NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) - From downtown Norfolk to commercial areas around the city, many property owners are getting surprised by property valuation increases in letters from the Madison County assessor.
The biggest objections appear to be for the increases that are taking place for commercial property.
Rhonda Hopkins is the owner of Leisure Lodge on 13th Street in Norfolk. Hopkins said her small-business property valuation went from $49,000 to more than $160,000.
“I was told Madison County’s values were far below the state’s numbers. So they hired a company to come in and take a look at all business property. Total value was increased by over $100 million,” Hopkins told the Norfolk Daily News.
She said her complaint is not that the new valuations are not more accurate, but more in how it was handled.
“My property was reassessed in May 2018. The county has known for two years this huge increase was coming. My property value had barely changed since 2006. It is not my fault they did not do their jobs and keep up with the values, but now I will be paying the price,” Hopkins said.
“It seems to me it would have been more fair to spread this increase over a few years instead of getting one gigantic hit,” she said.
Jared Faltys, a downtown Norfolk business owner and certified public accountant, said he had heard from many business owners that the valuation increases come at a time that the economy is coming out - or still in - shutdown due to COVID-19. Faltys also has reached out to the county board in response to helping the firm’s clients.
“The business community can only absorb so much in general and even worse during shutdown to find out taxes are going up 15% to 20% and, in one case, over 400%. This is harmful to economic development when we work so hard to keep the economy in good shape,” Faltys said in an email to the county board.
His goal is to inform public officials, acknowledge that valuations went up and hope that officials acknowledge that levies need to come down.
“We understand that governments are going through tough times as other sources of revenue are seeing shortfalls, but we need to be aware that businesses can’t absorb these increases in taxes as well. There has to be a compromise,” he said in an email.
Jeff Hackerott, Madison County assessor, said valuations are determined by the sale of other properties.
Hackerott said the county did hire an outside firm to conduct the reappraisal of commercial properties.
“This is something we have done in the past with regards to other reappraisal projects,” he said. “Due to staff limitations, this is the only way to complete projects in a timely manner.”
Hackerott said his office does not track percentage increases for each of the classifications of property, such as commercial, residential and agricultural.
Hackerott said he understands some people dislike having a big jump in valuations. There also are some people who figure they saved money over the long haul by not having much increase in some of those years.
“We do hear arguments from both sides of this equation, and there are pros and cons to each side. This office is limited by both fiscal and labor resources. As such, we are simply not able to review each and every property every year,” Hackerott said.
It is “very unfortunate” that the valuations had to be mailed out during these trying times.
“Honestly, I can’t think of a worse time to have this project come to fruition. If it were possible for us to hold this back for a year, we would have gladly done so. However, I don’t believe anyone could have foreseen the current state of economic affairs at the time this project was undertaken.
“Obviously this reappraisal work was largely complete prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Any fallout regarding the economic ramifications related to COVID-19 will not be able to be considered until the 2021 valuations at the earliest. At this time, there has been no locally measurable market effect from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Hackerott said for anyone who has documentation indicating a valuation other than what has been proposed, his office will gladly review that information. That way his office can determine whether a revised valuation is appropriate.
“If you have questions or concerns, please call the assessor’s office and we will discuss the matter with you,” he said.
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