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Fairbanks North Star Borough officials said the trans-Alaska oil pipeline’s taxable value will jump by billions of dollars this year, a move that will bring Fairbanks and the state millions in extra property taxes.

Borough attorney Rene Broker said the state government sent word of the coming increase on Thursday. The state assigns a value each year to the pipeline system, a decision that has a notable impact on the budgets for a handful of communities including Fairbanks.

The $7.75 billion value referenced at Thursday night’s Borough Assembly meeting represents almost a two-thirds increase from last year’s assessment. State assessors could not be reached Thursday night to confirm or explain the increase, although Broker said three pipeline communities — Fairbanks, Valdez and the North Slope — had recently teamed up to provide the state with an analysis that challenged past years’ calculations as low.

Oil companies that own the pipeline have said it should be valued at around one-tenth of Thursday’s figure, an argument that drew disbelief from Assemblyman Bill Stringer, who joked that the Alaska Legislature should simply try and buy the 800-mile pipeline for that much.

A spokesman for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the consortium of oil companies that operates the pipeline, could also not be reached to comment on whether it would appeal the new assessment.

The consortium has challenged similar — albeit far smaller — increases to its property tax bill in 2006 and last year. The battle is headed to court, and Thursday’s news would seem to hand at least a sideline win to the borough and other communities that have argued the line should be assessed at more than $7 billion. The oil companies have argued in recent years that the pipeline should be valued at $800 million.

The Borough Assembly voted, minutes after Broker relayed news of the 2008 assessment, to hand her department $392,000 to cover upcoming court costs. The money had already been set aside in 2006 following a favorable tax ruling by a state review board.

Mayor Jim Whitaker estimated the 2008 assessment will add more than $3 million in unanticipated taxes to the borough’s $120 million-plus budget. He credited the borough Law Department, which hired the consultants to compile the analysis submitted to the state.

“They have done a great job and it has a direct benefit — a significant direct benefit — to the residents of this borough,” Whitaker said.