While I worked for the Assessor and as I speak to people who own homes or other types of properties, I have observed a misconception in the different levels of government and who owns or does what…so let’s get clarity! There are several levels of government the largest being the federal government, then state government, then county government and finally city government. Each level of government has many different branches and departments that all operate independent of one another. For the purposes of your property taxes there are three levels of government involved: state, county and city. Your state government determines how and when your property taxes are assessed. Then based on your state law, the county you live in will enforce the property tax law established by your state. Your Assessor’s Office is a county department and everything the Assessor does is based on your state law. The role your city plays involves local property taxes that are unique to your community. Often property tax rates are determined based on the state and then your city’s needs. So often the percentage used to determine your property tax rate is from the city. The Tax Collector is also a part of your county government. The city and county are two completely separate entities, which communicate with each other however on a day to day basis they do not share the same records.

The city is generally where you would go to obtain permits, zoning and planning information. The records kept on file vary city to city, some keep building information some don’t. The city really has no need for this in the long term other than to verify what may or may not be legal on a property. The confusion may arise for those individuals who own property in an unincorporated area since by default they would need to go to the county department of public works which is essentially their city. The area has not been incorporated by a city yet, the county acts like the city for that area however again, and the department of public works is a completely separate from the Assessor and does not have the same records as the Assessor and operates independently.

The Assessor will have access to the records from the city or county and vice versa. So the records kept by your city in regards to the structure on your property pertain more to permits, zoning and planning whereas the Assessor keeps diagrams and description so that the market value of your property may be determined. Sometimes the city and county will cross reference each other for information when needed however most of the time this is not automatic. When you need your square footage updated, generally it is the Assessor’s records that need to be changed.