percent less, county wide, than market values this year. When real market values decrease, taxes on most residential properties are not compressed.

Recent drops in real market value are not reflected on 2008 tax bills because the assessor's office values property as of Jan. 1. The big declines in value hadn't occurred at the beginning of the year.

"A lot of things have happened in the last nine and a half months," Noakes said. "Decreases this year will show on next year's tax bills.

Tax bills will be mailed Oct. 24. The first installment of tax payments are due Nov. 17 because the usual due date - Nov. 15 - is a Saturday. The second installment is due Feb. 15 and the third on May 15. Taxpayers who pay the full bill on Nov. 15 receive a discount.

Tax rates and related information may be found online at www.co.linn.or.us/assessorshomep/docs/Taxsum2008.pdf.