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Somerset County officials explain revaluation, warn of "sticker shock" and overlay effects
Summary
County staff described a recent revaluation that bundled multiple years of market growth into a single update, raising both land and building valuations; commissioners pressed on how state rounding, overlays and educational-service allocations raised Somerset taxpayers' share despite little change in the county budget.
County staff detailed why property tax bills in parts of Somerset County rose after a recent revaluation, saying the assessment reflected several years of market growth applied in one update.
"We often refer to it as the sticker shock because it's multiple years of inflation that happens in one shot," Speaker 2 said, explaining the office separates land and building values, uses national construction-cost guides to set replacement cost, then applies depreciation based on condition.
The presentation noted the unorganized territory (UT) mill rate has three components: county services, state services (the same across UT counties) and a county tax portion. Staff said…
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