If paid, property taxes on recent property assessments in Oatman conducted by the Mohave County Assessor’s Office will boost school and fire district budgets as much as 25 percent.
The recent canvass of about 600 parcels in Oatman resulted in $850,000 worth of cash value added to Oatman’s inventory, said Mohave County Assessor Jeanne Kentch.
That’s not tax owed, but the market value of the properties on which taxes are based, Kentch explained. State law mandates properties be assessed at market value, something the county had not done in Oatman for at least 25 years.
“It’s not that we haven’t valued property in the Oatman area for 25 years — we did one here and one there as permits were issued — but we’ve never canvassed it,” Kentch said.
The two-day survey of Oatman properties did have some properties come off the tax rolls, but a lot more went on, Kentch said.