Mid-valley property tax bills coming out this month are slightly higher on most homes because tax values rose 3 percent.

Tax bills totaling more than $122 million will go in the mail Friday to the owners of about 62,000 pieces of real estate in Linn County. The total for the 2009-10 tax year is up about 4 percent from last year, Linn County Assessor Mark Noakes said.

In Benton County, bills adding up to $103 million-up a little more than 2 percent from last year - were mailed last week to owners of just under 40,000 property accounts.

Benton Assessor Doug Hillpot said one thing noteworthy in this year's tax news was a drop in industrial property values.

Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis was valued at $333 million, down from $397 million last year, as the company continued exporting machinery and cutting the number of jobs, Hillpot said.

Meanwhile in Linn County, Noakes said, utility values have risen, partly because Comcast, the cable company, now is assessed as a utility because of its two-way communication services.

Noakes pointed out that for most residential properties, there's still a big gap between assessed value and real market value. It means that the tax value went up the constitutionally allowed 3 percent even if market value stayed the same or declined.

Among other highlights on the Linn side:

• In Brownsville, bonds for a new water system came on line this year, boosting the tax rate by $2.32 per thousand dollars of assessed value.

• Linn County property as of Jan. 1, 2009, was valued at $7.7 billion, up 4.4 percent over one year. Idanha posted the biggest rise at nearly 14 percent, followed by Halsey at nearly 9 percent and Lebanon, Millersburg and Tangent with more than 6 percent.

• Composite tax rates per thousand range from under $13 in Gates to more than $23 in Brownsville. Albany's is $18.89. It's $22.24 in Lebanon and $22 in Sweet Home.

• Noakes pointed out two minor changes. Tax bills for accounts with two or more different last names will list only one owner. And owners of tax lots straddling taxing districts will get two separate bills.

Tax payments, or the first installments, are due Nov. 16.