“Kern’s Property Valued At $82 Billion For Coming Fiscal Year”

Kern County Assessor-Recorder, Jim Fitch, announced today that his Office has determined the taxable value of Kern County property for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2010 at $82 billion dollars. This total, for fiscal year 2010-2011, represents an increase of approximately $3.7 billion dollars or a 4.7% increase in property values. Typically, property tax revenues are one of the largest sources of revenue for counties, cities, special districts and the schools so this increase is especially good news here in Kern County, our cities, and special districts that are dependent upon property taxes. While many economic indicators are still depressed, and other tax revenue sources have decreased, property tax assessments have increased here in Kern County for the upcoming year. The County’s share of property tax dollars will be close to $328 million dollars, an increase of approximately $14.5 million dollars for all necessary County services.

This increase is largely due to the increase in Oil and Gas assessments. The assessments for these types of properties rose by $4.7 billion dollars, an increase of over 20% this year. This increase was a result of higher oil prices, the addition of new reserves, and new construction. Oil and Gas and energy-related properties make up one third of the assessment roll or $27 billion dollars of the total assessment roll. Kern County remains the largest oil producing County in the State, with an estimated 70% of all of the State’s reserves.

The Assessor reviewed almost all residential properties in the County, approximately 200,000, and will be lowering the value of over 100,000 residential assessments for this year. For many of these property owners, this will be the third straight year of value reductions. These reductions represent a decrease in the assessment roll of approximately $1 billion dollars for this year. Over this three-year period, these reductions represent an average savings of just under $1000 annually in property taxes to affected homeowners. The latest reductions will be reflected on tax statements mailed by the Kern County Tax Collector in late September.

Property owners are urged to contact the Assessor's Office if they feel their valuation is not reflective of market value for January 1st, 2010. The Assessor's Office is committed to insuring all property owners pay no more in property taxes than what is prescribed by law. I also want to remind homeowners that it is not necessary to contract with or pay outside companies for a review and possible reduction of value as our Office is very proactive in lowering these values when warranted.

I am proud of my staff for the diligent efforts they made to close this assessment roll timely in a year in which we processed another record-breaking amount of work.

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