Tax Appeals Decline, Not Outrage

Every year, Georgette Ellis tucks a note in with her check for property tax.

“I’m paying this under protest,” she writes.

The lakeside home that she and her husband bought for $25,000 during the Eisenhower administration was worth $151,000 by 1989.

Now that a yacht club and condominiums have moved in nearby, the Ellis’ property is valued at $347,000. Taxes - once $300 a year - now are $4,000. The couple fears they’ll be forced to leave their home of nearly 40 years.

“I see the raises continue and I wonder where it’s going to stop,” Georgette Ellis said. “For retired people, it’s outrageous.”

Monday was the deadline for people to appeal their property tax assessments, and, in Kootenai County, hundreds are. Assessments on about 500 lots are being contested, compared with 940 last year.

Before that, there were only about 50 appeals a year. There are 62,000 parcels in the county.

Tax activist Ron Rankin said this year’s drop in protests shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign that taxpayers are content.

“It’s not because the taxes are down, not because people are happy, but because people who are squawking are getting (their assessment) adjusted,” said Rankin, who’s a candidate for county commissioner.

Chief Deputy Assessor Mike McDowell said about one-fifth of the 2,000 to 3,000 people who’ve come in have walked out the door with lower assessments. Last year, twice as many showed up.

“A lot of the people who come in are simply looking for information on how we develop the value,” he said.

It helps that 1996 assessment increases are lower than last year, when increases averaging 28 percent enraged residents. This year, most Coeur d’Alene property values crept up 1 percent. In Post Falls, landowners saw a 7 percent increase.

Leslie Proctor was an exception. His one-third-acre lot on the west end of Coeur d’Alene was assessed at $24,725 this year - that’s 40 percent more than last year.

“That’s absurd,” he said. “They can’t offer me any explanation for it at the county assessor’s office except that every once in a while they have to go into an area and reassess it.”

The worst-hit are in outlying areas - Rathdrum, Athol, Bayview, Spirit Lake, Dalton Gardens and Hayden - where 37 percent increases this year are not uncommon.

A rise in property value doesn’t necessarily translate into a similar rise in property taxes. The taxes are determined this fall, when dozens of taxing jurisdictions - highway districts, schools, hospital districts - set their annual budgets. In most cases, the state limits them to increases of no more than 3 percent a year.

“The key is keeping the cost of government down,” said Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton.

The assessment determines what share of the tax burden a property owner bears. The good news: Everybody else’s property value is likely going up as well, so a 20 percent rise in property value doesn’t mean a 20 percent rise in taxes.

Overall, 1996’s increase was less than half last year’s, when assessed values rose $922 million. This year, they rose $429 million.

“The (real estate) market has slowed down a little bit,” said McDowell.

New construction continues to make up a significant hunk of that value: $141 million last year; $134 million this year. That eases the tax burden on current property owners, because there are more buildings to tax.

That’s cold comfort, however, to George Ricks, a 36-year-old construction worker in fast-growing Post Falls.

Ricks’ home and property are valued at $125,000 this year.

“I’ve had it on the market for over a year at $119,000,” he said.

So he’s fighting the higher assessment.

“They’ve promised us tax relief and I haven’t seen any,” he said. “This is more for principle than anything else.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo