Tye Tax and CofL Links

[XLFD]

We recently revisited a discussion based on the Mysterious House of North Washington, an address we looked at in detail after one of the two publicly-employed purchasers of the property decided some of my dissertations on the Ludington Downtown Development Authority (DDA) right here at the Ludington Torch were fostering a mob mentality among the hordes of Ludington residents.  Please re-read that article and reacquaint yourself with some of those mysteries, for we will revisit the last.

 

A recent member claimed that he was going to prove that the 201 N Washington property was not receiving any special tax breaks or assessments.  He was planning to show us by looking around the tax records/assessments of the immediate neighborhood of the Tykoski House, and create a database that would show the fairness so many of us scoffed at.  He left and took all his posts with him, came back for a bow and left. 

I presumed he was unsuccessful at his task.  I took that effort up myself, looking at the tax assessor's records for Ludington and documented the tax/sales records for a two block radius around the Tykoski House, with the exception that I didn't cross Ludington Avenue on Washington.  If you want to check out that, or any other data I present, here's the City Assessor site, which is free to use.  Here's the map of properties looked over: 

 

The 201 N Washington house is the orange square, and the 63 houses that were surveyed were along the green lines that parallel the streets on the map.  This included all properties in the 500 and 600 block of E Court, the 600 block of PM, 704-723 Brother St., 701-710 Diana, 601-713 (odds) Ludington Ave., the 100 and 200 block of N Emily, and 105-312 N Washington.  {These streets will be abbreviated C, P, B, D, L, E, and W from here on.}

 

I looked at the Summer taxes (winter taxes follow suit and are substantially smaller) over the last three years of all properties as the best metric of comparison, but not the sole comparative.  Other things such as TV, TCV, and SEV were also looked at, but those can be confusing and so I limited the analysis to what everyone can firmly grasp: the annual summer tax bill.

The full amount of summer taxes from the 63 properties was $125,387 in 2011, $127,809 in 2010, and $131,312 in 2009.  This shows a 2.7% decrease between 2009 and 2010 and a 1.9% decrease between 2010 and 2011. 

Interestingly, both times the amount of properties that actually paid less taxes between those years were in the minority:  only 29 of the 63 properties paid less taxes between 2010 and 2011, and only 30 of 63 for the other period.  Therefore, the median property owner of these 63 lots actually paid more taxes in 2011 than in 2010, even though the overall value of the houses dropped about 2%.

Here are the houses that had their taxes reduced by more than 5% between 2010 and 2011:

 

6)  715 B:  -5.8% (1927 to 1815)

5)  506 EC: -5.8% (1330 to 1253)

4)  703 D:  -6.4% (957 to 896)

3)  709 EL:  -7.2% (5170 to 4798)

2)  109 NE:  -37.3% (2334 to 1467)

1)  201 NW:  -40.3% (5434 to 3244)

 

These properties were last sold in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2007, 2008, and 2010 respectively.  All but #6 are owner occupied.  All but one paid significantly less in the previous period (losing between 3.9% and 34% between 2009 and 2010).  The one exception:  201 N. Washington which dropped from $5435 to $5434 in that period, 0%.  This is the Tykoski House.

One could say it is a statistical anomaly like the 109 NE house, #2, and maybe it is, but why did these two houses lose so much value while others like 107 NW (two houses south of 201 NW)actually saw their taxes go up 45%?

One could say that the sale of the house in 2010 may have had some effect on the tax figures, so let's look at the only other property of the 63 that changed hands in 2010 and the difference between their taxes for 2010 and 2011:  

705.5 EL:  +36.9% (1413 to 1935) 

 

A house that is purchased and has significant improvements added usually does go up in value instead of losing value and having its taxes go down by 40%.  But this is the wondrous property of the Tykoski House; nothing makes sense until you realize that the playing field is not actually level, kind of like that mystery spot near St. Ignace.

[masonco]

If nothing else, there are assessors in Kent County and even Muskegon counties, possibly Manistee county. BUT if they can not find anyone willing to take the job, then they would have to expand to Lansing. I wold imagine they took applications for the job.Does the guy work for a company that sends people out?

As for $50 an hour, that is not outrageous compared to many other jobs. It cost me $75-$100 just to have a repairman come to the house and does not include the hourly charge if it is beyond one hour. How much does lawn service cost when they come out? How about a tow service coming to unlock the car? Often the rate is the same weather it is an individual or company. 

[masonco]

OK...Tax assessors are required to be trained and licensed in the state of Michigan...

scroll down to view education requirements, certification requirements, forms and manual. I don't have time to review it all.

If the cost of their license is anything like therapy assistant licenses, it can cost over $100 a year.

Bottom line? No wonder no one around here wants the responsibility.

http://www.michigan.gov/treasury/0,1607,7-121-1751_2228---,00.html