Annual Coaster Ride Coming For Benton County Property Owners

Property owners in Benton County (and around the State for that matter) will find out over the course of the next week, or so, if they will get tax relief or have to shell out more in property taxes.   The Assessor's Office announced the annual Change of Value notices are set to be mailed to property owners...let the hand wringing begin.

Depending on who you talk to (and I've talked to a lot of property owners over the last few years) you've gotten an earful about how much the value of their property has increased.  Some people have told me their property value has gone up 300% over the last couple of years.  Others have told me theirs went up 100% in one year.  An increase in property value is one correlation to an increase in the amount of property tax you pay.

Why Your Property Value Goes Up

It's a pretty simple formula but it has a couple parts to the equation:

• If you do improvements to your home (putting on an addition or remodeling your kitchen) that will increase your property's vale.
• If properties in your neighborhood sell for a higher than assessed value, it could cause values to increase for all properties in a certain radius.
• Increases to already approved or the addition of levies and/or bonds that are voted on by residents.

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Benton County has seen it's share of property value increases over the last 5 years.  When the interest rates dropped during COVID it became a buyers market, leading to properties selling for significantly higher value.  That drove up assessed values and increased property taxes.

A Point of Clarification

Don't get mad at the wrong person.  I'll admit, I did at the beginning of all this, until I did my research and learned quite a bit about how this dynamic works.  I was under the wrong impression that the County Assessor was where this began and ended.  He is carrying out what he is charged to do under State Law.  The Assessor (currently Bill Spencer in Benton County) doesn't set the tax rate or arbitrarily determine how much you'll pay in property tax.

In 1975 the Legislature passed a law stating that property tax be tied to 100% assessment ratio.  In English, that means your property valuation by the County Assessor should be the same as the fair market value of your home.  Maybe that wasn't always adhered to, but over the last number of years they've been getting as close as possible.  It isn't an exact science which is why some property owners have been on a roller coaster that last few years...one year up, the next year down, then up again.

Can You Fight It If Your Property Tax Increases?

Yes, and there is a process laid out for how to do that but the success rate isn't high.  You have to show that the data points used by the Assessor's Office were flawed in your case.  You'll have to present a fair amount of evidence to the Board of Equalization showing the data points were flawed.  You also can't do whenever you want.  You must file a petition by July 1st of the current assessment year or within 30 days of the date on the Valuation postcard you get in the mail from the Assessor's office.