Normally, extending the deadline for taxpayers to appeal their valuations from 30 days to 60 days wouldn’t have much of an impact.
This year, however, because the valuation of parcels is wrapping up later than usual, Lewis County Assessor Dianne Dorey said it will significantly affect taxing district’s budgets.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the extension on Monday anyway.
The valuation process, which is normally complete by early September, has been delayed because the Assessor’s Office has been short-staffed in part of 2014 and all of 2015 and because of training that took place in late 2014, Dorey said.
In a typical year, even if taxpayers had 60 days to appeal their value, the 60-day deadline would be before the end of the year.
Levies will be approved in December, but the new 60-day appeal deadline will be in January due to the later valuation notifications.
“Once those levies are set, they’re set. The taxing districts are given ‘x’ amount of dollars and that’s what they get to collect for next year,” she said.
However, things such as structure fires, senior exemptions and incorrect dimensions can change the values, Dorey said. She estimates about 1,000 of those types of changes are made each year; those changes don’t go to the Board of Equalization.
An average of 150 to 250 appeals to the board are filed annually, most of which are handled by the Assessor’s Office and don’t reach the board.
“Any changes that I make in January will ultimately be a loss to the taxing district,” Dorey said.
That’s because the only way a taxing district can recoup that money is if people have repaid their taxes in full. If the taxes are repaid in full, the taxing districts can run a refund levy the following year, recapturing the money, she said.
Essentially, taxing districts that could have used refunds in this year’s budget will have to wait another year.
“But if these people haven’t paid their taxes, they simply get a new tax bill,” Dorey said. “And the amount of taxes that they pay gets reduced to the taxing district, and it doesn’t get recaptured. That’s the problem.”
Taxing districts in East Lewis County will likely be the most affected by the extension because the Assessor’s Office just revalued that area, Dorey said.
Dorey didn’t know about the resolution until late on Nov. 10. The resolution was originally on the board’s Nov. 16 agenda, but it was tabled until Nov. 23.
“I was a little shocked (Monday) morning when I wasn’t asked to address the BOCC … this has been in secret. … I wasn’t told that it was even being thought about, being done. The BOCC just decided to do it and it directly affects my office,” she told The Chronicle.
While Dorey could have spoken to the issues during the public comment period, typically the commissioners invite the affected departments to speak to each agenda item, but they didn’t do so with the resolution for the extension.
Commissioner Bill Schulte instead addressed the resolution.
“We believe that the citizens of Lewis County should have an adequate amount of time to appeal their assessments if they so chose,” he said.
According to Schulte, there are only 15 business days in December for citizens to file appeals, and January would give them another 20 days.
Dorey told The Chronicle December has 20 working days.
In an email to taxing districts, Dorey notes that the two-page form tells taxpayers they can submit information relating to their appeal up to seven business days before the hearing. It typically takes between four to 18 months for a hearing to be scheduled.
In the email, Dorey encouraged taxing districts to recommend commissioners pass the extension for the 2017 taxing year.
Dorey told The Chronicle many taxing districts did contact commissioners prior to Monday’s meeting but, apparently, they didn’t have enough of an impact to influence the vote.
She said she also asked the commissioners to pass the change for 2017.
In the email, she wrote that she tried to “educate several entities in the county how this seemingly small change will have serious consequences to each of (the taxing districts).”
While she told The Chronicle she has ideas as to why the commissioners pushed the change through to go into immediate effect, she didn’t want to “go there politically.”
In 2014, 255 appeals were made. Each appeal represents one parcel, so many appeals belong to multiple parcel owners. Not all of the appeals proceed to hearings, and some have yet to be scheduled, according to Dorey.
