Rural Assessor’s Exchange
By: Hallie Wendorf
The
list of new WAAO members in the December AVOW included 40 new members. Over two thirds of
them are town, small village or contract assessors. This is impressive, both in that there
are so many new members and that so many of them are nontraditional WAAO members. I
encourage all the new members to let your voice be heard. Assessors and WAAO are facing
many important issues, including full implementation of Ag use, the Ag use penalty, a
possible new Vol. II, new Board of Review procedures and possible changes to the
compliance law.
The
WAAO Board of Directors makes the policy decisions for the organization, so it is
important that when you have thoughts, ideas, and suggestions on any issue, you let the
board know how you feel. Feel free to contact any of the officers, directors or committee
chairpersons and tell them what you think. More and more rural assessors that I talk to
are deciding that they need to get involved. Please become one of them. I realize it can
be a sacrifice for many of you. There is probably no municipal budget to reimburse you for
your expenses or pay you for your time spent. But it is important that you take the time
to at least make a telephone call, send a fax, send an e-mail or attend a quarterly
meeting and talk to someone.
Here are some interesting facts I’ve heard on the full implementation of Ag use. With full implementation taxes in Milwaukee are expected to increase $10 per $100,000 of assessed value and in Madison they would increase $11 per $100,000. One township has calculated that taxes are expected to increase $35 on a home with a median assessed value of $172,000.
Compare
these projected increases to the $516 average tax increase for 1999 that occurred in one
town that I assess. This increase had nothing to do with Ag use and was not in a year
following a revaluation. It was due to a 19% increase in the equalized value. You can
believe I had a lot of phone calls on that tax increase.
In
a survey conducted by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and On Common Ground, 83% of the people
survey agreed with the statement, “Farmland should be assessed and taxed based on
what it is worth for farming and not what it is worth for developing.” 73 % of those
survey supported Ag use laws even if such laws raised their property taxes.
As you might know the WAAO
board has voted to fight immediate implementation of Ag Use. The reason for this is that
the board would like changes made to the law before the implementation is completed. The
type of changes they are looking for are changes that would compensate for the lost
tax
base and tighten up what property qualifies for Ag Use. It appears that a sub-committee
will be set up to discuss these issues, with members from the Legislative Committee, Real
Estate Standards Committee and the Rural Concerns Committee. If you are interested in this
issue, please let us know what you think.
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WAAO Education and Training
Committee Update by Reed Johnson
The committee last met on November 30, 1999 at West Baraboo Village
Hall. All members were in attendance. Also attending was Joyce Frey of the Rural
Concerns Committee.
We discussed rural and small jurisdiction educational concerns with
Ms. Frey. We gave her a course-planning
checklist to facilitate sponsorship of programs.
We supplied her with possible contact persons for farmland appraiser
and legislative process education. We talked
extensively about other educational ideas that are of interest to the small jurisdictional
assessor.
As we usually do at our fall meeting, we brainstormed possible
education topics and presenters to suggest when Reed meets with the League Assessor's
section or other groups. As always,
brainstorming potential presenters was more difficult than thinking of topics. Potential ideas included Problems of the Contract
Assessor, Practical Basic Income Approach and Data Collection, Marshall Swift basics (this
would likely have substantial costs associated with it), The Effect of e commerce on the
Infrastructure (UW-M), Problems of the New Assessor, Highway Right of Way Valuation, and
IAAO technical research and resources.
We recapped the successful IAAO Land Valuation Course of October
(fine job Mary and John) and discussed what next. An
advanced income course had won the last survey but, because of new people entering the
assessment profession, it was decided to take a quick hand survey also of the basic
Fundamentals of Appraisal Course at the December quarterly meeting. (Note: The survey subsequently indicated that we
might need to pursue both programs in the near future. This will be placed on our next
agenda.)
Barry was complimented for the nice work he's been doing presenting
his program on the assessor's duties. We are
reviewing the basic curriculum he has written so that we can address placing that on the
WAAO web site for use by WAAO members.
We discussed the problems with coordinating the IAAO seminar
(Valuation of One to Four Family Income Properties) scheduled at the Raintree Resort in
the Dells for March 7, 2000. The problems
seem to stem from the IAAO being accustomed to a short timeline for these types of
seminars and our preference for finalizing details further in advance. Coordinating the seminar has also been a problem
because, although it is officially being handled by the IAAO, our committee and program
committee are "unofficially" handling some of the details. Neither organization seems to have set procedures
for such a hybrid type of sponsorship. We
will continue to follow up and attempt to keep the seminar on track. (The IAAO has subsequently been provided with
mailing labels for all WAAO members and plans on mailing registration forms in
January.)
We briefly discussed targeting, recruitment, training and retention
of new employees, but this is a tough subject that will need future discussion and
development.
We did not have time to address the updating of last year's Board of
Review educational materials. That will have to move to the next meeting agenda. The committee plans to meet again on February 24,
2000.
