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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 20, 1978     Shelton Mason County Journal
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July 20, 1978
 
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praisers: functionaries you love to hate LEE ( now, a few words on of those people you just ! to hate - the county people see one of working, they invariably over and start complaining high their taxes are, have gotten out of so forth. first I tell them talking to the wrong guy. nothing to do with taxes. That's up to the themselves and their then, I tell them I'm in only one thing - a Nothing more, less." says Bill Petersen, who as deputy for the county supervises the county's ith citizens raving about Y government and tax filling the air, it's easy why the county deers are not the most guys. But who among us to think how they out the situation. it's easy to understand catch all the flak - visible and our work's the in the taxation process. Dt if you stop to think someone getting mad at kind of pointless, I don't control taxes. In don't even like to talk taxes. Now if a person to discuss his appraisal, ears." his words you get the that Petersen is a man satisfaction in doing Thursday, July 20, 1978 Bill Petersen, county's chief appraiser his job well, but a man who is also frustrated because few appreciate his efforts. "It's funny in a way. Everybody acts like they're really mad at us, but they must not be all that upset because we receive what I consider few complaints abput our work. "If somebody doesn't like our appraisal, it's clearcut what they can do - appeal to the County Board of Equalization. Yet, considering all the appraisal our office does, we get surprisingly few appeals." Over the past 12 months Petersen's staff has evaluated, he estimates, more than 12,000 parcels of land. Over the past few months these owners have been notified of these valuations. They were also told how to appeal their appraisal. On Monday, the deadline for filing those appeals passed. And yet, out of those 12,000 evaluations, Petersen says approximately 150 people, about one percent, saw fit to tile appeals. "Personally, I think that Section of the Shelton-Mason County Journal shows we're doing our job right. It also says people aren't really mad at us, otherwise we'd be flooded with appeals." Doing their job right is "in theory simple," says Petersen. "Ideally, our goal is to assess each parcel of land at 100 percent of its market value, and to do it once each year. "But in practice things don't quite work that way. "For one thing, we can't get around to each piece of property in the county, each year. We just don't have the staff. It would take four times the number of appraisers we have now to do that and it would hardly be economically feasible." Since the field office currently has six appraisers, this is how they're working at it. "We've divided the county into four areas that are roughly equal in parcel count. These areas generally cover school district boundaries. Then we did a sales analysis to find which areas had the most activity and 'evaluation lag.' This helped us decide in what order we would concentrate on each of the four areas. So we came up with four areas and we set out to do area one the first year; area two, the second; and so on over the next four years. Then we start the cycle all over again." Winner in the sales sweepstakes, now known as area one, covers the Pioneer and Grapeview school districts. For the past year Petersen's office has been concentrating on this area. Now they are finished, except for the appeals. Next up is area two, which includes the North Mason school district. Appraising on that sector will begin within the next few weeks. Although landowners have the right to appeal directly to the County Board of Equalization, Petersen says most of the appraisal disagreements are handled on a more informal basis, if possible. "If somebody has a gripe over his appraisal, we encourage them to contact the field office first. Then I get together with the particular appraiser and we review the appraisal to make sure we haven't made a mistake. Then if we still think our appraisers correct and the owner disagrees, it goes before the board. "Basically what we try to do is weed out the mistakes so we don't waste time at the board." Petersen encourages anyone who feels their appraisal to be unfair to appeal. But he also warns that the board retains the power Io raise the evaluation if it deems the amount was set too low. "For example, in the board session somebody might say, 'But my basement's only half finished.' "Then the appraiser might say, 'Hey, we don't have you down for a basement at all.' So, conceivably, the evaluation could go up.in such a case. "Now I'm not saying that such a thing is common. But people should be aware that the board has that power. It doesn't usually happen, but it could." If the landowner is still unsatisfied with the county board's decision, Petersen says that the State Board of Tax Appeals is next in line. "Once again, the landowner should be aware of the power retained by the appeal board to increase the evaluation. Especially because of the subtle, but sometimes important, difference between the county and state boards. "Whereas the county board is concerned with assuring that the valuations are equal to comparable land, the state board is interested in making sure the valuation reflects the lO0-percent market value for that land. "In other words, a valuation the county board might consider fair because it's equal to surrounding property values, the state board might decide is below market value and raise accordingly. "Now I'm not emphasizing these points to scare people off, but I'm afraid most people aren't aware of what could happen. And they should be, because it has." Another point Petersen says should be stressed is that the areas currently being reappraised are suffering from an "appraising lag." "This means that when the reappraisal notice arrives it's not only going to reflect the property's rise in value over the past year, but for the past four. And for people living along the water that can be a really big surprise." In the sales analysis performed last year, the assessor's office found that on the overall average evaluations fell 32 percent below current market values for area one. "Of course this is an average, so valuation lag for waterfront property might work out to be much greater, while backwoods lots might be less." Another popular misconception Petersen would like to disperse is that the appraisals are set to anticipate future rises in property values. "We aim for a combination of current market values and