By KALIN KROHE
Panhandle Post
The Box Butte County Assessor has filed an appeal with the Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission.
The appeal, filed by Box Butte County Assessor, Michelle Robinson, concerns nine commercial property valuation reductions that were granted by the Box Butte County Board of Equalization.
The nine properties are: Steph Mantooth's building in the 200 block of Box Butte Ave., Arby's, Tom's Cycle and Repair, Total Reflections Salon, vacant school land owned by Immanuel Lutheran Church, property owned by K. L. Wood Construction on Kansas Street, Alliance Community Pharmacy, the Cover Jones main building, and Steve's Lite Truck..
"It's actually not suing...it's just an appeal to Nebraska Tax Equalization and Review Commission (TERC). That is the next step in the protest process," said Box Butte County Assessor, Michelle Robinson. "The initial process of assessment valuations...the valuations go out, the valuations changes notices go out the end of May. The property owner has the opportunity to file a protest appeal at the local level with the County Board of Equalization, which is what happened to some properties this year."
"Then the protest hearing will be set. Commissioners review the information at the time of the hearing then at a later date they will make their final decision based upon the testimony given at the protest hearing. Also what my recommendation would be for each individual protest. They take all that into consideration and make their final decision," Robinson added. "If either the taxpayer [property owner] or the the assessor do not agree with the county boards action the next appeal process would be to go to the state level [TERC]."
Robinson stated that she felt the Box Butte County Board of Equalization actions on the nine commercial properties were "not consistent with equality." She also heard a couple other taxpayers in Box Butte County filed an appeal with TERC.
"The reason I felt like I needed to appeal to the state level was that my assessment actions had been called into question by the county board action for them changing the value and not going with my recommendation," said Robinson. "I use a systematic approach to value. This year for 2019, I did a commercial revaluation of Alliance commercial properties and treated everybody the same in the approach to value. When the board had lowered or changed the values based on my recommendations I believed that their actions were arbitrary and unreasonable creating inequality."
Box Butte County Commissioners Chairman Doug Hashman said, "We meet as Board of Equalization and property owners protested their evaluation. We took the evidence that was presented to us on the appeal...and against other information we had at the time of the hearing and made our decisions. The assessor does not agree with us."
"As I understand it she [Michelle Robinson] implemented an evaluation based on an income approach as opposed to a comparable sales approach," said Box Butte County Attorney, Terry Curtis. "That generated quite a few really significant increases in property values that tax payers did not believe were justified and that's why they protested."
Robinson stated she does not know when the hearing will be set with TERC. She said TERC tends to take up to a year to set a protest hearing date.
"This is not going before any judge or court. It's not a suing process, it's just part of the equalization process," Robinson added.