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Blendon Township is pleased to offer an online tax and assessment information service provided by BS & A Software. This free service allows access to township tax information and assessment data. This research tool will allow you to research tax and assessment data in Blendon Township without the necessity of calling the assessor or front desk.  Click here to access this valuable service.*
* Please note that Blendon Township is currently in the process of entering all building data into the online data system. The data currently found on the system may not be complete.

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One of the mandatory duties of Township government is the management of property assessments.  In Blendon Township the assessment responsibility has been assigned to a professional Assessor.  The Blendon Township Assessor is Melissa Koster. 

Melissa is a Level III Certified Michigan Assessment Enforcer and brings many years of experience with her.   Melissa began working for local government in 1988 in the City of Walker and subsequently began working in the office of the assessor.  In 1993, Melissa took a position as an Assessor with Laketown Township in Allegan County, where she worked for two years.  Melissa began working as the Grand Haven Township Assessor in 1995 and continued working in that position until 1999.  She left that position to become a stay at home mom for her three children.  Melissa accepted the position of part-time Assessor with Blendon Township in September 2005.

Duane Keeling - Blendon Township Assessing Field Auditor
Blendon Township has contracted for the services of Duane Keeling to assist the Township Assessing Department with a comprehensive field audit. Duane is a Level I Certified Michigan Assessment Officer. He has been working in assessing for about 12 years. He first met his wife Betty (a Level III assessor in Kent County) while they were working on a township reappraisal. Duane's job for that project was to enter all the property information into a computer program...and he estimates he entered 175,000 bits of information that winter! For the next several years, Duane was responsible for field work in the townships for which they had assessing contracts in Lenawee and Hillsdale County.

 

The Blendon Township Field Audit Process

The Michigan State Property Tax Act requires that the stated valuation upon which a property tax millage rate is applied be uniformly fair and equitable. Simply stated, you should not be paying more tax for your parcel than others would be paying with similarly improved parcels. 

As is the case for all tax assessing units of government, Blendon Township is required to keep accurate records of each parcel which clearly demonstrates the current state of its improvement so that each parcel is treated in the fairest and most equitable manner.

Unfortunately, during the period of time marked by the previous decade, the records of the Township were not kept up to date.  The current state of our files will not satisfy the requirements of the State Tax Commission. We will be using Justin Smith’s expertise to help bring the records in the Township Assessors office into compliance with the provisions of the Michigan State Property Tax Act.

The State Tax Commission will audit local units of government to test for compliance with the requirements of the law.  During a 14 point review the State Tax Commission will review a sampling of Blendon Township’s parcel record cards.  If this review process reveals the records of the Township to be out of compliance, the Township may be required to do a more extensive audit and reappraisal of all parcels.

The items of current concern for Blendon Township in regards to compliance issues are listed but not limited to those set out in the points below: 

1.  Does the true cash value on the Appraisal Record Card agree with the True cash Value indicated by the Assessed Value on The Assessment Roll?

2.  Did the appraisal record cards properly account for all physical items located on the description?

3.  Is the Township in substantial compliance with the uncapping of taxable values the year following the transfer of ownership?

4.  Does the Assessment Roll for the current year reflect new construction?

If you would like further information regarding the field audit process, see the Frequently Asked Questions page of this web site or feel free to contact the township office.