Valdi Pace is the Blaine County assessor.
By VALDI PACE
The 2007 assessment notices are in the mail. Idaho law (Title 63) says the assessor is to assess properties at "current market value." There are occasions that the assessment of your property can and will change yearly. That depends not only on physical changes to the property, but also because of changes in the marketplace. Physical inspection of property in the county is done on a five-year cycle. If your property is not in the current physical inspection cycle, we typically make changes to the values by "trending or indexing." The trends are a result of our analysis of the sales data that we receive throughout the year. (All sales used in the assessment process must have been a closed transaction prior to January 1st of the current year.)
Unfortunately, due to Idaho's being a non-disclosure state, the sales information we receive is limited compared to the amount of actual activity that occurs in the marketplace. The 2005 returns were the lowest in history for Blaine County at just over 13 percent. The return of 2006 sale letters was up at 25.8 percent. However, the sales transactions that took place were down by 62 percent, so the actual letters returned were very close to the 2005 count.
We once again have limited information in making the decisions when we assess your property. It is up to you, the property owner, to be sure that you and your neighbors are being treated equitably, and paying your fair share of the property taxes. You, the property owner, should encourage your friends and neighbors to share their sales information with us. As I have stated in the past, the more information we have, the better a job we can do in assessing values, thereby creating fairness and equity throughout. Once again, what that means for you, the property owner, is that your values were set based on this limited information--i.e., one sale may have set your value. I have made attempts in my two terms as your assessor to get better information; however, new buyers consistently tell me they are told not to disclose to the assessor what they paid for their property, thereby making our job of fairness and equity a very difficult task to achieve.
The amount of sale transactions that transpired in 2006 indicates that the market was soft. However, according to the information we received in the past year, we have not seen a decline in sales prices. There is a considerable amount of inventory on the market. Our studies did not prove that sales prices went down in 2006 in all of Blaine County. Some areas are flat, but most areas will not see a major decrease in values for the 2007 assessment drive. The one area in which we saw substantial increases was in residential condominiums. That category of property was out of compliance in our ratio study performed by the State Tax Commission. Therefore, the projects that were not up for the five-year re-appraisal cycle were trended according to the sales information received.
The 2006 Legislature increased the homeowner's exemption to $75,000, and for 2007 the exemption was increased to $89,325. The exemption is applied to your land value as well as to your home value, and is applied to your value at 50 percent up to $89,325 whichever is less. That is a benefit to the primary-residence homeowner.
Your assessed value is as of January 1, 2007. Any changes made to your property or the marketplace after that date will be reflected in the 2008 assessment. Please note that you will not see estimated taxes on your 2007 assessment notice, and due to a new computer program you will not see last year's value on the assessment notice. What you will see on your assessment notice are the taxing districts in your tax code area, the dates of their budget hearings if applicable, and their telephone numbers. Your portion of the tax dollars needed to pay for those budgets (local government, school bonds, etc.) is determined by calculating the levy rate times your 2007 assessed value. The levy rates are not set until the budgets are finalized and approved. They are not typically available until late September. It is up to you, the taxpayer, to get involved and be a participant in those budget hearings to make sure your tax dollars are spent wisely.
Please look at your assessment notice. Now is the time to appeal your assessed value if you disagree with our value, not in November when the tax notices are sent to you. If you question the values stated, first ask yourself, "Could I sell my property for the assessed value?" If you still have questions about the values, please call the Assessor's Office at 788-5535 before the June 25th deadline for appealing assessed values. We will answer your questions to the best of our ability using the sales information that we currently have. If you have additional sales information, or a recent fee appraisal (within 6 to 12 months) we will consider this in our analysis and discussions of your property value. It is up to you, the property owner, to provide us with the evidence that we are incorrect in our valuation. Please remember that a sale after Jan. 1, 2007, will have an impact on the 2008 assessed values, not the 2007 values.
