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EDITORIAL: Scratching Our Heads Over Assessor Valuations, Part One |
Bill Hudson | 6/8/09
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Archuleta County Assessor Keren Prior had been speaking in a casual, matter-of-fact tone with Daily Post writer Glenn Walsh and myself during our interview last Friday — heck, we’d even thrown a few jokes back and forth.
But her tone changed when Glenn asked his final question of the interview:
“So, has your staff received any threats?”
I thought Glenn was joking, but Keren’s tone became suddenly serious as she related a story about a gentleman who had showed up in the Sheriff’s Office, just down the hall in the County Courthouse, asking if it was legal to carry a gun into the Assessor’s Office. Another irate taxpayer had come into Prior’s office, threatening to “go Granby” and demolish Prior’s office with a bulldozer — apparently inspired by Granby, Colorado muffler repair shop owner Marvin Heemeyer who had used a heavily armored Komatsu bulldozer in 2004 to demolish Granby’s town hall, a former judge’s home, and the public library, before committing suicide when the bulldozer’s engine failed.
“I asked him, ‘Are you serious? Do you have any idea what you just said?’ These people are not rational," Prior asserted.
"They’re upset, a lot of them are out of work — and their property values have gone up. We’re all in the same boat. My value went up $70,000 on my home.
“Yes, we are concerned. The Sheriff is watching the front doors on monitors, we’ve got panic buttons installed in the office; we’re trying to cover all our bases because... no, I don’t feel safe.
“I do not feel safe,” she repeated.
 We had been talking for the past half hour about the County property tax valuations — a re-evaluation of residential, commercial and vacant land which occurs every two years as required by state law. The valuations are established by the Assessor’s Office based on a complex formula of property characteristics and recent property sales within various neighborhoods. Notices of the new valuations arrived in the mail early last week, and many people were shocked to find that their property value had increased substantially since the 2007 valuations were sent out.
How, indeed, could anyone’s property be worth more in 2009 — in the midst of a local and nationwide real estate meltdown — than it was worth in 2007?
And if you feel certain that your new valuation is incorrect, what options do you have for protesting the Assessor’s Office valuation — short of welding together an armored bulldozer?
These were some of the questions Glenn and I had on our minds when we sat down with Keren Prior during a very busy Friday afternoon. I’d originally scheduled the interview for earlier that morning — but Prior had been too busy handling complaints, and had to postpone the meeting until the afternoon.
My personal interest in the new valuations was sparked as I walked out of the Post Office on Hot Springs Boulevard, headed for my white Daily Post van. A man I didn’t know came toward me with a bundle of mail in his hand, and asked if I was connected to the Daily Post.
“I hope you guys are going to research this story,” he told me. “Have you seen the new property tax valuations? I don’t understand how the County can tell me my property is worth more now that it was two years ago. Look at this...” He slid a printed form from an opened envelope and showed me that his land in Aspen Springs subdivision had apparently increased in value by about 40 percent since 2007.
I’d heard through the grapevine that the valuations might go up by 10 percent or so, but I was honestly shocked to see a 40 percent increase on vacant land in Aspen Springs — one of the less prestigious neighborhoods in the county.
Then I realized that my own valuation letter was in the bundle of mail I was holding. How much had my property value gone up? I opened the envelope and pulled out my letter.
Much to my surprise, my 100-year-old downtown house had increased in value by $79,000 — a 41 percent increase. Continued...
Before the passage of Ballot Measure 1A in November 2006, an increase in property valuation like this would have meant very little, in terms of increased taxes — because the formulas written into the Colorado Taxpayers Bill Of Rights amendment, better known as TABOR, would have automatically reduced the County’s mill levy to prevent net taxes from increasing.
But countywide voters approved Measure 1A following a Board of County Commissioners’ promise that the extra funds would be used only for road maintenance, parks and recreation development, staff training, technology improvements, and County facilities — and the County was given permission to retain a mill levy of just over 18 percent, even if valuations went up.
According to 1A, the increased rates would kick in during 2008. As a result, my 2008 property taxes on my house had gone up about 25 percent. Meanwhile, the Assessor’s Office was in the middle of calculating the new valuations — based on a complex state formula, using property sales from 2007 and the first half of 2008.
As Prior made clear in our interview on Friday, her office has no significant leeway in the way they calculate property values. The values developed by her office are required, by state law, to be within just a few percentage points of the state formula — or else the results can be disastrous for the County government.
Values that are calculated improperly can initiate a full Colorado state audit, at great expense. So Prior has to do the job right the first time around.
“I have state auditors who come in, and make sure I’m not chasing sales, that I’m treating everybody the same, that nobody’s treated any different.”
“What's the cost if we fail the audit?” Glenn asked.
“Oh my gosh, were you around the year we failed the audit? That was back before I was elected. It cost the County, in today’s terms, about $1 million — and that money came out of the County coffers; that’s money that could have been spent on the roads or for other services. We had to pay for the state to send down employees, we had to pay their salaries, their per diem, their travel ... to come in and do the job that the Assessor’s Office should have been doing.
"I don’t know, maybe they were understaffed. That’s what happens.”
Obviously, Prior is not interested in failing her state audit. But how could Archuleta County property values have gone up by an average of about 25 percent — during a real estate market meltdown?
Read Part Two... |
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