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Assessor says House Bill 3940 will add thousands of manual review hours to tax work for 2026–27
Summary
Lane County’s assessor told commissioners that House Bill 3940 (2025 session) will require manual reevaluation of over 15,000 accounts and add an estimated 6,000–7,000 hours of work to an already stretched assessment and taxation staff, affecting 25 rural fire protection districts.
Mary, Lane County’s assessor and tax collector, told the board that legislation from the 2025 session — cited in the meeting transcript as House Bill 3940 — creates substantial new workload for the assessment office.
Mary said the bill will require manual reevaluation of more than 15,000 accounts because changes to fire patrol assessment thresholds and tax-code area updates cannot be fully automated. "House Bill 3940 alone adds an estimated 6 to 7,000 hours worth of work on an already shrinking workforce within assessment taxation," she said, and noted the county supports 85 taxing districts and 25 rural fire protection districts that rely on the assessor’s work to reflect the statutory changes in the 2026–27 tax year.
The assessor told the board that the work cannot be fully automated given the complexity of the changes and urged the commission to recognize the staffing implications and the timing pressures as the county finalizes tax-year computations.
Why this matters: Assessment and taxation staffing and timing directly affect tax bills, collection, and how quickly districts (including rural fire districts) see the fiscal effect of legislative changes. The assessor's estimate indicates that the county will need to allocate staff time or other resources to meet the statutory requirements in the coming tax year.
Next steps: Commissioners asked staff to consider the workload in their January budget follow-ups and to include assessor staffing needs in forthcoming budget scenarios.
