Property tax
Last weekend, I met a resident, who told me that his tax bill did not go down a lot despite the fact that his property value went down after County’s last assessment.
This led me to investigate the issue and get me in touch with folks who have been following this closely. If you are one of them, here is what you will need to know.
From the public record, it appeared that the resident had a total reduction of about 18% in his property’s assessed value. This is in line with the case of the most north College Park residents had assessment reductions of about 22-32%.
We looked at the resident’s tax bill BEFORE the Homestead Credit is applied, and found that his property taxes went down a lot. In 2012 his tax bill, before Homestead Credit was reduced by more than $600. The lower assessment was just enough to wipe out virtually all of the Homestead Credit. At the end, his tax bill did go down about $77, though not much.
On top of that, there is a new tax residents will have to pay. This is the Chesapeake Bay new tax of $41. Plus the City’s net tax increase of about $15 from the tax rate increase also worked to limit his tax reduction.
That said, the resident’s tax bill last year was definitely on the low side, as most City residents had tax bills over $3,000 last year.
Please let me know if you have any questions.