Tim Staton

City Administrator

City of Pleasanton

During the past election much was made of the fact that the City of Pleasanton has the highest mill levy of any city in Linn County.  That is a fact, but it is only half of the story, to really understand what the mill levy is and how it works we have to look at the other half of the equation: Assessed Valuation.

The assessed valuation is the dollar value assigned to property by a municipality for the purpose of assessing taxes.  Let’s say that you own a home with a market or appraised value of $100,000.  Take that $100,000 and multiply it by 11.5% (the rate that currently dictates assessed valuation for residential property).  We come up with an assessed valuation of $11,500.  The mill levy (currently 75.194) is the number of dollars a property owner will pay for every $1,000 in assessed valuation.  So if you own a home with a market value of $100,000 and an assessed valuation of $11,500 you would pay $864.73 a year in city tax.  

Now that we have talked about assessed valuation and the mill levy let’s look at what they mean to the City of Pleasanton. Pleasanton currently has the largest population and largest land area of any city in Linn County. It would be logical to assume that because Pleasanton is considered the “biggest” city in Linn County that it would also have the highest assessed valuation (most valuable buildings).  Unfortunately for Pleasanton the facts are contradictory to that assumption.  Pleasanton’s assessed valuation in 2008 was $5,396,689, LaCygne’s was $6,507,743 and Linn Valley’s was $7,086,124.  So even though  Pleasanton is the biggest city it actually ranks 3rd in assessed valuation.