Muskegon County committee adopts 2025 equalized valuation after presentation from equalization office

The Muskegon County Ways and Means Committee on April 15 approved a resolution adopting the county’s 2025 equalized valuation as submitted by the county equalization department.

The adoption follows a presentation from the county equalization director that showed countywide assessed value rose 10.8% while taxable value rose 7.9% compared with the prior year.

The valuation matters because equalized values are used to distribute property tax burdens and inform levy and budget calculations. The committee voted to adopt the full report, which the equalization office provided as a full narrative and data appendix.

Equalization director Ms. Vanderpries presented highlights from the hundred-plus page report and thanked her staff for their work: “We’ve had a lot on our plate, and we’re doing the Muskegon Heights reappraise over and processed with that.” She said residential values increased about 11%, commercial 6%, industrial about 9%, and agricultural about 6.5%. The office noted personal property was not included in those class percentage figures.

Ms. Vanderpries said the county’s aggregate gap between assessed and taxable value is 34% and that changes this year exceed the CPI (3.1%), in part because of new construction and “uncappings.” She described a forthcoming rollback process to address uncappings and said the state reviews county equalization results as part of its statewide equalization process.

The director also described a large solar project in Moreland that the office treated as personal property this year. She said the developer has applied for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes arrangement that, based on a per-unit calculation presented to the committee, would amount to $1,750,000 in total annual tax-equivalent payments; the county’s share was described as “over 20%.” The committee was told that a PILOT, if approved by the local unit, would be a level payment for 20 years and would not include the land value.

Committee members asked for clarification about the three-step assessment process — local assessment, county equalization and the state review of equalization — and the director explained that equalization’s role is to ensure uniform assessment at roughly 50% of true cash value and to apply factors where local units fall outside thresholds.

The committee approved the resolution by voice vote. The motion was moved by Commissioner Page and supported by Commissioner McWhiggin; Chair Nash was excused from the meeting.