Exemptions
By: Gregg Hagopian
Recall that family health had
attempted to make constitutional challenges to the legislature’s removal of its
property tax exemption. As you know, we stipulated that the litigation of the above case
be stayed pending the outcome of the similar litigation brought against the Dept Of Rev
and Glendale. Family Health lost the DOR case at the trial court and at the appellate
court, and I have just learned that the Supreme Court has refused to grant Family
Health’s petition for review. Hence, Family Health, finally, is willing to admit
defeat and to dismiss its case against the City of Milwaukee. I am now in contact with
Family Health’s lawyers about stipulated dismissal.
Legislative Report
By: Pete Weissenfluh
Discussion on Agricultural Use Value Assessment
Intensifies:
In
late November the Department of Revenue issued an emergency rule implementing the Farmland
Advisory Council recommendation to eliminate the remainder of the ten-year phase-in and
fully implement use-value assessment effective January 2000.
On
Dec. 16, 1999 the Senate members of the Joint Administrative Rules Committee held a public
hearing for invited speakers on the Ag-use emergency rule. WAAO was represented and
expressed its opposition to the elimination of the phase-in.
On
January 7, 2000 the Department of Revenue held a hearing on the emergency rule. WAAO was
represented at that hearing. The League of Municipalities and the Alliance of Cities also
were opposed to the elimination of the phase-in. Several Mayors of affected cities joined
in.
Some
information regarding the emergency rule procedure:
1) Emergency rules expire
after 150 days. With use value, that brings us to the end of April. The DOR can go back to
the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) to request an extension of
the emergency rule if the permanent rule is not implemented. (An emergency rule can be in
place for up to a total of 270 days.) JCRAR members
2)
If the permanent rule is drafted it goes to a Senate standing committee. This would likely
go to the Senate Ag Committee.
Meanwhile
Attorney General James Doyle has issued an opinion on the matter at the request of Senator
Chvala. He opined that the DOR has no authority to promulgate an administrative rule,
emergency or otherwise, which contravenes the legislative mandate of the phase in.
Following
a statement from Secretary Zeuske, critical of the decision, assessors received a letter
from John Rader indicating the department is still going to full (100%) implementation of
use-value.
It
has been rumored that the Senate Democrats may sue to stop the effect of the emergency
rule
Other recent legislative activities
AB 41
This
proposal would require assessors to allow a personal property taxpayer an extension to
March 31 if a request is by written request.
WAAO
has opposed this bill. The bill was voted favorably out of the Assembly Ways and Means
committee and will now go to Committee on Rules. Assuming it passes the Assembly, it will
then go to a Senate committee.
AB 186
WAAO
has supported this proposal regarding the mfg. assessment process. It passed in the
Assembly but is currently held up in a Senate committee.
YMCA Legislation
We
understand that Senator Mary Panzer is sponsoring a bill that would amend 70.11(10) to
exempt YMCA property in urban areas. We have not seen the language yet. Panzer was just
selected to replace Sen. Ellis as the senate minority leader.
Benevolent
retirement task force
This
task force finally was called together and has met twice. It is being facilitated by the
DOR. The goal of the task force is to report and recommend legislation to clarify the
exemption for retirement homes for the aged. From the first meeting it appears as if there
is a 5-5 split. We are very hopeful that we can agree on and recommend some legislation
that will help clarify these exemptions.
SENATE
JOINT RESOLUTION 24
This proposes to amend the
uniformity clause in order to reduce property taxes imposed on residential and
agricultural
ASSEMBLY
BILL 645 -ATM Valuation
Under
this proposal the personal property tax exemption for computers does not apply to
Automatic Teller Machines.
LRB-4266/1
This proposal comes from the
DOR. It includes several issues WAAO helped draft with the Department relative to
assessment practices. As far as we know, the Representative John Townsend is looking for
co-sponsors.
Computer Assisted
By: Martin Goldstein
The Commercial Sales section
in the ‘members’ only area of the WAAO web site is growing. A wealth of useful
information can be found there. If you haven’t already sent in your sales please do
so soon. Send your sales on an Excel or Lotus spreadsheet as an attachment to
sales@waao.org. If you don’t have your password to access the sales send, send the 5
or more character password you want to use to: password@waao.org. Don’t forget to
advertise job openings on the site. The WAAO web site is an important resource for WAAO
members; check it out periodically.
With the new law this
assessment season you will be able to require income data with every real estate appeal. If you do not
currently have a form the following is a good generic form to use for your
year 2000 appeals. You can copy it or print
one from the WAAO Web-page. Good luck from the Real Estate Standards Committee.
Personal Property Standards committee
Top 10 tasks undertaken by this year’s
Personal Property Standards committee
10) Review and update venerable PA-003
9) Help lead St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV (Done)
8) Prepare a personal property education program for the September institute
7) Wash president-elect Mary Hlavinka’s car weekly, in the hopes that the
committee’s 2000-2001 budget will be as pork laden as Computer Assisted’s
6) Review and overhaul the Real vs Personal classification guide
5) Produce the long anticipated sequel to “Filing Requirements For Personal Property
Statements”, have it once again go directly to video, but this time on Beta only
4) Recruit Pete Weissenfluh to the personal property committee in a shameless attempt to
get him more involved in WAAO
3) Serve as a lifeline for contestants on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”,
offering expertise in the areas of personal property assessments, nuclear physics, and
baked goods
2) Draft resolution to elect Bob Lorier the association’s first two time president
1) Lay low until the next IAAO convention comes to town