SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — For the second year in a row, homeowners in Minnehaha County are seeing significant increases in their property tax assessments.

Earlier this week we spoke with a homeowner who saw a 35 percent increase in 2022 and another 45 percent increase this year.

“It’s not a one to one, if you went up 15 percent, it doesn’t mean your taxes are going up 15 percent,” Lilla said.

Minnehaha County Director of Equalization Chris Lilla says that’s the most important thing to remember as you read your new property tax assessment this year.

“If your value goes up 30 percent, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your taxes are going to go up 30 percent, now they’re probably going to go up, how much we don’t know,” Lilla said. “I think last year my assessment went up a little over 14 percent, but my tax bill increased a little over one percent.”

But your tax increase can vary a lot depending on where you live in the county.

“It’s never impacted people this much,” Leisinger said.

Julie Leisinger’s property tax assessment went up 35 percent in 2022, but she saw a 54 percent tax increase based on the mill levies in her neighborhood and school district.

“Last year amount I would have been paying is $252 a month, this year I’m paying $396 a month in taxes,” Leisinger said.

Using last year’s levy amounts with her property assessment now up another 45 percent, her estimated payment next year will be over 600 dollars a month, a 52 percent tax increase.

“This will take another 350 dollars a month. That’s a grocery bill for many families,” Leisinger said. “If people can’t keep up with those payments, they’re going to have to sell their properties.”

“I hear that every day, I hear it, that we’re taxing them out of their homes,” Lilla said.

Lilla says he’s confident in the accuracy of the assessed values the county sent out last month, saying last year’s high demand in the real estate market is to blame for the increases, along with the higher cost of operations for many school districts.

This year there’s so much variation in all of that. West Central School District is huge, that school district levy is quite a bit.

While homeowners won’t know for sure what this new assessment will mean for next year’s property tax bill, there is a recently-expanded statewide program designed to protect some homeowners from rising property values.

“If someone is living on a fixed income whether it be social security or Medicaid, things like that, and their value is under $317,700, they should apply for the elderly and disabled freeze,” Lilla said.

This year the assessed property value threshold for the state elderly and disabled freeze program increased dramatically from $208,000 to $317,700, which applies to all homes in the state.