Cedar County property valuations exceed $2.5B

Trisha Benton Randolph Times HARTINGTON — Cedar County’s total property valuation was tabulated and sent to budget-setting entities last week.

This year’s total valuation came in at $2.63 billion, up $108 million from last year’s value. That total includes real estate, agricultural land and personal property, said Becky Dresden, Cedar County’s assessor.

She said there wasn’t one town or one category that saw an incredible increase. Instead, everything — from residential to commercial to agricultural, rural or in-town — saw a small bump in overall value.

A raise in valuation does not necessarily mean there will be an increase in taxes for property owners. The tax rate or levy is set after budgets have been submitted. If budget requests increase, taxes will be raised.

State law mandates the assessed value on property must fall within a range — or required level of value — established by the Legislature. The statute states agricultural land has to be valued between 68-75 percent of what the sales are showing while the range for residential and commercial property is placed at 92-100 percent of the sales.

The selling price is recorded when a property is sold and the deed is recorded. The assessor's oce then records the assessed value and a copy is submitted to the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

Commercial property sales from the previous three years are used to set values, which is the same process used to set agriculture land values.

This year, irrigated land values increased from 3 percent to 10 percent, and dryland and grassland values increased from 1 percent to 2.5 percent.

Residential values also increased. Values are set using the last two years of sales.

Certification of the values were mailed to each political sub division earlier this month.