Nevada Assessors Association resets talks on counties’ property valuation

Michael Mears, the Eureka County assessor and chairman of the Nevada Assessors Association, said the assessors have too much work to do to attend a scheduled Thursday meeting with the state Board of Equalization.

County assessors must send out cards that show residents the current assessed value of their property by Dec. 18. Appeals then follow.

The five-member state equalization board hears appeals from residents and businesses who believe their property value assessments are too high. Four of the members are private appraisers.

The meeting is important since it would give the assessors an opportunity to explain to the board whether they are following the state constitution and laws that require them to follow a uniform and equal method of assessing property values.

In an series of investigative stories, the Nevada Policy Research Institute, or NPRI, recently charged assessors with ignoring the constitutional requirement for equal and uniform assessments.

Assessors are supposed to follow assessment policies listed in a manual after being approved by the State Tax Commission. No manuals, however, have been released since 1999.

Steve Miller, vice president of the conservative Las Vegas-based think tank, contends the assessors wanted to dodge the Thursday meeting because NPRI has alerted the public of their failure to follow the constitution. Miller contends individual county assessors make up their own policies when appraising property values.

“I believe there is a de-facto conspiracy by all parties to duck the problem and ignore the legal requirements,” he said earlier this week.

“What they are doing is keeping the money coming in,” Miller said. “That has been their top priority, not following the law.”

But Mears and Clark County Assessor Mark Schofield said they just are too busy in December and preferred a meeting in 2010 when the Nevada Taxation Commission also could attend.

“Our primary concern is that we have a busy December,” Schofield said.

State Taxation Department director Dino Dicianno and the assessors acknowledge there is no current Tax Commission manual for assessors to follow, but they disagree with the notion that county assessors are breaking the law.

Dicianno said a law change requires the Tax Commission to adopt its policies through regulations approved at public hearings, not through a manual.

“Every time we adopt a regulation we are sued,” he added. “We are constantly in litigation.”

A number of proposed regulations could be implemented soon, he added. They are under review with the legislative counsel.

Mears said he stopped attending Tax Commission hearings on proposed regulations because, instead of taking five or six meetings to adopt a regulation, it now takes more than 30 because lawyers for property owners at Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe bring up challenges.

Since at least 2002, some Incline Village residents have argued that their property has been overvalued by the Washoe County assessor. They have won cases before the Nevada Supreme Court.

Schofield maintained county assessors do follow all state tax laws on assessing property and the studies on property values conducted by the Taxation Department.

He added that there is no system that would guarantee that the same property, if found in different locations, would be appraised at the same value.

“I can find anomalies in every county,” he said. “Location, location, location is the oldest adage in real estate.”

Contact Las Vegas Review-Journal Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.