BEND, OR -- Deschutes County property tax statements are now arriving in mailboxes and County Assessor Scot Langton says new line items can be confusing to the average homeowner. "We put an insert into each one of the property tax bills and it explains these changes, because taxes will vary depending on the wishes of the voters. So, if you’re in the Bend-La Pine school district, we just voted in a new $268 million bond; this is the first year that’s going to be on. So, the typical property, even though their assessed value went up about 3%, their taxes are going to go up about 5%." He notes that those in Redmond and Sisters will see taxes increase only about 1-percent, due to the expiration of the fairgrounds bond.
Langton calls the state’s tax system bizarre and complex, which he says leads to questions from residents. He tells KBND News there are, "A lot of misunderstandings about how it works. The one thing with value, when people look at their statement, that represents our opinion of market value as of January 1, 2017; so that was 10 months ago. Any of the market changes since then – and we’ve seen quite a bit of appreciation – won’t be reflected until next year." However, major damage caused by last winter’s weather is taken into consideration. "There’s a section in the law that allows for active of God adjustments. The ones that we’re aware of that had a significant amount of damage, we’ve adjusted."
Deschutes County property owners can bring their questions to Assessor’s Office staff at a series of town hall meetings, beginning next week:
- November 1 at 5 p.m. Deschutes County Services Building (1300 NW Wall St., Bend)
- November 2 at 5 p.m. Sisters City Hall (520 E. Cascade)
- November 6 at 5 p.m. Redmond Fire Hall (341 NW Dogwood Ave)
- November 7 at 5 p.m. La Pine City Hall (51340 Hwy 97)
