It’s that time of year again, when local governments start throwing around numerous property tax rates and revenue projections based on what’s known as the constant yield rate.

The term and the rate come from the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, which decided several decades ago that constant yield rate is a more precise way of saying, “This is the tax rate your government could charge if it wanted to collect the same tax revenue in the year ahead that it got this past year with a different assessable base.”

“Constant yield’ means “constant result,” and it’s something the state calculates and makes public annually.

The Town of Berlin’s constant yield rate of 78.6 cents per $100 of a property’s assessed value reflects the current revenue the town collects and the reassessment of the town’s properties, which are now worth more than they were when assessed three years ago. Given that Berlin will collect $3.8 million or so in tax revenue this year with an 81.5-cent tax rate on that taxable base, it could charge almost three cents less against the larger tax base to bring in that same amount.

Make sense? Still confused? How about this: if a property is worth $100,000 and is taxed at 81.5 cents per $100, the bill will be $815. But if the property’s assessed value goes up $4,000, the tax bill can still be about $815 if government lowers the rate by slightly more than two cents.

The constant yield rate’s purpose is part of the “Truth in Taxation” standard adopted in Maryland back in the 1970s. Numerous other states might call it something else, but regardless of the label, its purpose is to give taxpayers a number to compare against whatever a government plans to charge in its new budget year.

Bear in mind, however, while the tax rate times the tax base is how local government gets much of its money, it has nothing to do with how much government must have to continue its operations at level the public expects.That’s why public hearings are required and why, possibly, it’s so confusing.