By Sara QuamRock County property owners received tax statements last week and found the valuations of their properties.Assessor Tom Houselog said agricultural land saw the biggest increases in value. Value is based on the assessed value divided by the sale price, but in most cases the sale prices were much higher than assessed values, driving current assessments up.Sale prices in the county on agricultural land have been much higher than estimated values.Overall, agricultural land is increasing by 10 percent. There were 19 farm sales in 2004.Neighboring counties increased assessments by 20 percent, which Houselog said could happen in Rock County next year with the way sale prices have looked already this year.Commissioner Ken Hoime said, "Some land sales have doubled in a short time."Residential properties were assessed at 2 to 5 percent higher generally. Acreages have seen higher increases too.It is the assessor’s duty to equalize the values at the local level or the state will do it, Houselog said.He said, "People can’t equate increase of valuation to an increase in taxes, because so much goes into that formula. It’s that thought that double-digit increases are scary to see, though."Affecting property taxes this year are tax increment financing districts that have improvement debts repaid, which means all their payments will go to taxes from now on.Tax value public information A link on the county Web site, www.co.rock.mn.us, allows people to see valuations, taxes and assessments on local properties. At the bottom of the home page, click on the "Rock County Tax Parcel Information" to access the information.The link allows users to enter names, locations or exact addresses to get the information. The system gets nightly updates, so what users see online is up to date.
