Lincoln County Tax Appraisals - Way To High and Nothing Can Be Done, and in a Time of Economic Collapse

"Schweitzer rejects 2nd request for special sesson on reappraisal, calling it 'fool's errand'

HELENA - For the second time this fall, Gov. Brian Schweitzer has rejected a call to summon legislators into special session to address some large increases in property tax bills stemming from the latest reappraisal.

The latest call came from the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors in a letter sent to Schweitzer on Monday by its government affairs director, John Sinrud, a former Republican legislator from Bozeman. Sinrud made the letter public Wednesday.

Sinrud's letter said many business and residential property owners are "shocked by the large increases in estimated taxes that will have to be paid on their current properties, either homes or businesses."

"Some property owners may be forced out of their homes due to the unreasonable and unfounded increases in their property values which could result in paying excessively higher taxes," Sinrud said.

Schweitzer made it clear in an interview he won't be calling a special session at the cost to taxpayers of $80,000 a day.

"To call a special session to bring the same people back that crafted this bill and refused to listen to the information provided might be a fool's errand," Schweitzer said.

Sinrud's letter discussed House Bill 658, by Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, which the Legislature passed seeking to reduce the financial impact of reappraisal on many property owners. The letter said several inconsistencies were used in the assumptions for the bill that showed "overwhelming biases" against specific regions in the state, including the Flathead.

The association asked that Schweitzer and the Legislature work in cooperation to hold a special session dedicated "solely to resolving the current inadequacies in our reappraisal process."

It wants him to call a special session before Dec. 31 so legislators can adopt "a stop-gap measure to solve the current reappraisal problems." Then it wants the Legislature to establish a committee to come up with "a permanent equitable solution to Montana's property tax issues" and present a bill to the 2011 regular legislative session.

In response, Schweitzer said Jopek's HB658 passed the House but was rewritten by the Republican-controlled Senate Taxation Committee and was ultimately passed over Jopek's objections. He said his administration didn't support the rewritten bill and warned of its consequences.

Schweitzer said he received the final version of the revised bill on his desk two days after legislators adjourned so he couldn't issue an amendatory veto as he sometimes has done. He ultimately let HB658 become law without his signature and criticized it.

The Democratic governor questioned whether the Republican senators who rewrote Jopek's bill would listen to any advice from the administration the second time around.

"Meanwhile, the Legislature will be meeting again in 14 months," Schweitzer said. "Maybe the best solution is for the voters to find new legislators who will listen to people like Mike Jopek and the Department of Revenue."

Schweitzer said he made it clear before the session that the Legislature shouldn't "raise an additional penny for the state of Montana because of the changes in value. We don't need the money."

In September, Schweitzer rejected a demand by Republican legislative leaders for a special session to address higher than anticipated property value increases, and thus higher property taxes, for commercial or small-business property owners.

Residential property values rose by an average of 54 percent statewide in the latest reappraisal, with the percentages varying widely by county and within counties. Likewise, commercial property values went up by an average of 43 percent, while agricultural property increased by an average of 32 percent. The value of forest land rose an average of 24 percent.

Sinrud's letter said a study done for the Legislative Finance Committee showed 11 counties will be disproportionally affected by higher than expected residential property values, including Flathead, Lake and Lincoln counties.

However, the report by the Legislative Fiscal Division showed that the actual average residential increases in Flathead and Lake counties turned out less than the Legislature anticipated, although Lincoln County's average was twice as high as expected. "

Source:
http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8846fd32-c439-11de-acd4-001cc4c002e0.html