Commissioners review plan of assessment

Thayer County Assessor Karla Joe presented the annual plan of assessment to county commissioners as they rounded out the first half of 2012. The plan, representing assessment plans for the next three years, summarizes parcel count and valuation.

According to the report, the uniform standard for the assessed value of real property for tax purposes is actual value, which is defined by law as “the market value of real property in the ordinary course of trade.” In all there are 6,146 parcels of owned land in Thayer County valued at $911,102,309.

While residential property represents 46 percent of owned parcels of land in the county, valuation amounts to only 12.41 percent of the total or $113,034,495. Agricultural land is where the bulk of the county’s value lies; representing 45.5 percent of land ownership, the rich black soil makes up 83.22 percent of the total valuation or $758,223,903. The rest is made up of commercial ($30,674,987), industrial ($7,980,918) and recreational ($1,188,003).

The assessor’s office personnel consists of the assessor, the deputy assessor, a full time clerk and one part time staff member.The assessor and staff actively participate in the appraisal process, Joe said and added, “We’re doing most of the physical labor now, so our budget is going down.” An outside appraisal firm, namely Stanard Appraisal Services Inc., handles most commercial parcels, the complex pick-up work, and statistical analysis, Joe said.

The Plan of Assessment is kept on file at the Thayer County Clerk’s office.

Thayer County Is Doing Okay

Thayer County continues to show improvement in taxable sales. According to the Nebraska Department of Revenue, net taxable sales have increased by an average 17 percent for the first three months of 2012 over last year’s sales. February 2012 showed the biggest increase (26.1 percent) over a year ago.

For January 2012, net taxable sales were $2,468,819 or 14.1 percent over January 2011 ($2.164,385). For February 2012, net taxable sales were $2,604,437 compared to $2,065,704 in February 2011. For March 2012, Thayer County had $3,270,487 in net taxable sales compared to $2,945,526 in March 2011.

Hebron, the county seat, has also experienced an increase in net taxable sales in the first three months of the year. For
January 2012, the city showed $1,387,887 in net taxable sales; an increase from $1,159,786 in January 2011. In February, the city had $1,391,326 in net taxable sales; an increase of 17.9 percent from a year ago. And in March 2012, Hebron collected $1,810,749 in net taxable sales; an increase of 13.3 percent over March 2011.

The Department of Revenue releases figures approximately three months later than the actual month being profiled. April’s figures should be released this week.