Residents of local fire districts are finding that the way the county calculates their taxes certainly doesn't keep time with the current economic climate.
Homeowners who have received tax bills from the Mayer Fire Dept. have been unhappy with the appearance the taxes have gone up. Black Canyon City Fire Chief Tom Birch said he hasn't heard about any calls, but he knows any raises are because of the way the county figures its property taxes.
Mayer Fire Chief Glenn Brown said the tax rate for his department is the same as it has been for several years - $3.25 per $100 of secondary assessed value, or approximately $325 for a $100,000 home. Birch said his department's tax assessment also has stayed the same at $3 per $100 of assessed value.
Brown said the county figures taxes on assessed valuation of two years ago, which was much higher than it was before the economic downturn.
"So what people are experiencing is that the real value of their property is going down, due to the economic downturn, however, tax values are still going up because they are from two years ago," Brown said.
The same situation, however, is set to cause the fire departments some real headaches in the coming two years, as they expect tax revenues to drop as much as 20 percent per year when the recession catches up in tax calculations.
"This will mean that most property owners will see that same kind of reduction in their tax bills even though our tax rates should stay close to the same over the next two years," Brown said.
Both Brown and Birch say their departments face a tough couple of years ahead as they try to provide service to growing communities on dramatically less tax revenue.
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