County commissioners gave a lukewarm reception last week to a request to shorten the appeal period for property assessments.
Currently, state law requires a 30-day period for property owners to file an appeal regarding their assessed value; the county gives people 60 days to file an appeal to the Board of Equalization after valuation notices are mailed.
Assessor Peter Van Nortwick sent an e-mail on March 15 to commissioners asking them to reduce the time to 30 days.
Commissioner Tom Mielke said last week that he would like to have a public hearing before approving the request. Commissioner Steve Stuart said it’s unusual to have a request to shorten an appeal period; typically commissioners are being asked to give people more time to file an appeal.
Van Nortwick said Monday that approximately 1 percent of property owners appeal their assessed values.
Van Nortwick, who took office in January, said the office has been running behind on mailing valuation notices; they’ve been arriving in mailboxes in the fall instead of the spring.
Tack on 60 days for people to file an appeal, and that means a lot of appeals can’t be heard before the end of the year, when local taxing districts are adopting their budgets. The districts depend on reliable property tax information, Van Nortwick said, and when changes are made due to successful appeals, the districts have to cut from their budgets.
He said shortening the appeal period could be a temporary solution until the office gets back on schedule.
He gave commissioners three reasons for shortening the appeal period:
• “It will allow us to better manage our internal work flow so that in the future we can meet the state guidelines to mail valuation notices in the June time frame.”
• “It will allow us to address more appeals prior to the certification of the (tax) rolls, reducing the impact on the budgets of the taxing districts.”
• “It will allow us to address legitimate assessment issues in a timely manner, so that more appellants may have resolution prior to their 1st-half taxes due date, thereby reducing taxpayer refunds.”
Earlier this year, Van Nortwick supported a bill under consideration by state lawmakers that would allow the county to charge commercial property owners up to $500 to appeal their values to the Board of Equalization. The bill has died.
