Benton County finance and assessment staff briefed commissioners on budget execution, system migrations and the legislative landscape July 16.

Finance said power‑BI reporting work will reduce manual Munis exports and improve departmental budget monitoring. Interim audit internal‑control testing was finished ahead of schedule; auditors will return in October for final field work and staff expect a draft set of financial statements then.

Assessment and tax administration teams described a July 1 migration to Helion/OrCats for tax and assessment functions and explained the current dual‑entry process: the county is entering transactions into both the legacy Ascend system and OrCats to validate results prior to full cutover. Staff said they plan to stop renewing Ascend in September to avoid roughly $185,000–$200,000 in maintenance fees and aim to complete the transition around the October tax‑roll certification window.

Assessment updates included staffing (about 16 FTE in the appraisal team, one frozen appraiser position) and several pending appeals. Staff reported two large utility appeals—Pacific Corp (deferred taxes about $1.8M) and Comcast (about $1.3M)—are pending at the state Supreme Court and could cause additional deferred taxes in the 2025–26 tax year if unresolved by October.

On legislation, assessment staff said House Bill 3518 — a bill that would have provided additional assessment funding (they estimate ~ $450,000/year for the department) — was killed late in the session after K–12 school districts declined to support it. Staff and commissioners said they will continue outreach to local school districts and AOC ahead of a possible short session reintroduction.

The meeting also included a brief CIP update: commissioners have a $1,000,000 allocation planned for an application process to fund department project proposals, with committee work to begin in August.