[Spam] Re: [Vision2020] Assessment of the Property Tax
Mark Solomon
msolomon at moscow.com
Sat Apr 9 11:33:35 PDT 2005
Shelley,
I don'tt know how the value was derived. I'd
assume from sale or conversion of similar
properties along Moscow's border.
m.
At 11:29 AM -0700 4/9/05, Shelly wrote:
>Thank you for Mark. I know Phil went to the
>assessors office with the intent to find out how
>the Trail property is assessed and this brochure
>was given to him.
>
>OOOOOOPS. I previously did say city not
>assessors office. I think I need to ask Phil. I
>will get some clarification. Sorry.
>
>Do you know how the value was derived of $250,000.00 for these ten acres?
>
>Shelley
>
>
>
>
>
>
>-------Original Message-------
>
>From: <mailto:msolomon at moscow.com>Mark Solomon
>Date: 04/09/05 11:17:04
>To: <mailto:CJs at Turbonet.com>Shelly;
><mailto:dickschmidt at moscow.com>dickschmidt at moscow.com
>Cc: <mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Spam] Re: [Vision2020] Assessment of the Property Tax
>
>Shelley,
>
>the numbers you are quoting refer to forest
>land, not agricultural land. We confuse the
>issue here in Latah County with our land use
>zoning designation of Ag/Forest. The county
>assessor does not. Most forest land in the
>county does not have the development potential
>any land adjacent to Moscow does, including the
>Trail property.
>
>Mark Solomon
>
>At 11:11 AM -0700 4/9/05, Shelly wrote:
>>Hi Jeff,
>>
>>Yes, CJ's is for sale for 1.3 mil. The assessed
>>value on CJ's building is based on it's income.
>>Similar to farmland.
>>
>>Phil picked up a brochure at the city called,
>>"Idaho's Forestland Taxation Law" that I think
>>can answer your other question. Since I do have
>>the brochure I will quote from it.
>>
>>We are in Zone 2 also known as Latah County.
>>Zone 2 Land Grade is as follows:
>>
>>For bare land and yield:
>>Good: $150.00
>>Med. $94.00
>>Poor: $48.00
>>
>>For productivity:
>>Good: $485.00
>>Med.: $311.00
>>Poor: $137.00
>>
>>In a nutshell:
>>10 acres of the "primmest" AG/FOREST land goes for $4,850.00 per acre.
>>Far cry from $250,000.00.
>>
>>40 acres of the "primmest" AG/FOREST land goes for $194,000.00 per acre.
>>Far cry from $1,000,000.00.
>>
>>Now, if you valuate AG/FOREST land on it's
>>"potential value" with added infrastructure,
>>not it's current value then the Trail "gifted"
>>land is easily worth over a million.
>>
>>Phil is at the meeting and I am home sick and
>>trying to get 2 years of reading done for Phil
>>on this levy issue.
>>
>>Shelley/Phil's wife
>>Yes Phil will get his own email account shortly. I hope! :)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-------Original Message-------
>>
>>From: <mailto:dickschmidt at moscow.com>Dick Schmidt
>>Date: 04/09/05 09:55:30
>>To:
>><mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>vision2020 at moscow.com;
>><mailto:jeffh at moscow.com>Jeff Harkins
>>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Assessment of the Property Tax
>>
>>Jeff,
>>
>>So then for example CJ's is for sale for $1.3
>>million then his assessment would be based on
>>that amount using a formula you have worked
>>which probably has one formula for business and
>>another for residential? In accordance to the
>>freedom of information law then someone could
>>go in and see what they are paying in taxes.
>>
>>Dick Schmidt
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: <mailto:jeffh at moscow.com>Jeff Harkins
>>To: <mailto:vision2020 at moscow.com>vision2020 at moscow.com
>>
>>>Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 9:10 AM
>>>Subject: [Vision2020] Assessment of the Property Tax
>>>
>>>As many of you have commented, the Tax
>>>Assessment Rate may not be a good measure of
>>>the tax burden for a particular county. And
>>>yes, you are absolutely correct.
>>>
>>>The real driver for the assessment of property
>>>tax on residents of a county is the level of
>>>budgeted expenditures for that county. As
>>>many of you are aware, the determination of
>>>the tax rate is derived by identifying the
>>>amount of revenue needed to fund the budgeted
>>>expenditures for the year. Then, given the
>>>level of assessed valuation subject to the
>>>tax, the tax levy rate is determined by
>>>dividing the required revenue (to be funded by
>>>property taxes) by the total assessed
>>>valuation or:
>>>
>>>Required revenues / Total assessed valuation = Tax levy rate
>>>
>>>But as is obvious, while the budgeted
>>>expenditures (required revenues) are driving
>>>the amount of taxes that will be assessed on
>>>property owners, it is the assessed valuation
>>>that determines the amount of tax that will be
>>>paid by each property owner. And there are
>>>numerous and inherent problems with the
>>>assessment process. In Idaho, the approach is
>>>to attempt to provide "uniformity" to achieve
>>>fairness in the assessment process. Below is
>>>a quote from the 2004-05 Ratio Assessment
>>>Manual (
>>>http://tax.idaho.gov/propertytax/pt_ratiostudy.htm):
>>>
>>>MEASURING ASSESSMENT UNIFORMITY
>>>Uniformity determines the quality and inherent equity of property
>>>assessments. Although both the appraisal and the market transaction
>>>are subject to distortion on any individual property, if the
>>>magnitude of this distortion is consistently large, taxes paid by
>>>similar properties in the same area will differ widely. The goal of
>>>a fair assessment program is to reduce inequity of this type.
