MIDDLEFIELD - There may be good news for Middlefield property owners.

Town supervisor Dave Bliss said Tuesday afternoon that he has heard unofficially from the state that there will be a solution to the equalization rate snafu that last year placed a heavier school tax burden on Middlefield property owners.

"It's still unofficial," he said. "I don't have anything in writing yet."

The state has determined the town's equalization rate will remain at 100 percent.

That's good, Bliss said, especially if they drop the surrounding towns more than the standard rate.

The supervisor said that town officials complained to the state last year after residents were surprised by the sizeable hikes in school tax bills. The town had just undergone a complete revaluation of property and new assessments were coming on line, but the extent of the impact was not foreseen.

The state chalked it up to the fact that Middlefield had been underassessed for sometime and that the increase was just the result of the lower assessments being corrected by the reval.

Bliss said he contended that if Middlefield was underassessed, so, too, were the other nearby towns and was able to convince the state to take a look at it.

Tuesday he said that how much of an adjustment may have been made to other towns' equalization rates remains to seen when the figures are released, but that he anticipates taxpayers should see some relief in their school tax bills this year.