Central Oregon residents will begin seeing their property tax bills arrive in mailboxes within a few weeks.

Most property owners in Crook and Deschutes counties will see about a 3 percent increase in their tax bills over last year because of Measure 50, a voter-approved initiative that allows a home’s assessed value to increase by a maximum of 3 percent per year.

But Jefferson County residents and those in the Sisters School District will see larger bills because voters approved tax increases, county assessors said.

The overall value of assessed property in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties increased last year, assessors said, fueled partly by new construction.

But any new construction that increased the value over the summer months will not be reflected in the upcoming statement. The tax bills will reflect values assessed on Jan. 1, 2001.

So, while people say the economy withered a little this year, any slowdown isn’t reflected in the 2001 assessments, but would be seen next year.

The statements will show the previous year’s and this year’s assessed values and taxes, and details about how taxes are broken into different districts.

Following are the assessment highlights for the region.

Crook County

The assessed value in Crook County grew to $919 million, said Brian Hubert, senior clerk with the Crook County Assessor’s office. It represented a 5.9 percent increase over the previous year, and voters approved no tax increases for schools or other districts. Tax bills will likely be mailed out next week.

Deschutes County

Property owners in the Sisters School District will be paying more because voters approved a new bond and local option tax. They will be the only owners in Deschutes County to see more than a 3 percent increase, said Scot Langton, county assessor.

”There were no tremendous changes for anyone else,” he said.

Non-certified numbers show Deschutes County’s entire assessed value increased by about 9 percent from the previous year. The assessed value throughout the county for 2001 is $9.6 billion, up from $8.8 billion in 2000.

Langton said about 2.8 percent of the increase came from existing properties whose value increase is capped by Measure 50. Most of the increase in the county’s assessed value about 6.1 percent was generated from new construction value.

”There was a lot of growth again this year, similar to what we’ve seen in the past,” he said.

Langton said the 8.9 percent annual increase in value is consistent with the previous couple of years.

County tax officials are finalizing the tax rolls, Langton said.

After the figures are certified, the county will send the information to the state, which prints tax statements.

It will mail them out, probably on Oct. 22, but definitely no later than Oct. 25, Langton said. If the bills are paid as soon as Nov. 15, taxpayers can take a 3 percent bite out of the bill.

Assessed and real market values for 2001 can be found on the county’s Web page, www.deschutes.org, under DIAL. New taxes will be entered when the numbers are certified.

Jefferson County

In Madras, property taxes will increase by about 6 percent, said Patsy Hurn, the Jefferson County assessor. Hurn said tax bills in Culver would increase by 8 percent, in Metolius by 7 percent and Crooked River Ranch by 8 percent.

Bills will go out no later than Oct. 25, she said.

The increases in Jefferson County are largely due to the November passage of the jail operating levy, which totals 91 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, Hurn said.

Jefferson County’s assessed value increased about 5.6 percent, and for the first time topped $1 billion, Hurn said.

Existing properties accounted for 3 percent of that increase, while 2.6 percent came from new construction, she said.

”One thing that makes it difficult to generalize about assessed value in Jefferson County is that about one-third of that value is owned by large utilities, such as the (Pelton and Round Butte) dams,” Hurn said.

Next year those dams might come off the tax rolls because of an agreement between PGE and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, she said.

Hurn also said the increase in Jefferson County assessed value is consistent with that of previous years.

Mike Cronin and Kelly Kearsley of The Bulletin staff contributed to this report.