LYNN – A public hearing has been tentatively scheduled for Dec. 11 at City Hall to discuss how to allocate taxes to commercial and residential properties, according to Director of Assessing Peter Caron.The hearing will consist of information and data relevant to making a decision on the percentages of fiscal year 2008 taxes for residential and commercial property.The financial effect of alternatives, the open space discount, residential exemptions and the small commercial exemption will also be discussed.While there is still time to work out the numbers, Caron said he would like to alert residents and business owners to the situation.”Right now we’re in a re-certification year, which means the state is auditing the entire process and re-evaluating properties for 2008,” he said. “It’s a pretty stringent review and it tells you how to value properties.”Caron said he assumes that residents will be frustrated with their tax bills this year, since the new bills will not reflect the current low rates.”Despite all of the chaos in the real estate market that has occurred over the past six months, none of that will be reflected in the assessments,” he said. “We have to rely on the market rate as of Jan. 1, 2007.”Caron said while he recognizes that properties may not be selling at the same rate that they did one year ago, tax bills increase when a city’s budget increases, regardless of the property’s value.”People are going to say, well everyone knew that the market was going to crash in 2007 so they shouldn’t have bought property, but people didn’t know,” he said. “I recognize that properties aren’t selling for the same amount today that they did one year ago, but we are operated by the law to set the rates based on last year.”Properties are still being inspected according to Caron, who said that resident would be able to review the assessments at the library and online.”People will be able raise objections or correct mistakes before the bills go out,” he said. “A classification hearing will then be held and we’ll send out the bills, typically on Dec. 31.”According to Caron, the residential and commercial exemptions are an option for Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. to decide upon with the approval of the City Council.Caron said commercial taxes are usually set as high as possible for Lynn businesses and historically, the Council has voted to set the rate higher than residential rates.”They haven’t really been contentious in the last six years or so because the Lynn business rate is pretty comparable to other communities,” he said. “Everyone complains that the residential market is terrible, but the commercial market has been steadily increasing. However, there is talk of a recession.”