Fall brings children back to school and a renewed focus on our preparations for the future. For Colorado assessors, the season brings the conclusion of the annual audit assessors are required to complete, and reports to the 43 local taxing entities their 2015 tax base. Happily, I want to inform taxpayers that we have again successfully completed the independent state assessment study audit with flying colors and no penalties.
The tax base for real estate was affected by moving from the 2012 level of value to the 2014 level of value. County-wide, most classes of property saw increases as we moved away from the last recession.
The breakdown of county-wide tax base is:
Agricultural land: 1 percent
Vacant land: 6 percent
Residential property: 28 percent
Commercial/industrial: 17 percent
State assessed utilities: 3 percent
Oil & gas production, equipment & Pipelines: 44 percent
Other natural resources: 1 percent
Overall the tax base increased 10 percent. Unfortunately, the largest increase was in the most unpredictable property type: natural gas production value, at 20 percent. For next year’s assessment we are projecting natural gas prices to drop about 42 percent because of national market forces. Forecasts by some industry services indicate the price for La Plata County natural gas may not rebound until 2019 because of the supply glut. What this means is that for the 2016 tax collection year, taxing entities with natural gas tax bases will do OK but the future is hard to predict. These entities like the county, fire districts and other large service area districts may see significant revenue curtailment in the near future.
La Plata County’s current growth presents both opportunities and a time for both government and its citizens to put on our school-like thinking caps to enhance our community’s future. A good first step is to understand which entities service your property. To see a listing of those entities, please log into https://eagleweb.laplata.co.us/assessor/web/login.jsp , where taxpayers can see their property value and link to Treasurer’s statements that detail your servicing entities. Should you have questions please contact us at (970) 382-6221.
Craig N. Larson, La Plata County assessor
Durango
