Here’s one way to think about property taxes: The local government sets its budget, subtracts all other tax revenue, and raises the remainder with the property tax levy. The assessor measures the value of all the parcels of taxable property inside the boundaries of the government. Then the government measures the share of each parcel in total assessed value. That is the share of the levy that the owners must pay.

In other words, your property’s share in the total value of property is your share of the property tax levy. We use property value shares to divvy up responsibility for funding local government.