LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: If you are a property owner, you need to know about this
Taxes are not something we鈥檙e taught about in school, and yet whether you are a business owner or a homeowner, one thing is for sure 鈥� it affects us all.
This writing is for those who are interested in learning more about their property taxes.
To test someone鈥檚 knowledge, just say the words 鈥渕il rate鈥� and see how quickly everyone鈥檚 eyes glaze over. It sounds boring 鈥� it鈥檚 rather complex 鈥� and yet it鈥檚 one of the most important actions I take as county assessor. It is also the reason people are ready to 鈥渂lame the messenger,鈥� so to speak when they get their tax bill in the mail.
As your assessor, it is my sworn duty each year to report to the state of New Mexico the total value of all property in Bernalillo County. As a property owner, whether it鈥檚 a home or business, we鈥檙e talking about all property 鈥� including buildings and structures, livestock, fields, farms 鈥� everything. My office sends the final valuation for Bernalillo County to the state. As of Jan. 1, the total value of property in Bernalillo County was more than $23.3 billion.
So why should we care about this when most of us simply accept what our annual tax bill says and pay it? The answer can be found in what the taxes collected on that $23.3 billion in assessments pay for. Taxing entities like the city of Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, the University of New Mexico, school districts, soil conservation districts and so on create their budgets to operate and provide vital services such as police and fire protection.
In basic terms, property valuation is like putting a price tag on your home or other property so taxes can be calculated fairly. Not every home or business is worth the same amount, so all taxes are different. Your value and taxes are not the same as your neighbor next door or across the street. Think of the mill rate as the multiplier used to determine how much property tax you pay. Every taxing authority sets a mill rate based on the amount of money each entity needs to operate. Then, we add up the mill rates from every taxing authority to get a total mill rate. Now taxes for every property can be calculated.
A simple example: The city鈥檚 mill rate may be 8 and the county鈥檚 mill is 7 and UNM has a mill rate of 5 and so on. Those numbers are added up to get a total. So, if the combined mill of all taxing entities is 20, then $20 will be charged for every $1,000 of a property鈥檚 taxable value. If your property鈥檚 taxable value is $100,000, your property tax bill, in our example, would be $2,000.
Basically, if the mill rate rises, so do property taxes. If the mill rate drops, taxes should follow suit and decrease. This is where the difficulty lies, because we all want our property to be worth more, but that means as time goes by and mill rates also rise, property taxes will go up to ensure we receive the government services we deserve, trust and need.
This is why assessments and updates never stop. Getting the most accurate information to the state so that Bernalillo County taxpayers only pay their fair share is vitally important.
Hopefully this Assessor 101 was of help so that you understand that taxes are not arbitrary and are based on real numbers from real people who are property owners just like you.
Damian Lara is the Bernalillo County assessor.
