It’s no secret that part of the function of the building permit—in
addition to ensuring sound construction—is to earmark property tax revenue
for local governments.
According to its progress as of January 1, 2007, every project is assessed taxes at a percentage of the property’s expected worth.
A Delicate Process
In Larimer County, Colorado, the assessor collects property taxes from
each unit of land, called a parcel, and then disburses a calculated amount
to the cities and towns, depending on the number and type of parcels
each one has.
If this seems complicated, consider that the county system of parcel identification numbers and the city and town systems of addresses aren’t compatible. “When the parcel number can’t be matched up with a street address, it’s nearly impossible for the county to efficiently track building progress, and therefore who owes what in terms of property tax,” explained Cody Bender, Software Designer for SAFEbuilt Colorado. “I knew we could create a system to handle this data.”
| “We can provide a lot more than just inspections and plan reviews—our software department has the ability to improve the experience for builders, city officials, taxpayers and anyone else who comes into contact.” |
Creating a Common Language
Short of sending a county appraiser out in a truck, there was no good
way for the Assessor’s Office to accurately determine when additional
property tax should be assessed and how much.
“Since the county collects permit and inspection information from every city and town each year, we wanted to simplify this process for the municipalities we serve, and at no additional charge,” Bender said.
Using the lot, block and filing information as a key, Bender wrote a formula to propagate the data that SAFEbuilt Colorado collects from permits in Timnath, Windsor and Wellington into the database of parcels kept by the Larimer County Assessor's Office.
The fully searchable program allows the county to access relevant information, including permit number, legal description, projected worth, date of last building inspection and a dozen customized fields—all in relation to parcel number.
Benefits that Count
Over 200 inspections are reported monthly for Timnath, Windsor and Wellington
alone. Steph Schwindt, Business Analyst at the Larimer County Assessor's
Office saw the value immediately. “We’ll save money by not
having to send staff to construction sites to evaluate properties,” she
said, “And it eliminates the need for manual data entry.”
In addition, Larimer County now has the ability to report exactly how many projects are in the foundation, rough or final stages of construction in Timnath, Windsor and Wellington twelve times a year (instead of only once), allowing them to assess property taxes more accurately using fewer man-hours and less of the budget.
Because this program benefits Larimer County, all county taxpayers—not just those in Timnath, Windsor and Wellington—stand to see an improvement in the way their tax dollars are allocated, potentially resulting in bottom-line savings or the funding of other services.
“Our goal as a business is to redefine how service is delivered. If that means writing a program that will help keep track of information, then we’ll do it,” said Bender. “It helps our company run more smoothly, it makes our client municipalities look like heroes and it saves every taxpayer in Larimer County from having to absorb the cost.”
More Information
Cody Bender is the Business Systems Manager and Software Designer for the
IT department at SAFEbuilt Colorado. He is responsible
for mapping and streamlining processes. The Larimer County Reporting
program is only one example of the many improvements that the IT department
can provide. Cody Bender can be reached at
(970) 567-1405.
