{"id":5970,"date":"2015-10-19T10:52:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T17:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/?p=5970"},"modified":"2015-10-19T10:52:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T17:52:17","slug":"why-i-like-property-tax","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/why-i-like-property-tax","title":{"rendered":"Why I Like Property Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day, I received a dreadful phone call at work. It was my neighbor. \u201cBrent, there\u2019s a fire truck outside your house.\u201d
\nI raced home and, within minutes, my house was engulfed in flames. Three quarters of everything we owned: incinerated.
\nThankfully, many special family items were rescued, including hundreds of irreplaceable photos\u2014we have the local fire department to thank for that. Three huge fire trucks and at least 15 firemen worked well into the night dousing our house before the flames were completely extinguished.
\nI have no idea what it cost, but I\u2019m really glad I didn\u2019t receive a bill. Imagine receiving a bill for all municipal services. Did you know that road paving costs about $95 per ton of asphalt? Or that each high school student costs about $10,000 per year to educate? What if we received a bill for a bad guy being arrested in our county? What if you had to consider the cost of an ambulance before calling 911? Many essential services are paid for with property tax.
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\nHow It Works<\/strong>
\nAssessors, property appraisers, and equalization departments (they have different names and titles around the country) are responsible for valuing your property fairly and equitably. It\u2019s this value on which property taxes are determined, but please note that assessors only value<\/em> property; they don\u2019t set the tax rate (all of my assessor friends constantly remind me of that). In other words, no one really<\/em> likes taxes, but if we know we\u2019re assessed fairly and how those taxes are spent, we can deal with it better. That\u2019s also why transparency is key (more on that below).
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Story maps are used to communicate tax impact and benefits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPart of assessing fairly is gathering a tremendous amount of data on your property. Many jurisdictions maintain more than 150 characteristics on every property so they can determine market value as accurately as possible. This data\u2014structure type and age, siding type and condition, lot size, roof material, number of rooms, heating system type, and so forth\u2014is used daily by assessors who often inspect property every few years to be sure the data is current.
\nMoreover, all local government departments depend on this data being accurate, adding new responsibilities to the assessor\u2019s office. In a very real sense, the assessor is becoming the data manager of local government, raising the profile and value of assessor departments and the work they do. As we add new apps and capabilities to our systems, we need more complete and accurate data. And we\u2019re relying more on assessors to curate and serve that authoritative information.
\nOne particular challenge here is that other departments may want to use the assessor\u2019s property data in a different format. Fortunately, the ArcGIS platform supports services so that data can be shared and used in standard open formats. This services integration is key to eliminating duplicated data and redundant maintenance in local government.
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\nNot Just for the Locals<\/strong>
\nI have a good friend who annually contacts local governments to collect and aggregate western states\u2019 parcel data (property lines, structure type, size, etc.) into a single database to help manage wildland firefighting. This data\u2014combined with many other data sets such as vegetation types, slopes, roads, and power lines\u2014are used in GIS to help firefighters make the best decisions. That\u2019s just one of the reasons why parcel data is critical.
\nAlthough property tax is local, states have the responsibility to oversee it. For that reason, many states aggregate parcel data for better oversight and analysis of tax rates, sales ratios, untaxed property, and so forth. Statewide parcel data is useful in other areas including economic development, addressing systems, transportation planning, watershed management, and many more. Aggregating data in the past was a laborious manual task. Today, however, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software solutions reduce the burden on local assessors while also empowering state government agencies. See Community Parcels<\/a> for State Government, for example.
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Interactive maps and easy-to-use apps answer taxpayer questions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nOpen Data and Transparency<\/strong>
\nProperty taxation only really works when we know we\u2019re taxed fairly and equitably. If property owners discover otherwise, they\u2019ll appeal. Appeals are costly and time consuming, so assessors do their best to deliver the most accurate property values to avoid them. Open Data<\/a> makes this discovery possible by enabling assessors to share their authoritative data with everyone. As technology provides new opportunities for applications and analysis, a new type of transparency is required for the whole system to function properly and power new applications.
\nSometimes just a simple map<\/a> will do. If you want to look at property values or even the top ten taxpayers in your neighborhood, you can do that with some easy-to-use maps and apps. Now we can make story maps to highlight specific things such as property value changes by year<\/a> or how a specific sales tax is being spent<\/a>. We can make an endless variety of maps that answer some very specific questions. This adds to transparency, increasing public trust and confidence in government while reducing phone calls and citizen requests.
\nThis is a new kind of transparency that helps citizens understand how property is taxed and gives access to authoritative data.
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Assessors use map-based dashboards and tools to understand trends and patterns for real estate valuation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nCredit Where It\u2019s Due<\/strong>
\nWhen I was a kid in Maine, the sound of a snowplow at 4:00 a.m. heralded hope\u2014not hope for cleared roads but, rather, hope to sleep in and have a snow day off school. Kids aren\u2019t so appreciative of civic services, but if you\u2019re reading this, you know how important those services are. Property taxes pay for the things that improve our collective quality of life daily. Assessors should be recognized for contributing to the successful operation of all local government. Their use of GIS to manage and share critical data with everyone has become an invaluable government function that will only continue to grow.
\n(Oh, and, by the way, I like home owner\u2019s insurance too.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[275862],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5970","insider","type-insider","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-focus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Like Property Tax<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/why-i-like-property-tax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Like Property Tax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One day, I received a dreadful phone call at work. 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