Rankin Rankles Foes Of Cuts County Commissioner Gives Democrats An Earful On Cougar Gulch Assessments

Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin ventured into enemy territory Friday to defend commissioners’ assessment cuts for 63 Cougar Gulch landowners.

The conservative tax hound attended a weekly Democratic luncheon where Assessor Marv Vandenberg was explaining why he was challenging the cuts.

Rankin asked how Vandenberg expected to pay for an attorney to represent his position. Rankin said the county’s attorneys would be representing commissioners, and commissioners wouldn’t pay for Vandenberg to appeal their decision.

“One of us is going to have to come up with $40,000 or so for attorneys,” Rankin said to Vandenberg. “You could always lay off one or two people.”

Vandenberg shot back, “I didn’t create the situation, Ron.”

Commissioners and members of Vandenberg’s staff are in a feud over the situation, each claiming the other side is wasting taxpayer dollars.

At issue is the way appraisers set values for rural land south of the river.

Appraisers this year increased the values of some landowners’ home sites by $60,000 or more, but reduced the value of their surrounding land.

Commissioners contend that because surrounding land usually is eligible for tax exemptions, the move violates state law, and forces landowners to pay more. So they shifted the land values back to what they were the year before.

Vandenberg and his staff contend that was unfair to the other 330 homeowners with similar pieces of land. So he appealed the decision to the State Board of Tax Appeals.

“It was something I couldn’t accept because of the inequities it created between landowners,” Vandenberg said.

Rankin acknowledges appraisers set the values long before Vandenberg took office in March. But he contends Vandenberg knows the new procedure violates state law.

“He didn’t cause the problem, but he gets to live with it,” Rankin said. “He’s getting a bum rap for something others have done.”

But Rankin insists Vandenberg should have to cut his budget somewhere to pay for outside representation, rather than use the county’s attorneys.

“They know they’re wrong,” Rankin said.

Vandenberg’s not so sure.

“I have faith in the work my appraisers did,” he said.

Appeals will take place later this fall.

If the board rules in favor of Vandenberg, landowners are expected to take the case to district court.

If that happens, Rankin said, he intends to testify on the landowners’ behalf.

, DataTimes