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Board weighs moving property reassessments to every two years; staff estimates $450k–$600k annual cost
Summary
Staff told supervisors that shifting Montgomery County from a four-year to a two-year reassessment cycle could improve uniformity of assessed values; staff estimated establishing an in-house operation would cost about $450,000–$600,000 annually (with one-time startup costs above $1 million) and said a public hearing is scheduled for the next meeting with a potential effective date of Jan. 1, 2030 if adopted.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 12 held a work session on changing property tax reassessment frequency and whether to perform reassessments in-house. County staff presented comparative information from Roanoke and Orange counties and estimated Montgomery could operate an in-house reassessment program for roughly $450,000 to $600,000 per year, depending on whether some positions in the commissioner’s office are reclassified or remain in place.
Terry, who led the presentation, said Montgomery County currently conducts reassessments on a four-year cycle and has about 43,731 parcels (83% residential as of Jan. 1, 2025). The staff estimate for an in-house operating budget is "somewhere in the range of $450,000 to $600,000 annually," though Terry told the board that one-time startup costs were not included in that figure.
When asked, staff said the one-time implementation costs exceed $1,000,000 and that those figures and staffing needs would vary depending on which existing positions are moved into an in-house office. Staff suggested a possible staffing model of a director, an administrative person and four assessors, with two positions possibly drawn from the commissioner’s office.
Board members probed how inspections would be handled under a two-year cycle. Terry said counties like Roanoke and Orange increasingly rely on improved imagery and mapping technology and that the plan would be to review each property in a two-year cycle; the extent of physical inspections would depend on staffing and process design.
Staff said a public hearing on an ordinance to change reassessment frequency is advertised for the board’s next meeting. If the board votes to adopt the ordinance and integrates it in the upcoming budget, staff said the change could be effective Jan. 1, 2030.
Supervisors raised fiscal concerns about doubling operating costs compared with the county’s current contractor payments (currently a little under $1,000,000 paid every four years), and asked staff to provide more precise startup figures, detailed staffing scenarios and comparators for coefficients of dispersion. No final action was taken; the board will hold the public hearing and could decide on the ordinance at the next meeting or at the first February meeting.
