Rochester City Manager Blaine Cox reports that the Department of Revenue Administration has finalized this year’s tax rate. The tax rate for property taxes to be billed this December has been set at $24.61 per thousand dollars of property value, a $0.29 reduction from the prior year. This is the lowest tax rate the City has had since 2010 and represents a 1.2 percent decrease from the previous $24.90 rate.

An increase of $122,782,638 to net assessed valuation partly contributed to the reduced rate, and does not necessarily mean residents will see a lower property tax bill, as City, County and local school budgets all rose this year. The increase to the City’s net valuation between 2019 and 2020 is largely the result of a recent shift between exempt and taxable property and new construction. The breakdown of Rochester’s tax rate is as follows:

■ City: $8.18 (decrease of 3 cents from last year).
■ Local education: $12.06 (decrease of 17 cents).
■ State education: $1.94 (increase of 1 cent).
■ County: $2.43 (decrease of 10 cents).

“The increase to the City’s net assessed valuation is a positive indicator of Rochester’s continued growth despite these challenging times,” said City Manager Cox.

The median assessed value of a single-family home has increased slightly to $208,000 and will receive a tax bill of $5,119. Taxes on an assessment of $208,000 last year resulted in a tax bill of $5,179.

“A Full Statistical Revaluation was conducted last year and since that time all property types continue to show steady market appreciation as demonstrated by our active real estate market and high sales prices,” said Katie Ambrose, Deputy City Manager and Director of Finance and Administration.

Rochester has experienced an approximate increase of 7% in the median single-family home value between April 1, 2019 and April 1, 2020. The 2019 median assessment was $206,200 and when equalized at 99.9% represented a fair market value of $206,400. The 2020 assessment equalization rate has not yet been set by the DRA. The estimated 2020 equalization rate is 93.3%, which represents a fair market value of $222,900 for a home with a median assessed value of $208,000.

Final tax bills are being processed and are tentatively scheduled to be mailed on December 18th. Tax bills are due 30 days from the mailing date.