>>>There are two overall types of inequity that can occur:
>>>1. Inequity between categories.
>>>2. Inequity within a given category.
>>>In the first case, inequity results when the assessment level is
>>>lower in one category than another. This situation becomes apparent
>>>when level indicators from different categories are compared.
>>>In the second case, the distortion is entirely within one category
>>>and is not indicated by measurements of level.
>>>
>>>I don't really like the property tax as a
>>>vehicle for funding public programs - not
>>>because I don't want to support public
>>>programs - but because the property tax is an
>>>extraordinarily difficult tax to administer.
>>>The overhead necessary to manage an equitable
>>>property tax system is enormous. Without
>>>getting into a diatribe or dissertation on
>>>administering a property tax system, consider
>>>the following elements of the system"
>>>
>>>Must maintain an online-realtime system of all real property transactions
>>>Must maintain a persistent and consistent real property assessment system
>>>Must maintain a means of adjudicating or
>>>resolving individual property assessment
>>>complaints
>>>Must maintain a system of oversight that
>>>monitors and assures that the systems operated
>>>by taxing jurisdictions in the State is fair
>>>and equitable
>>>The property tax is an expensive tax to
>>>manage. For example, in Latah County, we
>>>levied about $5.8 million in property tax for
>>>2003. Give or take a few $10's of thousands,
>>>the amount spent in Latah County for
>>>management of the Property Tax System was
>>>above $1,000,000 for 2003. This number is
>>>not readily available from the County's
>>>financial statements because the system is
>>>managed across more than one County department
>>>(Assessor's Office, Collector's Office, etc.),
>>>but the Revaluation program (administered by
>>>the Assessor's Office) spent $457,011 just on
>>>the revaluation program. From my memory
>>>(always a dubious source) the normal operating
>>>cost of the Assessor's office, in addition to
>>>the revaluation program) was about $700,000
>>>for 2003. Thus, if these numbers are at all
>>>reliable, about $.20 of every dollar collected
>>>in property taxes was spent in administering
>>>the tax. Of course, this does not include any
>>>costs incurred by the tax collectors office
>>>nor, at the state level, for their oversight
>>>responsibilities. Also, my numbers do not
>>>include the cost of having our elected County
>>>Commissioners serve as the local adjudicating
>>>body for appeal of property valuations. If
>>>you scrutinize the agendas for last year, you
>>>may be surprised at how much time was spent
>>>hearing tax appeals.
>>>
>>>And, by the way, even though we spend a lot of
>>>money on trying to assure that the property
>>>tax is fair and equitable, those that received
>>>their property tax assessment notices for 2005
>>>know that the system occasionally requires
>>>significant adjustment. Again I would refer
>>>you to the 2004-05 Ratio Assessment Manual for
>>>details about how the assessment oversight
>>>works. Here is that link again -
>>>http://tax.idaho.gov/propertytax/pt_ratiostudy.htm.
>>>
>>>As you dig into the details of the ratio study
>>>and the application of that technique to
>>>properties in Latah County (as well as other
>>>counties) you might want to refresh your
>>>statistical analysis tools - especially the
>>>difficulties of small samples. I noted that
>>>for 2003, in the assessment of Rural
>>>Residential properties (
>>>http://tax.idaho.gov/propertytax/PTpdfs/rpt_03_county_ratio_study.pdf
>>>) that Latah stats were generated from 11
>>>sales for that year. A sample this small can
>>>be problematic.
>>>
>>>This concludes my thoughts on property tax
>>>assessment and the tax burden on Latah
>>>residents. For me, the conclusion is pretty
>>>straightforward - our property taxes are
>>>rather high and the level of tax probably
>>>influences many potential businesses and
>>>individuals from living here. The fact that
>>>the Moscow - Lewiston region was the only
>>>sector of Idaho that did not report growth for
>>>the year is some indication of that.
>>>
>>>My next post on taxes will address the
>>>question of property tax exemptions and the
>>>impact of exemptions on tax receipts, fairness
>>>and equity of the tax exemption, etc. It will
>>>be a few days - I have some yardwork to do.
>>>
>>>Hope this was helpful.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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