Oakland County approves new standard assessing contract rates after heated public comment

Oakland County—inance Committee on April 23 approved a new standard contract and three-year rate schedule for county-provided real and personal property assessing services after more than two hours of public comment and a 5-3 vote.

The vote implements a uniform per-parcel rate structure, with an option for communities to choose a smoothing (deferred) payment schedule. The county—FO, Brian Loeffler, and Equalization Officer Michael Lohmeier told commissioners the change is intended to reflect the actual cost of providing assessing services, including salaries, benefits and an indirect-cost allocation derived from a MAXIMUS study used across county departments.

Why it matters: municipalities that contract with the county for assessing services said the proposed increases were larger and came later in the budget cycle than they expected. Officials from Pontiac, Madison Heights, Huntington Woods, Wixom and other cities, villages and townships told the committee they had little time to absorb the sudden cost increases during their municipal budget work and warned the changes could force some jurisdictions to drop county services or reduce local services.

The county said the new rates align previously inconsistent charges across jurisdictions and reflect years of underpricing. Loeffler said the equalization team performs work that some private contractors would charge additional hourly fees to handle (including representation before the Michigan Tax Tribunal), and that the county had been subsidizing costs for decades.

Public comment and concerns

Speakers across more than 20 municipalities and several government and union representatives urged…