According to Summit County Assessor Stephanie Poll, the market value of properties in Summit County jumped by $17 billion in total this year.
That’s an increase of 37% in one year, and it beats last year’s market value increase by $5 billion.
With property values growing, and at a faster rate, property taxes are also growing.
County Auditor Cindy Keyes, whose office processes property value appeals, said it’s been an unprecedented year for appeals.
“We are very behind,” Keyes told the Summit County Council Wednesday. “We have two people in the office, so we're severely understaffed.”
She and Chase Black, the two auditors, have been processing as many appeals as they can and bringing them all to the Summit County Council for approval. They’ve received over 1,000 appeals already.
On top of that, the auditor’s office has been using a new administrative system to process appeals. Keyes said they will likely ask for another employee to help them next year.
“We just had no idea that we would be hit as hard as we were this year and just have the volume of appeals that we had,” she said.
To ease the administrative burden in the short term, Council Chair Roger Armstrong said the county will look into hiring a temp worker.
“I've asked the county manager to meet with them and see whether we can accommodate that,” he told KPCW.
There’s money in the budget for another person, but training them will be more work on top of the mountain of appeals there are to process.
And the mountain could still grow: the deadline for residents to appeal their valuation is Sept. 15. The appeals process is detailed on the Summit County Board of Equalization’s website.
Residents who do not receive an appeal decision by Nov. 30, when taxes are due, should pay the taxes as billed. Otherwise, interest may be added.
