Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Property tax revolt

Incline Village residents upset at assessments

A Nevada state law enacted in 2001 requires any government entity to give 21 days' notice before taking an action "against a person."

Homeowners in tony Incline Village, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe, figure that should apply to hearings at which they seek to appeal last year's 50 percent hikes in their property tax assessments.

The Washoe County Board of Equalization disagrees. The state's open meeting law requires only a three-day notice, and that's all the board intends to provide. After all, the board figures, it deals only with "property," taking no action against "persons."

So the Village League to Save Incline Assets went to court, arguing that posting a notice down at the government building three days in advance provides inadequate time to prepare a detailed tax appeal, especially since many Incline Village property owners live out of state.

Deputy District Attorney Leslie Admirand responds that local government would be unable to get anything done if a 21-day notice requirement was enforced. Last Friday, Washoe District Judge Steven Elliott sided with the government, ruling a three-day notice was adequate.

What's really going on up there? Reno attorney Suellen Fulstone, who represents the homeowners, says Incline Village residents were whacked last year with new assessed valuations which typically jumped 40 to 50 percent. Washoe properties are reappraised every five years, but interim adjustments are made based on land sales records, so taxable valuation have jumped "over the period of the five years, sometimes 100 or 150 percent."

Why? Ms. Fulstone argues the higher assessments on wealthy Incline Village are an attempt to make up for the fact that the casinos in Washoe County haven't been as successful of late. "I don't know if you're going to get them to admit that," she said, "but the correlation is there."

At the very least, county officials should be required to provide property owners with all the documents used to arrive at an assessed valuation, far enough in advance for them to retain an attorney and an independent assessor and organize a coherent appeal.

The priority here should be equity and justice, not the ease and convenience of those assigned to squeeze out more revenue for the local bureaucracy.

The notion that a property owner can fully analyze and coherently challenge the assumptions underlying such an assessment, when they're not handed the relevant documentation until the very morning of their hearing, is patently absurd.

The homeowners group has promised to file an immediate appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court. Here's hoping someone there remembers who's working for whom. County governments are instituted by the people to protect the citizens' rights and prerogatives -- not the other way around.