The borough completed its unprecedented mass review of all property values on the road system last week, with only seven of the initial 179 assessment appeals going to a formal hearing before the Board of Equalization.
All the other cases were resolved without a hearing. Most of the appeals succeeded in achieving some level of reduction in the appraised value — only 24 remained unchanged after appellants met with an assessor.
It had been years since the borough conducted such a comprehensive review, and the reexamination raised the overall assessed value of all buildings and land in the borough by 56% — the rate varied by individual properties. The substantial increase prompted the high number of appeals.
Of about 2,300 properties that were reassessed this year, owners appealed about 7% of the valuations.
The valuations will determine property owners’ tax bills after the borough assembly adopts a budget and sets the tax rate.
After the April 20 appeal deadline, assessors from the borough’s contractor, Appraisal Company of Alaska, spent about two weeks contacting property owners, explaining the reasoning behind the new values and, in some cases, adjusting those values; 171 of the appeals were settled this way.
Assessors were unable to contact one owner and the remaining seven appeals went before the borough Board of Equalization on May 10. The board reduced two of these valuations.
In total, between the informal review and formal hearings, 155, or 86%, of the appeals were reduced.
“The board was mandated to rule only on facts,” said Mayor Patty Gilbert. “In other words, comparables like properties, like structures. Some (appeals) were denied, some were upheld to a certain extent.”
“The assessors, in my opinion, did a very good job meeting with the public and the appellants several times and going out to the property and really trying to understand what the appellants’ concerns were and how to explain that to them,” she added.
That said, the hearings were still “a nerve-wracking process” for Gilbert. “We’re all members of the community, we’re all neighbors to one another, family members,” she said. Ruling against appeals was “just heart-wrenching sometimes … because the board is forced to follow state statutes. There are only certain things we could consider. That sometimes is difficult for an appellant to hear.”
Sharla Meyer was one such appellant. When she learned that the value of her land had jumped from $97,500 to $161,000, “it was a bit of a shock,” she said. She decided to take her appeal before the board, but it was rejected.
The whole process was “an emotional hardship on the town,” she explained. “We’re just coming out of COVID, for heaven’s sake. What a huge blow.”
She also felt that navigating the appeals process with no prior knowledge about assessments or state standards for appeal evidence was extremely difficult. “I don’t have experience, so I had to try to understand the rules and even that was really difficult with the short amount of time.”
The borough held two public workshops on these topics prior to the board hearings.
Three property owners who submitted late appeals were permitted to state their cases before the board as well. These owners either lived out of town or were not aware of the specifics of the appeal cutoff time. “There was no time deadline for this appeal noted on the paper notice, only a date,” appellant Dustin Wittwer wrote on his form.
The board denied all three late appeals.
The high volume of appeals and steep property value hikes in Wrangell were on par with what’s taking place in communities across the state, said Mike Renfro, owner of the Appraisal Company of Alaska. His company also performs assessments on 10 other communities statewide. “Wrangell is typical for all the other communities that we’ve been dealing with,” he said.
“Overall, after meeting with property owners and explaining why values change … I think people were a bit more aware of the market,” added his associate, Martins Onskulis.
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