Jackie Lykins, director, Marquette County Equalization Department

ARQUETTE — Taxable and assessed values of property in Marquette County have increased from 2018 to 2019. Furthermore, this year’s increases are slightly larger than last year’s increases of about 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

County property values and the equalization valuations were discussed by the Marquette County Board of Commissioners at a special meeting Tuesday, where the board unanimously approved the proposed equalization values presented by Jackie Lykins, director of the Marquette County Equalization Department.

Marquette County’s total taxable value increased by 2.83 percent from last year, rising from $2.38 billion in 2018 to $2.45 billion this year. The total assessed value of property in the county increased by 2.57 percent, from $3.01 billion in 2018 to $3.09 billion in 2019.

While Lykins said this is “not what we would like to see,” she noted, “it’s respectable.”

“It’s up probably better than some of the other units in the state,” Lykins said. “We’ve never had the big boom, so we never had the huge loss when the market dropped. It’s strengthening; we still see good residential sales, good lake property sales.”

The goal of the annual equalization process is to determine the distribution of values among the 22 assessing units in the county. Those determinations are made by the local assessors in each township or city, confirming that they have complied with statutes in determining assessed values throughout their local assessing units.

Lykins presented the report, which recommended the equalized value of each assessing unit in Marquette County, as found by the department’s appraisals and assessments of personal and real property throughout the area. With county board approval, the recommended equalization valuations can move on to the statewide equalization process.

While the city of Marquette saw around a 3.22 percent drop in taxable value and a 1.6 percent drop in assessed value, Negaunee Township saw increases of nearly 30 percent in taxable value and 23 percent in assessed value, Lykins said.

“The city of Marquette actually went down in value because they removed a portion of the (Presque Isle) Power Plant in anticipation of closing,” Lykins said. “While they didn’t remove all the value, they removed $25 million and that’s a chunk to lose, and the rest will probably come off next year. I believe they’ll probably just be down to land values and some salvage material for next year.”

Furthermore, Lykins explained that “when you do equalization, you only do ad valorem; you don’t do special acts,” meaning that projects such as the new UP Health System-Marquette hospital along Baraga Avenue and “anything (else) that’s within a brownfield development does not reflect in equalization, because it’s not considered an ad valorem valuation, it’s a special act.”

County board Chairman Gerald Corkin asked Lykins if any local units of government had brought disputes about the equalization values proposed.

“Not officially. They may later,” Lykins said. “We’ll be sending a letter to the state tax unit regarding a couple of the units that came in at the required level, but we’re not sure that the methods used really fit in with what’s compliant. They are required to come in between 49.01 and 50 percent and they did so. It’s how they got there that we’re questioning. And we have one township that has a factor, and that’s Republic Township.”

Commissioner Joe Derocha, whose district includes Republic Township, asked Lykins: “How much is this factor and what is the cause of that?”

“The factor in Republic Township, it’s a minor factor but he did not bring his commercial class or timber cutover class in at 50 percent. He was over 50 percent and if you’re over 50 percent then that entire class has to be factored back, so there was a loss of value because of that,” Lykins said. “It affects only those people in that class of property. It doesn’t affect the rest of the township. But it affects them (people in that class of property) because what they think is their taxable value may not be their taxable value if they purchased within the last couple of years, because that factor will be applied to the taxable value.”

Corkin commended Lykins and her staff for their work on the equalization process, noting “we’ve gained a lot since you’ve become director of equalization.”

“We appreciate all that you do and all the excellent work that you do,” Corkin said.