Feb 11, 2021 2 min read

Greene County recently upgraded its digital imagery available for the tax assessment office to make sure newly built structures are making it on to tax rolls.

In October, county commissioners used about $250,000 in CARES Act money to hire Eagleview Technologies. The company used aircrafts to collect high-resolution, overhead images and data across the county.

“We know people have invested in their farms and in their properties without reporting it to the county,” said Commissioner Mike Belding. “I cannot even guess at a number, but we know that it’s significant.”

Belding explained that many of the townships, especially rural ones, opt out or have modified options when it comes to the Uniform Construction Code, allowing structures to be built without building permits. However, those structures are still supposed to be reported to the county for tax purposes.

“People aren’t paying their fair share if they have properties that have not been assessed under the tax rolls,” Belding said. “It’s one thing to not require permits, but it’s another thing to not report new buildings to the county.”

The county previously used imagery from 2006, Belding said, so there could be new structures built in the last 15 years that aren’t being taxed. He said there’s a requirement to upgrade the imagery, but the money to complete it has not been available in the budget.

The federal CARES Act money could be used since the images allow assessors to work from their office or home, thus “mitigating COVID exposure and spread,” Belding said. Instead of having to be out in the public performing assessments, they are able to use the images, data and software tools to measure dimensions.

That data and images collected will be used not only for tax assessments but for county planners and emergency services as well, according to Belding.