What seems like years of debate and discussion over a countywide property reassessment is finally entering its final days with the announcement of public meetings throughout the county starting today.

Following today’s meeting in Columbus, there will be meetings next week at 6 p.m. Monday in Sheffield, 6 p.m. Wednesday in Youngsville and 6 p.m. Thursday in Warren. Each will last about two hours and include presentations from county officials and Vision Government Solutions to explain how the reassessment was conducted and what the potential result of the reassessment could be on property taxes.

The bulk of the actual assessment work was completed by last fall. Now, before property owners get their first look at their new property assessments, it’s important to be as educated as possible about what has been done and, most importantly, what the process will be moving forward. Property owners with concerns should be sure to attend one of these meetings so they can have the information they need in case they want to contest their assessment.

It’s important to remember that state anti-windfall provisions ensure taxing jurisdictions can’t do a property reassessment and profit. That means tax rates will change once the reassessment is final. But what taxpayers should be aware of is what happens if commercial property values decrease when new assessments come out because that will end up shifting more of the property tax burden from commercial to residential taxpayers. It’s important for taxpayers to understand how we got to this point so they can understand how their new property assessment fits into the county’s bigger property reassessment picture.

That process starts Thursday.