The Township’s role under the Michigan State property tax law is largely an administrative function. The tax is historically levied on 50% of the value of property and it is the Township’s responsibility to determine the value of each parcel of property that is located within its boundaries. The Township performs this task through the “Assessor” who is specially trained to apply various standards of valuation to make a determination of the value of a parcel and to subsequently assign an “assessed value”.
Assessing services are provided through a contractual agreement with Ottawa County. Ottawa County Equalization Director Brian Busscher serves as the Township Assessor. Assessing Division Manager Thad Pepper is the primary point of contact and is available at the Township Hall on Tuesday mornings from 8:00am to 12:00pm or by appointment.
The Ottawa County Assessing Division can be reached at 616-846-8262 during customary business hours or via email to assessing@miottawa.org.
The valuation of land and calculation of economic condition factors are performed annually by the assessor’s office. These rates and factors are integral to quality assessments and are used to adjust assessments to the local market. If you have questions regarding the interpretation or use of this data, please contact the assessor’s office.
A person who is unable to pay property taxes by reason of poverty may apply for exemption provided they meet the federal income guidelines and pass the asset test defined in the following resolution. If you meet the defined criteria, please return the application, and required attachments to the assessor’s office. If you have questions on the application, please contact the assessor’s office.
Summer Tax Due Date: September 14th
Winter Tax Due Date: February 14th
The classification of 401 indicates that the property is residential and improved, meaning that there is a building or structure of some type on the property. The classification of 402 would indicate that the property is residential in nature and vacant, without any type of structure on the property. All vacant land shows a 402 or 102 classification. The guidelines for the classification of property are clear and defined within the Michigan General Property Tax Act. A purpose of classifying property is for the Assessor to properly group properties for mass appraisal purposes.
The traditional Assessed Value (AV) is still required to be 50% of market value. County Equalization Studies indicate the rate of increase that should be applied to each class of property each year. These studies are done over a 24-month period, using actual sales within the township and comparing them to actual assessed values in the same year.
If the Assessor does not comply with the ratio indicated in these studies and does not reach the goal of a 50% ratio for each class, then the township will be factored. This factor would increase each property’s AV within the class that does not conform to the regulations. This new “factored” number would show up under the STATE EQUALIZED VALUE (SEV). Currently the SEV and AV are the same number. The effort of the Assessing Department staff is to ensure that these two numbers continue to match year after year.
Sometimes referred to as “capped value,” Taxable Value is still a relatively new word created and signed into law in 1994. It is now the basis for property tax levies in Michigan. In 1995, Taxable Value equaled the 1995 Assessed Value as a basis for the beginning of this Act. From that point on, the Taxable Value has increased by the CPI “rate of inflation,” as determined by the State of Michigan, or 5%… whichever is less (+ any new construction) and may not exceed the Assessed Value. When the property transfers ownership, the Taxable Value is uncapped for the next year and increased to equal the next year’s Assessed Value. The Assessor is required by law to increase the Taxable Value as described above.
To review the assessment roll. However, they may only change individual parcels, not entire groups or classes of property. This board is also responsible to listen to protests and decide on the validity of such protests.
Since 2002 the Michigan State Tax Commission has used a 14-point review process as a mechanism to evaluate the compliance of local units with the requirements of the General Property Tax Act and the State Tax Commission rules.
More than 50 local units are chosen at random each year for this review. Blendon Township has not yet been chosen for the review, but will at some point have to do this. Blendon Township is making an effort to bring the assessing department into compliance. If the Township is found to be non-compliant when the State does this review, the State will mandate that the Township become compliant and this could potentially come at great cost to the Township.
Part of this effort includes measuring and sketching properties for which the Township no longer has a property card. The Township cannot account for the missing cards; our new Assessor has discovered these cards to be inexplicably missing from our files. Nonetheless, Blendon Township is responsible for recovering the information that was on those property cards that at one time were used to establish their assessments. Therefore, we will conduct a Field Audit beginning in September 2007.
Part of the Township’s effort includes hiring a part-time, temporary field auditor to help gather the missing information and to confirm the accuracy of other information. Starting in September 2007, you might see the Township Field Auditor measuring your house or barns. The Township will try to give advance notice of the Auditor coming to your house.
There are also other efforts being made internally to become compliant with the State before Blendon Township is chosen for the 14-point review.
No one knows. Every year the Local Units are chosen by random selection at the State level. It could be next year, it could be in 5 years, we don’t know. But there is no doubt, the Township will be audited at some point.
There will be no additional mills levied to pay for the part-time temporary field auditor.
This audit will not affect your taxable value or increase your tax rates unless there is “NEW CONSTRUCTION” from the past few years that has been missed and left off the assessment roll. The new assessor has already identified several properties with just such a problem. Most property owners already knew they were not paying enough taxes to account for their new houses, and many tried to remedy this through the previous assessor. We believe that most, if not all houses left off the assessment roll have already been identified and remedied.
Any changes that you have made to your house – – new dishwasher, carpet, or the like – – do not affect your taxable value. The Township is only looking to confirm the information that should already be on the record card (i.e. square footage, year built, etc).
If you believe your “NEW CONSTRUCTION” house or barn or addition has not been put on the assessment roll, please contact the Blendon Township Assessor for verification. Between the Township records and the Ottawa County records, the Township can verify if there was any “NEW CONSTRUCTION” put on the assessment roll as a result of a building permit taken out. If your house, barn or addition has been left off the assessment roll, correcting this will increase your taxable value.
If you come to the Township to report your house or barn or addition that you think might have been left off the assessment roll, the Township will add this to the assessment and the tax rolls for the “current” year and move forward from there.
If you decide not to inform the township of your house, barn or addition and it is found by the Field Auditor, the Township will be obligated to put the “NEW CONSTRUCTION” on the assessment and the tax rolls for the “current” year and also for the 2 previous years.
The general fund budget is an organized financial plan projecting the revenues and the potential expenditures for those township operations that may be reasonably expected for the fiscal year.
The fiscal year is a period of time amounting to one year of financial accounting, and because it may not coincide with the actual calendar year, it is designated a fiscal year. It is the fiscal year that marks the time frame of one budget period. Blendon Township begins a fiscal year on April 1 and the fiscal year ends on March 31.
NEED UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION
The Township General Fund Budget is based primarily upon the millage levy granted to the Township by the County Tax Allocation Board and the revenue received from the State of Michigan by the Township for “Constitutional Revenue Sharing.” The budget expenditures are generally balanced to match these revenues. The formulas that provide these revenues are not under the control of the Township Board, but rather the State of Michigan and Ottawa County.
The amount of an annual tax bill that contributes to the general fund will vary greatly from one parcel to another due to the large variances among parcels in valuation and taxable value. A typical home in Blendon Township with a market value of approximately $206,000 would probably have an assessed value of $103,000 and might have a taxable value of approximately $77,000. Currently the owner of such a home would pay approximately $74 of their total annual property tax to support the general fund of the township.