By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


Livingston County officials adopted their 2020 County Equalization Report.

The county Equalization Department has examined the assessment roles of all 16 Livingston County townships and 3 cities to determine whether real and personal property in those respective townships and cities have been equally and uniformly assessed at true cash value. This helps assure that property taxes are levied in a fair manner.

Equalization Director Sue Bostwick said values went up this past year, but that next year may tell a different story. She said the county’s assessed value went up 6.98%, with the taxable value for 2020 to go up 4.81%. Bostwick said it’s still too early to see where next year is going, but she has her doubts that there will be an increase like this year.

That 6.98% increase means Livingston County’s total State Equalized Value will raise over $800-million to a total of roughly $12.4-billion. The report also breaks down total values in 4 categories throughout the county: commercial, agricultural, industrial, and residential. Residential values were the big gainer a 7.5% increase. Commercial values increased 5.6%, industrial values rose 5.4%, and agricultural values rose 3.6%. These values will not be official, however until final State Equalization takes place in late May. Bostwick thanked assessors for helping everything go as smoothly as it did, especially as work was wrapping up around the time that everything was shutting down. The report was submitted and approved by County Commissioners, who held their meeting together online.