BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

The Los Alamos County FY22 budget does not propose an increase in property taxes, County Manager Harry Burgess said during Tuesday evening’s budget hearing.

“There was a noted increase in the revenue projected from property taxes due to a combination of factors,” Burgess said.

He noted that the addition of the Mirador housing project in White Rock as well as other construction projects to the tax base, without any changes in the tax rate, would naturally increase the number of taxable properties.

“Our valuations have gone up in recent months and just that increase in valuations, again at the same tax rate, will cause an increase in overall revenue. Although the general fund did see a 6 percent increase in property tax, that’s similar to what any other entity that receives property tax also receives,” Burgess said.

He said the County is not the sole recipient of property tax. The County collects property tax for a number of other entities, primarily the state and the local school district, Burgess said, and if the County was to make a change to the property tax rate, it would also affect those other entities.

Later in the evening, County Assessor Ken Milder mentioned that even though the County has had double digit increases in market value, the assessed value has not been close to the market value.