Assessor proposes $475,000 budget; $80,000 for lawsuits

The Jefferson County Assessor?s proposed $475,447 budget for fiscal year 2013 includes a 2.5 percent pay raise and an $80,000 line item for legal expenses.

The Jefferson County Conference Board will act on the proposed budget following a public hearing set for 4 p.m. Jan. 23.

The conference board consists of the county?s mayors, supervisors and representatives from the Fairfield Community School District and Pekin Community School District; the three entities each get one vote. The Jefferson County Assessor?s Office, as overseen by the conference board, is a separate budgeting entity from the rest of the county.

Assessor Sheri Blough Neff based the proposed 2.5 percent pay raise on the county compensation board?s recommendation for elected officials. She is prepared to adjust salaries if the board of supervisors reduces the recommendation.

Blough Neff?s current salary ? $56,539 ? is less than that of assessors in Henry and Wapello counties, both in the $59,000 range, and Washington County at $72,040.

The Van Buren County assessor?s salary is currently $41,850.

Blough Neff has been in office 34 years ? more than any other assessor included in the salary comparison.

Blough Neff budgeted $80,000 for litigation in both fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2013. In fiscal year 2011, the assessor?s office spent $104,617 on legal fees.

The office currently has seven cases awaiting the Property Assessment Board?s review in Des Moines.

Five of the lawsuits were brought by Key Outdoor Signs, a company responsible for area billboards. The company has requested the total assessed value of $164,000 be reduced to $40,428. The local board of review adjusted the value to $160,100.

?The billboards ? if you drive east of town, you?ll see the new steel billboards ? there?s almost as much in the ground as you see above the ground when you put those poles in, and the cost is really in the ground,? Blough Neff said. ?He compared us to Des Moines city with some of his billboards, and some of them [there] are slapped up on buildings like Anderson Erickson Dairy. The problem is Des Moines, the whole county, has not switched to the new manual yet.?

SunnyBrook Assisted Living is objecting to its $4.94 million valuation. SunnyBrook seeks to have its value reduced to $3.85 million. Blough Neff said the facility is ?top notch? and kept in excellent condition. The local board of review affirmed her valuation.

University Manor is protesting the $294,000 assessed value of land on which its Maharishi University of Management campus condominiums sit. The company believes the value should be reduced to $100,000. The Property Assessment Board has rejected University Manor?s lawsuits the last three years.

Blough Neff said the company continues to appeal because it has ?nothing to lose.?

?It costs them nothing to go before this board although this board?s findings will affect me, and I am bound by whatever decision they come up with on value, so it is like going to court,? Blough Neff said.

If property owners aren?t satisfied with the three-person board?s ruling, they can appeal to district court.

?[The PAB] was sort of a stop-gap measure designed by the Legislature to let the taxpayer appear before a court,? Blough Neff said. ?We [assessors] always wished we could have a ?tax court? where we could have judges who would understand real estate law and understand appraisal theory and understand our arguments and listen to the other appraisers argument and then make a decision.

?It hasn?t turned out that way,? she continued.

The Property Assessment Board was initially designed to sunset in six years, but the substantial number of filings have created a tremendous backlog, Blough Neff explained. Polk County has generated so many appeals, an additional 1.5 attorneys were hired by the county strictly to handle all the cases.

Blough Neff expects it will be at least two years before Jefferson County?s open appeals go before the board ? the owners do have to pay taxes levied against the assessed value in the meantime.

The assessor?s office was able to reach an agreement on the value of the former Arvin Meritor factory at 1801 W. Stone Ave. with owner Tower Investments LLC, a California-based investment company.

Tower Investments had asked the assessed value of $982,900 be reduced to $450,000. Since the building was recently sold, a compromise was reached at $650,000, so the company could make a clean break, Blough Neff explained.

Packwood Mayor Dave Dickey expressed disappointment in the state assessors association. He said the association should be pushing to reform the Property Assessment Board.

?The assessor?s association ? their opinion should be listened to in Des Moines,? Dickey said.

?But we?re the ones that asked for it,? Blough Neff answered. ?I would like to see filing fees and a little bit more something done ? more judges maybe. I?d like to get the backlog done.?

Blough Neff said the goal with her budget is to begin rebuilding her reserves after being forced by the conference board to first spend them down and then clean them out with legal fees for 22 lawsuits during the last fiscal year.