Michigan State tax appeals for real estate

An often asked question is "How did my taxes go up when my SEV (state equalized value) went down?".
In Michigan Proposal 22 created two numbers for your tax assessment. The taxable value, call it TV and the State Equailzed Value or SEV. The amount of increase if you did not sell your property was limited to inflation as measured by the Consumer's Price Index (CPI) but not to exceed 5%. This happened in 1993. So only long standing taxpayers have this problem. The SEV rose so far and so fast that the TV trailed in most cases by over 30%.
So even with 10% reductions in some municipalities, the SEV going down is still above the taxable "caps" going up that 2 or 3% inflation rule. Bottom line is that your SEV needs to be reduced to less than your TV for the acutal tax bill to go down. Remember that SEV is suppose to be 50% of True Cash Value on the 31st of December being the day before the subject tax year.
Tom Goebel, LEED AP