Residential assessments declared too low
6,800 Blaine County properties could experience 24 percent value increase
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Residents of Blaine County?s five cities who were surprised by their skyrocketing 2004 property assessments are in for another shocker. In many cases, assessments weren?t high enough, and the Idaho State Tax Commission has arrived to help straighten things out.
From 2003 to 2004, Blaine County raised assessed taxable property values $1.1 billion, to $7.8 billion. But in residential areas within city borders, that wasn?t high enough, according to the state Tax Commission.
?We raised values $1.1 billion, and they?re not high enough. You don?t know how much it kills me to say that,? said Blaine County Assessor Valdi Pace.
At issue are approximately 6,800 residential properties that are within the borders of Carey, Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley. Some, though not all, of the properties are undervalued, Pace said.
?The action is necessary due to rapidly rising property values in Blaine County and the non-conforming levels of the 2004 property assessments established by the Blaine County assessor,? said Gregory Cade, the tax commission?s county support administrator.
Under Idaho Code, the Blaine County Commission can convene as a Board of Equalization or defer to the Idaho State Tax Commission to re-solve the issue. If the tax commission makes the fix, it will add 24 percent value to all properties across the category, Cade said. The tax commission?s decision is not subject to appeals.
If the county commissioners make the fix, they can look at particular properties that might be undervalued, and increases would vary depending on the property in question. The commission?s decisions are subject to a five-day appeal period.
In meetings on Monday, the county commissioners, tax commission representatives and the Blaine County assessor attempted to sort things out. Under a draft plan presented to county commissioners Monday afternoon, approximately 3,000 of the 6,800 subject properties would be adjusted.
After crunching numbers on the 3,000 properties, Tax Commission tax policy supervisor Alan Dornfest predicted assessments could increase be-tween 40 and 140 percent, depending on location. The majority of the properties would be in Bellevue and Hailey, but the highest increases would be in Ketchum and Sun Valley.
?Is there potential for some being too high? Of course there is. You can?t avoid that,? Dornfest said, speaking in terms of statistical probabilities.
But the higher assessments do not necessarily translate into higher taxes, pointed out Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett and House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, both Ketchum Democrats. The legislators pointed out that property taxes are determined by the budgets of the taxing municipalities, in this case the Blaine County School District, Blaine County gov-ernment and the Blaine County Ambulance District.
?The local property taxes are a direct reflection of how the local entities spend,? Stennett said, pointing out that Blaine County has been sitting on a reserve fund of between $8 million and $5 million for several years. The reserve totals $4.9 million in the county?s 2004-2005 fiscal budget.
?As a taxpayer, I realized that there is a significant amount of money in the county budget that could be given back to the taxpayer,? Stennett said.
As for the assessments, what is happening in Blaine County is not unusual, Cade said. Every July, the state Tax Commission reviews county assessment records to ensure that equalization standards are met.
It happens every year statewide, and three counties are still under the microscope this summer, Cade said.
?We have found in our study that Blaine County?s assessments on residential land within the cities only did not conform to what we consider to be the market value standard for assessment purposes,? Cade said.
The problem, Cade and Pace agreed, is that Blaine County is growing way too fast.
?There?s really, really significant growth going on here,? Cade said. ?This is a very difficult challenge under the best of conditions.?
For this year?s first round of assessments, mailed in June, residential property values increased the most in Bellevue, at 28 percent and in Hailey, at 24 percent.
In the northern end of the county, where real estate is most expensive, changes were less dramatic, but property values still showed an increase. Sun Valley rose 14.3 percent, and Ketchum experienced a 9.7 percent increase.
Property values in Carey increased at just over 7 percent.
Explaining that things are moving quickly and changing rapidly right now, Cade called the assessment situation a ?fluid situation.?
The Blaine County Commission will probably meet on Friday. Pace and Cade said they would be prepared to offer the commissioners solid recom-mendations at that time.
That said, commissioners have not specified what direction they are leaning to resolve the issue.
They have until Monday, Aug. 9, to figure it out. That?s when the state Tax Commission is charged by law to equalize all properties within the state of Idaho.