equalization. Nothing more, nothing less." Although Petersen might not like to discuss taxes, he points out that three basic classes of land qualify for property tax relief. Generally, these designations are open space, farm and agricultural land, and timberland. Exemptions are also available for senior citizens and disabled persons. But before you get your hopes up, Petersen urges contact with the assessor's office because the requirements for the exemptions are complex and precise. "In other words, you don't get something for nothing. If you're sincerely using the exemption for what it was designed, you can benefit. But if you try to work your way around it, the exemptions are set up to penalize, especially the land designations. Petersen says he realizes that appraising is not the most glamorous of occupations. "I think the most important thing for people to accept about appraisers is that they're just doing a job that people want done. "If we're going to have governmental services, then we're going to have taxation. And with taxation must come some system of appraisal and valuation to at least strive for equal taxation." So the next time the county appraiser comes to your house, don't slam the door in his face, threaten him with your sawed-off shotgun or whine about skyrocketing taxes. After all, he's only human. unt still up in air rth Mason lowers bond i ue meeting last Thursday Mason School Board to revise downward the t the district will be Voters to approve for a in September. decision came a from the Mason School's Committee that the 3unt be reduced from $2.6 million to for the committee, ship explained that by the State Ucation have brought need for reduction. Originally, the board understood that the district would have to be bonded for at least 2.5 percent of its total evaluation before it could qualify for state matching funds for construction and modernization. But when Superintendent Norm Sanders recently met with board of education officials in Olympia they informed him that the state law has now changed. "It's one of those good-news, bad.news situations," says Blankenship. As for the good news, the state board has amended the 2.5 percent minimum bonding requirement to add "or such Other amount as the .school board deems necessary." As for the bad news, the state no longer provides matching funds for modernization. Now the funds can only be used for new construction and the purchasing of collateral equipment. In its original plans, the board had intended to use state matching funds to help pay for repair, or "modernization," of the roofs on the gymnasium, high school, middle school and elementary school buildings. Rewiring the cafetorium, Fire claims Razor Road home Farly SUnday morning, the unoccupied Allen Davies residence located off azor Hoed on South Shore burst into flames. Nearby neighbors spotted nd reported the blaze. Belfair's fire department responded with three fire rucks, one  hters to contain the fir tanker and 15 firef'g " " e to one e-, ,- *-^ hOUse. Damage estimates reach $18.000. Electrical failure is bei ---v-'`'¢ nave caused the mishap. The Davies were staying in Port Orchar(jUVn u,h ° mght of the fire. Belfair Fire Chief Barry Snover inspects. - ..... painting several buildings and rebricking a boiler were also planned with matching funds. Although the board says it agrees with the advisory committee's recommendation, it deferred setting the final amount until its special meeting next week. As board member Patrick Ruff explained, "It's easy to believe the bad.news parts, but the good news seems too good to be true." The board says it will wait unfil the district can check with legal counsel to determine if the district can, indeed, set the minimum amount of bonding needed to qualify for matching funds. The district would like to use matching funds for construction of a new shop and drawing classroom building on the bond proposal. By law, the board was required to make public its intention to place a bond issue on the September 19 ballot at the meeting last week. The board has until August, however, to set the final amount of the bond request. Board members also indicated that they would like to further consider the $120,000 amount estimated by the committee for the roof repairs, rebricking, painting and rewiring. The board felt that the estimate may be too low. As set out in its report to the board, the committee recommended that the proposed $597,000 bond issue be allocated in the following priorities: (1) $43,000 to pay the district's promised share of construction costs for the Kitsap Vocational Skills Center in Bremerton. (2) $120,000 for roof and other repairs including boiler rebricking, cafetorium rewiring and general painting. (3) $30,000 to equip the four-classroom elementary school addition built with Trident impact funds. (4) $330,000 to construct and equip a 4,800.square-foot shop and drawing classroom building. (5) $20,000 to convert the existing shop building into use as a district maintenance area or administrative office center. (6) $60,000 to provide a new well supply at the h!gh school and middle school campus area. (7) $54,300 for 10 percent contingency funds. Blankenship explained that the committee based its $330,000 estimate for construction of the shop building on the recommended state average of $63 per square foot. He says the initial cost for construction would be less than for a conventional classroom building, but equipping the shop would drive the price back up to the average level. . If the district qualified for matching funds and built the shop area for the $330,000 estimate, then the district would receive an additional ;133,900 in state funds. Blankenship said these additional state funds were not included in the committee's report becaus of the doubts surrounding the minimum bonding requirements. He explained that the state funds, if received, could then be used for other projects planned by the district. The committee also recommended that the shop building be the only construction done by the district until an architect is hired to complete a master facilities plan. Board chairman Jerry Reid questioned the committee's recommendation for constructing the shop building since it also advised continuation in the Kitsap Vocational Skills Center. Blankenship explained that two programs have little overlap. "Actually it might be more accurate to consider North Mason's shop building as more of a pre.vocational skills center. The Kitsap center enrolls only juniors and seniors ha more technical, specialized fields, while the (Please turn to page four.) Dunk Determination and close proximity helped put dunk-tank volunteer Don LePere in the drink during last Saturday's Belfair Summer Festival.