STATE SNAFU

Miller County sends corrected personal property statements after Arkansas’ miscalculations

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story corrects inaccurate information in a story appearing in Thursday’s online and print editions.

MILLER COUNTY, Ark.—Many Miller County residents will pay more personal property taxes on their vehicles next year because of an estimated $9 million in assessment miscalculations the state made on those vehicles.

A few county residents will even see their personal property tax on vehicles decrease as a result of the state’s assessment miscalculations.

Miller County Tax Assessor Nancy Herron said the county was notified on Aug. 12 that the new and used auto and truck values the Arkansas Assessment Coordination Department provided in January were incorrect.

She said her office is mailing out about 16,000 correct assessments this week, which reflect the correct true market values on the vehicles.

“There were 30,000 to 40,000 errors,” she said. “The assessments have gone both down and up, but most of them have gone up.”

Overall, Herron said it would be difficult to estimate how much more personal property taxes those affected by the miscalculations would pay.

Individual tax bills are calculated by multiplying the total assessment value by the county’s current millage rate.

The corrected vehicle assessments are for the 2019 tax year and will be payable when those taxes are due, March 1, 2020, through Oct. 15, 2020.

County officials point out that residents will already be paying personal property taxes on those vehicles anyway, as is customary every year.

However, they may be paying more, or less, on the vehicles next year because of the miscalculation in assessments values made by the state this year.

Herron said the state is not paying her office for the $8,000 in postage to mail the new notices.

“It’s a statewide error that affected all 75 counties and all are working to get this corrected right now,” she said. “It’s just an unfortunate error that happened.”

The letter has the heading “Notice of Personal Property Value Change.”

After residents receive the new value assessments, they have 10 days to appeal to the Miller County Assessor’s Office.

They can be contacted at 870774-1502, by email at millercoassessorar@gmail.com or at the Miller County Courthouse, 400 Laurel Street, Texarkana, Ark.

The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.