The Phelps County Assessor’s Office will see $20,000 slashed from its state-reimbursed assessment-maintenance fund this year and expects $40,000 in cuts next year.
As a result of Gov. Jay Nixon’s plan to reduce state expenditures by more $200 million in the 2010 fiscal-year budget, state office-holders are beginning to feel the pinch as they perused the latest expenditure restrictions imposed by the state near the end of October.
For County Assessor Kevin Rasmussen, the additional budget cuts add insult to injury.
“The state has been underfunding us for several years,” Rasmussen said. “The parcel count they use is based upon 2006 figures.”
In 2006, the parcel count for Phelps County was 22,308. For 2009, the count is 22,485.
The State Tax Commission formerly partially reimbursed counties $6 for every parcel of land that was assessed, with a short-term minor adjustment to $5.99. The latest reduction in assessment-plan reimbursements lowered the amount to $4, with the cuts retroactively imposed on counties’ third-quarter expenditures.
Rasmussen said actual per-parcel, assessment-maintenance expenses amount to $28.48. Assessment maintenance includes the actual assessment, pricing new construction projects, assessing all personal property in the mobile-home count and keeping parcel ownerships current.
“I can’t change what I’ve already spent,” Rasmussen said.
“Laws mandate we do re-assessments every other year. It takes months and months to do these.
“Each time the state mandates something that is not funded, it just puts more of the burden on local government,” Rasmussen said.
