The 2020 Pierce County Valuations were released this past week by the Pierce County Assessor, with numbers bucking the statewide trend of increases, with Pierce County at least, seeing a decrease of near $21.5 million in overall valuation.
Each year the Pierce County Assessor values property – real estate, personal property and centrally valued – to provide valuations of properties for taxing agencies to then set their levies for requested funding for the next year. The Assessor, for the real estate properties, generally finds the amounts by taking the past three years of available sales information and finding the mean of those figures, and then values all similar property with that figure, after the percentage modifier as set by the state.
In basic language, the valuations are derived through a mathematic formula based off the past three years of sales of similar property.
That said – the overall Pierce County overall number dropped by near $21.5 million this year, falling closer to the $1.91 billion than the $1.932 billion that was recorded last year. Though that number dropped, likely for a lack of agricultural land sales in a high dollar fashion, the Assessor did attribute growth for an increase of $12,997,195 this year – a number to attempt to show new growth that added into the figure.
Agricultural land sales for the past three years help dictate the majority of that valuation, and whether there be less sales, or sales that go for lower amounts in recent years, was enough to cause that number to begin to fall locally.
In the coming weeks, those taxing agencies will begin publishing their budget hearing notices, which is the public’s second chance to request changes to their tax rates. The first would be by protesting their individual valuations, and the second will be these budget hearings, which are public meetings, where the public can come give comment on the amount of funds each taxing agency is requesting.
Those notices will be published as the dates draw nearer, but taxing agencies are required to have their budgets turned in by September for approval at the County Commissioner level, a third level for the public to comment if desired.
In addition the evaluation below, the full numbers can be found on a chart near this story.
City of Plainview sees increase
The City of Plainview did receive a modest increase in valuation this year from mainly residential and commercial property inside the City limits, of $586,091, nearly all of which was attributable to growth.
The Assessor marked the “new growth” figure at $574,801 for that increase, meaning that nearly all of the added value came from new construction or betterment projects, not an increase of overall property value.
The City of Plainview’s total valuation settled at just more than $47 million at $47,371,681 of total taxable value.
School takes $5 million dip
Plainview Public School’s District #5 was noted for a $5.11 million drop in overall valuation for its total for this year.
At a special Board of Education meeting on Monday, Dr. Darron Arlt mentioned to the Board committee for the budget that he had initially prepared for them a zero increase across the board for expenditures, which would result in a little higher valuation this year to make up for the $5 million loss in overall valuation.
The Plainview School District has area in Pierce, Knox and Antelope Counties, so to find the total, those three totals must be added together for the district’s final number.
In total, the Board of Education will have a total valuation of $709,847,305 for this year’s consideration of their budget.
The largest decrease for the school this year came from Antelope County, where property value went down around $4 million in the school’s area. In Pierce County the value dropped by about $1 million and in Knox County the value went down $136,394.
Last year’s figures for the school were a total valuation of $715 million.