“Kern’s Property Valued At $84 Billion For Coming Fiscal Year”

Pursuant to new legislation effective January 1, 2011, the Kern County Board of Supervisors, on May 3, 2011, approved the Assessor’s request to provide value notices to owners of real and personal property via the County website instead of mailing printed notices.

Property owners can review their value notices at http://assessor.co.kern.ca.us/propertysearch/index.php. The notice can be located by either parcel number or address.

Property owners without access to the County website can obtain a printed value notice by calling the Kern County Assessor’s office at 661-868-3485, or by writing or coming into the Assessor’s office located at 1115 Truxtun Avenue, 2nd floor, Bakersfield, CA 93301.

Kern County Assessor-Recorder, Jim Fitch, announced today that his Office has determined the taxable value of Kern County property for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011 at $84 billion dollars. This total, for fiscal year 2011-2012, represents an increase of approximately $2 billion dollars or an approximate 2.5% increase in property values. Typically, property tax revenues are one of the largest sources of revenue for counties, cities, special districts and the schools so this increase is especially good news here in Kern County, our cities, and special districts that are dependent upon property taxes. While many economic indicators are still depressed, and other tax revenue sources have decreased, property tax assessments have increased here in Kern County for the last two years. The County’s share of property tax dollars will be close to $336 million dollars, an increase of approximately $8 million dollars for all necessary County services.

Again, oil and gas assessments are up significantly. These properties increased in value by approximately 1.6 billion dollars. This increase was primarily due to investments in new construction. Most of our oil and gas properties are at the Proposition 13 Base Value, and taxes are paid on this base value, even though the market value of these properties is a great deal higher. Kern County remains the largest oil producing county in the State, with an estimated 70% of all of the State’s reserves.

Agricultural properties will see an increase in their Williamson Act restricted values. These properties have not been reviewed the last few years, due to the volume of work required to ensure the residential properties values are correct. These properties are valued based on the income capability of the property. Due to recent large increases in rents and commodity prices, the Assessor is required to make these adjustments. Overall, the Williamson Act property is still a good bargain for our farmers. The average farmer’s restricted value is 40% less than their base value, and well below the market value of their properties.

Wind energy properties saw an increase in their assessments, based on new investments in wind parks. These properties went up in value by close to 600 million dollars in assessed value. Next year, we could realize close to 3 billion dollars of additional investment, and over a short period the total assessment could approach 7.5 billion dollars here in Kern County.

Assessor-Recorder, Jim Fitch, stated that his office once again reviewed almost all residential properties in Kern County, approximately 200,000, and will be lowering the value of over 80,000 residential assessments for this year. He noted that his staff has been very proactive in assuring that residential property owners have a correct value and pay no more in property taxes than the law allows. He noted, for many of these property owners, this will be the fourth straight year of value reductions. These reductions represent a decrease in the assessment roll of approximately 750 million dollars. Over this four-year period, these reductions represent an average savings of just under $1,000 annually in property taxes to affected homeowners. The latest reductions will be reflected on tax statements mailed by the Kern County Tax Collector in late September.

Jim Fitch urged property owners to contact his Office if they feel their valuation is not reflective of market value for January 1, 2011. Fitch added his Office is committed to ensuring all property owners pay no more in property taxes than what is prescribed by law. He also reminded homeowners it is not necessary to contract with or pay outside companies for a review and possible reduction of value as his Office is very proactive in lowering these values when warranted.

Fitch concluded by stating he is proud of his staff for the diligent efforts they made to close this assessment roll timely in a year in which we processed another record-breaking amount of work.

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Check for foreclosure notices and tax liens:

http://recorderonline.co.kern.ca.us/cgi-bin/osearchg.mbr/input