From the comments on our site, there are some people who are baffled as to how their assessed property values have gone down, but the tax rates have gone up.

Each entity (schools, county, city, etc.) receives a certain amount of the property taxes, known as a levy, as part of covering their expenses for the year.

So let's say in one year the levy for one entity is $1 million, the total assessed value of property in the area is $50 million and the tax rate is 2 percent.

Usually, the tax levy changes by 1 or 2 percent each year.

If the following year, the assessed value drops to $40 million, but the levy allowed by the state goes up to $1.01 million, the tax rate has to rise in order to collect the necessary funds needed to keep operations going.

Yes, conventional logic would say that the levy should also drop 20 percent in that case. However, how efficient can an entity be when one year you get to operate with a $1 million budget and $800,000 the next.

Can you imagine the budget cuts and layoffs needed in order to make that happen?

In a way it is a double-edged sword.

On one hand, people will complain because their taxes are higher, and on the other there would be complaints because people would be losing their jobs and other things (street repairs seems to be a hot point for many) would have to be neglected because the funds just are not there.

But when you think about it, things are not truly that bad when it comes to the tax rate.

In doing my research when covering the tax rates last year, I noticed that 10-12 years ago, before the assessment process changed to fair market value, the tax rates were hovering around 8-9 percent.

With the new circuit breaker in place, having a rate jump from 2 to 2.25 percent in comparison to where the rates were a decade ago doesn't seem too steep.

To be honest, I'll take a slightly higher tax rate than risk having residents lose their jobs.