Landowners Inundate Tax Board Property Taxes Appealed Despite Lowered Appraisals

The property tax debate continues to rage unmuted by the often-criticized $50 million state-financed tax cut, and the center of the debate is the back yard of the property tax’s loudest critic - Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin.

Since the leader of the still unsuccessful One Percent Initiative took office in January, the three-member commission has slashed property valuations by $22 million.

State Tax Commission analyst Alan Dornfest said residential property in the county was appraised for tax purposes at 8 percent below market value in 1996.

Landowners have filed appeals for more tax relief with the state Board of Tax Appeals, spurred by property values that have soared because of the area’s explosive growth.

The state board has received 123 appeals from Kootenai County. Ada County, the state’s largest, has filed only 18. The number from most other counties is under 10.

“People say you can’t beat city hall,” said Rankin, a Republican who ran a failed independent bid for governor in 1994. “Well, now the taxpayers have an advocate in city hall.”

Still fighting to substitute state tax money for the more than $150 million in local property taxes now financing public schools, Rankin said he hoped the high rate of tax appeals would jolt state officials into action.

So far, it has only overwhelmed the small appeals board, likely pushing it to seek additional tax money to deal with all the cases.

But Marvin Vandenburg, a former Democratic state lawmaker and now Kootenai County assessor, said land valuation should reflect fair market values as a matter of equity.

And Vandenburg maintained what he called the county commission’s arbitrary reductions in valuations only shift the tax burden to the vast majority of land owners who do not protest values. The commission’s action, he claimed, simply rewarded disgruntled taxpayers who are forcing others to bear part of a their burden.