Equalization Department

Equalization Mandate

The process of County Equalization is mandated by Section 211.34 of the General Property Tax Act of the State of Michigan, which states in part that the county board of commissioners shall examine the assessment rolls of the townships or cities each year and ascertain whether each class of real and personal property in the respective township or city has been equally and uniformly assessed at an average level of 50% of true cash value.

The General Property Tax Act goes on to state that the county board of commissioners of a county shall establish and maintain a department to survey assessments and assist the board of commissioners in the matter of equalization of assessments. The department may furnish assistance to local assessing officers in the performance of duties including development and maintenance of accurate property descriptions, the discovery, listing, and valuation of properties for tax purposes, and the development and use of uniform valuation standards and techniques for the assessment of property.

The department is also responsible for calculating all millage rollback fractions required by law (Headlee, Truth in Assessing, Truth in County Equalization, and Truth in Taxation) for all taxing jurisdictions within Kalamazoo County, ie. K-12 schools, KVCC, KRESA, Kalamazoo County, townships, villages, cities, and district libraries.