Hearings to begin on property valuations

Published 9:56 am Friday, July 8, 2011

The first letters notifying property owners about the upcoming board of revision meetings went out Thursday from the County Auditor’s office.

That board gives commercial property owners and homeowners who disagree with the recent re-evaluation of the parcels they own the chance to state their case.

Following the re-evaluation of about 55,000 county parcels, there were 352 owners who said their appraisals were too high. Appraisers were sent back into the field to re-assess the parcels.

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Those taxpayers who did not accept the new figures now have the opportunity to explain to the board why their evaluation should be changed.

The board, made up of the County Auditor, County Treasurer and County Commissioner, will meet on Tuesdays to hear commercial cases and Wednesdays for residential cases.

Right now there are approximately 100 cases that may go before the board. Those cases may concern multiple parcels. The auditor’s office is still waiting to hear from some of those property owners if they will accept the new evaluations.

“Instead of just waiting since some people are still receiving settlement offers, we wanted to go ahead and handle the ones we could deal with,” County Auditor Jason Stephens said. “This gives everybody a fair chance to have everybody to have their say.”

The first hearings will begin on Wednesday, July 27, at 9 a.m. at the commission chambers on the third flood of the courthouse. They are open to the public.