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Assessor to release new tax values on Wednesday

Henderson County taxpayers will start learning their new property tax assessment as soon as Wednesday.

"They should hit mailboxes tomorrow, that is if the mail is running," Tax Assessor Stan Duncan said.

Along with schools, businesses and other government functions, this week's snow storm also disrupted the planned schedule for the release of the 2015 assessments. The reassessment sets the gross taxable value for the budget year starting July 1 and the next three years.

Duncan was scheduled to give the Board of Commissioners details of the reassessment on Wednesday morning. That won't happen now. The Board of Commissioners called off the meeting on Tuesday afternoon, citing the uncertain weather conditions, and announced that it would double up its March 2 agenda. Duncan said he would share the information with County Manager Steve Wyatt and Board of Commissioners Chairman Tommy Thompson and also let the public know details of the reassessment on Wednesday.

The new assessment will show gains spread widely across residential and commerical property including factory machinery, he said, although he declined to disclose an overall percentage increase.

With the official release of the new tax valuation, the Board of Commissioners is required to calculate and publish a revenue-neutral tax rate — the property tax rate that the county would set to raise the same amount of money as the current budget year. Property owners are entitled to challenge the new assessment first at the staff level and then before the Board of Equalization and Review, which hears appeals of property values.

Henderson County reassesses real property every four years and business personal property — such as equipment in plants, stores and offices — every year. The total taxable value has been important the past two reassessment cycles because commissioners have tried to set a rate that raises enough money to maintain a large rainy fund and pay for major capital projects while not raising the rate for four years. After the 2007 and 2011 reassessments, they succeeded in doing that.

Among the big projects commissioners are expected to fund in the next one to three years are the $32 million Joint Health Education Center on the Pardee Hospital campus and a $12 million emergency services headquarters. The School Board has asked the county to pay for major renovations at Upward and Edneyville elementary schools and Hendersonville High School. Commissioners have discussed a major renovation of the Grove Street Courthouse, too.