Assessment Coordination Department Web Site Opens

Information is the key to progress and understanding. After much waiting the A.C.D. web site is open. We hope you find it informative, easy to use, and attractive. It is our desire that the contents of this site will promote progress and understanding of the Arkansas Ad Valorem property tax system, a system of taxation that is complex and often with few proponents.

There is a ton of information available, lots of numbers and most of it in a form that can be easily downloaded and manipulated. We have found that a web site, like many other endeavors, seems to never be completed or updated quite to the level desired. So, don't be surprised if you click on a link and nothing is there, we are working on it. If you are looking for some bit of information that you think should be there but isn't, please let us know so we can make the information available on-line in the future.

Information Network of Arkansas is hosting our web site. They also host the web site for the State of Arkansas and many other state agencies. We have been very pleased with their work. They have been very patient with us as we have been in need of their patience.

We are curious to know who will be using the site. We expect visitors to be county and other local government officials, the bond companies that issue school and municipal bonds, legislators and staff doing research and perhaps a student or two who is writing a term paper. We hope that the taxpayers of Arkansas will visit our site and also find it informative and useful.

What can you find? If you click on About Us you can read our mission statement and find other documents that will tell you some history of the agency and of the property tax laws in Arkansas. Under Education and Certification you can find out about our appraiser certification program. When course offerings are scheduled, you can find them here. County Reappraisal Information will tell you when your county will complete the next reappraisal cycle, the number of parcels to be reappraised and some examples of reappraisal plans for counties. County Ratio Studies shows the results of the last county audit of ratios. State law requires property to be valued at a ratio of 20% of true or fair market value. Statewide Values and Rates is a very powerful link for researchers of the Arkansas property tax. You can find all you ever wanted to know about property tax millage rates. You can even download our millage book and discover all the ad Valorem taxes you pay and who is the recipient of those taxes. If you are looking for trends in the property tax or wish to compare the wealth of one school to another for example, how much tax revenue to expect from a millage increase or just about any other comparison possible, find the data here to do it with. There are six years of assessments, rates and taxes for every county, city, school district or all taxing units combined. This information can be downloaded directly into an Excel spreadsheet ready for you to crunch numbers to your hearts desire.

Under Laws, Rules & Regs you can read up on our rules, find recent tax legislation and other law that regulate the Arkansas property tax. Check out the Charts and Graphs. A review of these will quickly give the reader a visual representation of the growth trends of key elements of the property tax in Arkansas. Forms is a link still under construction. There is a form or two available but we still have not gotten them all completed for the web site. Please be patient. Publications is another great link. Check out the rural land values if you are curious about agricultural and timber values across the state. A synopsis of tax laws, which we publish, along with some other items can also be found here. In
Other Contacts you can find the County Officials list if you need a local contact regarding your own property taxes. There is also a link there to the Tax Division of the Public Service Commission if you have questions regarding how the property tax is administered to public utilities and regulated carriers.

We also have links to information about how to contact the folks here at A.C.D., the new $300 homestead tax credit and how it works, the taxpayer bill of rights and frequently asked questions.

We at A.C.D. truly hope you will Contact our Office and give us your comments regarding this web site. We hope to hear positive comments but we also need to hear any criticisms you might have.

Fred Rush submitted this article.