Consolidation process under review

“County officials are looking to streamline the property assessment process by consolidating all assessors and their staff into a single countywide department.

A plan discussed this week by the county Board of Commissioners could create a county assessing department comprised of about 75 employees. The savings from that move would depend on how many cities and townships participate in the attempt to end duplication.

“Taxpayers of this county won’t be paying twice for services,” said county Commissioner Don Brown, a leading advocate of the plan. “We need to streamline government wherever we can.”

Under the current property tax system, local assessors keep tabs on properties and real estate sales on a daily basis in their municipality and annually determine the rise or fall in assessments across the community based on a 1-year sales study.

Those assessment rolls are then reviewed and analyzed by the county’s 10-man property equalization department to determine if the valuation process, according to state law, was conducted uniformly across the county.

Under the proposal, the Equalization Department would handle both phases of the annual process. Equalization Director Steve Mellen estimates that a department of 60 or 65 assessors would be needed and an overall work force, including clerical staff, of about 75. Most, if not all, of those workers would consist of township employees who would move up to the county level.”

http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2010/04/29/news/doc4bda49b021edc101403252.prt