Superintendent explains county property reassessment, says individual tax impacts remain unclear

Superintendent Dr. Larimore told the Laurel School District board that a countywide property reassessment is underway and emphasized that the reassessment process and state law mean the district cannot yet determine how individual homeowners will be affected.

"The reassessment last time it was done in this county was 1974," Dr. Larimore said, noting the county reassessment will update assessed values across large parts of the tax base. He said legislators have required reassessments to be revenue-neutral so that total school revenue does not automatically increase with higher assessed values; that limitation, he said, shapes how any additional tax dollars could be used.

The superintendent described uncertainty for individual taxpayers. He used an example from the reassessment notices, saying a house in one example was assessed at $200,000 and the inspector described that as a roughly 3,000 percent increase relative to previous reported values; board members and members of the public said such headline figures can be alarming. One resident told the board she is "on a fixed income" and worried about how the reassessment would affect her bill.

Dr. Larimore and district staff said the district will wait until countywide numbers are final (the staff cited February as the month when clearer figures should be available) before making budget or referendum requests tied to reassessment results. He said the district will not pursue additional revenue for teacher pay until reassessment results are clear.

Next steps: the district will track county reassessment outputs and said it will communicate estimated impacts once county totals and adjustments are final.