Board offers own plan to equalize

Members of the Wahkiakum County Board of Equalization (BOE) this week offered their own plan to equalize property assessments on Puget Island.

Last week, Assessor Bill Coons asked the county board of commissioners to approve a resolution calling for a special session of the county Board of Equalization to consider property tax appeals from Puget Island land owners. He hoped that because of the large number of appeals, the Board of Equalization will be able to adjust values for all Island parcels. Commissioners delayed action on Coon's proposed resolution to get input from Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow.

Instead, BOE Chair Nick Nikkola and Clerk Colleen Haley presented their own plan. Nikkola suggested the commissioners adopt a different resolution ordering the BOE to equalize the values for Puget Island properties when it meets this July.

Bigelow commented that the commission lacked authority to mandate the equalizations; he suggested the commission write a letter of support for the plan, and commissioners agreed to do so.

In a statement to the commissioners, Nikkola disagreed with Coons's proposed course of action from last week, to convene the BOE in a special session.

Instead, the BOE has supplied the assessor's office copies of the files from the 137 remaining appeals from Island property owners. The assessor can try to reach stipulated agreements with the property owners, and if there is no agreement, the BOE will hold hearings next July, Nikkola said.

Nikkola added that Coons may have given the impression that the assessor's office controls the BOE, but in fact, as required by law, they are completely independent.

Also, Nikkola said in the statement, that contrary to previous reports, the BOE did meet in July, 2010 and held hearings on appeals from 2008 and 2009. The statutory deadline for the assessor to certify the tax role is July 1, but previous Assessor Sulema Zerr didn't certify the role until December, 2010, Nikkola said.

"After receiving the opinion from the county prosecutor, the members of the BOE discussed the workload associated with equalizing, the potential for prolonged wrangling with the state Department of Revenue and concluded the best course of action is to use the time between now and July 15 to complete all the footwork and, upon convening in July, to equalize the Island for the 2011 assessment year," he said.

Coons and the BOE are seeking an equalization of Puget Island property values because they and taxpayers feel properties were incorrectly assessed.

There were 168 appeals of assessments last year, they said, a 400 percent increase in the number of county wide appeals from 2009 and 800 percent increase from the long term average.

Their market analysis indicates that 44 percent of Island property valuations are in error by 20 percent or more.

Under the plan which Nikkola proposed, the BOE could adjust Island valuations in 2011 for taxes in 2012.

The move would mean lower taxes for entities such as Fire District No. 1 and Consolidated Diking District No. 1, but officials from those boards told commissioners they could live with the reductions.