A Walkthrough of the Assessor’s Role in Applying to be a Declared Disaster Area

The general process for a jurisdiction applying to be a declared disaster area is:

1. The disaster occurs.
2. The jurisdiction declares a local emergency.
3. The assessor’s office reassesses all damaged property in the jurisdiction.
4. Qualifying property owners apply for disaster relief.
5. The jurisdiction passes a resolution requesting that the Executive Council designate the jurisdiction as a declared disaster area.
6. The county assembles all the reassessment data and applicable resolutions into a disaster packet and sends it to the Property Tax Division at the Department of Revenue by November 1.
7. The Department of Revenue presents the packet to the Executive Council at their winter meeting and informs the county of the Council’s decision.

Each of the following sections will detail the required steps and considerations that the jurisdiction must take to successfully apply to the Executive Council.