00:00:07,070	It is 302 and we’re a couple of minutes late, but we would like to start the, uh Uh, Verde County, Texas Equalization meeting annual meeting, and it is Monday, June 3rd and I will last like for a, uh uh, call of the Commissioners who is here and who is not. Uh, Comm. Bakken. Comm. Schwab Comm.

00:00:30,600	Munson Comm. Woodcox here. Chair Bitner. OK, we have three, which is a quorum, so we will go ahead and move forward in the building. Uh, building the meeting. Uh, our tech equalization director is here and he would like to start the meeting off. And go ahead now. Uh, the county Board of Equalization.

00:00:49,970	The board shall meet in the 1st 10 days of June to establish the correct and correct the assessment rules. The Board of Equalization may change the valuation and assessments of any real property upon the rolls by increasing or diminishing the assessed value thereof. The board shall be responsible and just to render uniform taxations.

00:01:08,170	So what I’ll do is I’ll go through our report. Um and then I know there’s some people here that would like to speak today. I also have some appeals that came into us through the mail through email. Um and I do have staff from the city assessor’s office here.

00:01:24,500	I also have staff From, the from the township world back there she does several townships. So, Um she’s here to answer questions that you may have as well. Um and I would like to say Welcome. I have three staff members here, Tessa Aaron and Brianna Brianna is new to our office.

00:01:38,470	Um, she comes to us from the state Tax department, so she brings a wealth of knowledge. She just likes us better. So in front of you Today. I have the 2023 Tax equalization report. On, the 1st and 2nd pages. The Is just the layout and then the motions will go to the motions page. At the end. Those are the motions as laid out that we make in this meeting.

00:02:00,300	Um, therefore we can close the business today and then any adjustments that we make after Today. We will use the abatement process. On the first page of the report. It’s written to Chair Brian Bittner. He’s not with us today. It’s gonna be Vice Vice chair Woodcox today with us Um, I.

00:02:20,070	I’m not gonna read the report to you, but we will go through these numbers. Just, So, you have an idea of what’s happening. Um, agricultural land. Went from 459,480,000 to 444,863,800 so overall egg land had a reduction of 3.17%.

00:02:45,100	And I know that sounds odd, right? Egglands going down? Um, but if, as you guys know those of you that have been through tax equalization with us before, Uh, Egg land is based on production, and it’s based on the production of the cropland on how much spring wheat it can raise for that soil. And our non crop land. It’s based on animal unit months.

00:03:03,470	So how many cow calf pairs can you raise for six months out of the year? If you remember 2014 was one of the best crop years we’ve ever had, Um, the The snowpack in 13 was decent. The slews weren’t full, they were able to plant everything. The crop prices were super high and so the production numbers were super high for 2014. Well.

00:03:23,030	We, use a 20 We use a 10 year Olympic average and we drop out the high we drop out the low So now that 2014 year is gone, and so it’s caused a shift downwards on production that has no reflection on what the market of egg land is. That is just how the state decided to value egg land is through the production model.

00:03:41,830	Commercial land went from 1,025,501,000 to 1,088,582,500, or an increase of 6.15%. This is the entire county city of Bismarck included Residential land went from 1,652,694,800 to 1,000,000,686. Million 838,900 or a 2.07% increase on residential land. Commercial buildings. 3,066,325,500 to 3,180,562,800, or an increase of 3.73%.

00:04:34,800	And residential buildings had an increase from 7,866,054,300 to 8,375,490,004 50. For, an increase of 6.48%. That gives a total 2024 value of 14,000,000,777 776,338,450 or 5.02% increase across the board and county. That is a little bit lower than what we’ve seen in years past. But not much. We’re kind of in that 5 to 7 8% all the time. Um, we haven’t had any.

00:05:02,500	We haven’t really seen a decrease in the values we’ve the the the price of properties continue to climb. Um We’re we’re hoping this slow up a little bit, but that that we haven’t seen that yet. Now. The Next section is just a breakdown, excluding the city of Bismarck.

00:05:17,370	I’m not going to read you the numbers but outside of the city of Bismarck, we had a 6.88% increase. That is Traditional where we are all the time. Outside of the city. I’m gonna have a quick question. Now. What in the agricultural land the first Classification where it went down. That’s not the number of makers.

00:05:37,030	That’s the value of the value of total if the number of acres goes down does that reflected in this reduction? It would, But There’s never that much that the egg land that gets reduced out the only time egg land goes away is one the river gets bigger and it swallows it or two. It gets platted into something different.

00:05:53,730	Um, and we don’t take that out of the egg land equation until they start, actually, streets, and all that stuff is in. So unless the city annexes it. Um, like the rural area north of Hare. We. Still.

00:06:12,870	Consider that egg until the streets are in the lots start to get sold that kind of stuff, and that number is determined by the state. That is it’s not determined by us the north, the North Dakota. Colleges state universities, the State University Agricultural Economics department determines the value per acre. We. We don’t we don’t have anything to do with it. We. Just apply it.

00:06:31,100	That’s correct the only the only part that we have the only area we have to be Mani manipulative is in that 10%. We can be between 90 100. We push egg line up to the 100% because it’s about 16% of market, so Thank you? Yep. The next page has the true and fold value for the city of Bismarck. As.

00:06:49,200	You see, so there’s a good answer to your question. The city of Bismarck had a 17.84% decrease. Well. That’s because that land went from agricultural to commercial or residential. A total value change 4.41% for the city of Bismarck. Uh, the 2023 assessment rule reflects the values that were certified to the state.

00:07:11,470	Um, those There could be changes to those values There is throughout the year. You guys see abatements from us all the time, but we have to reflect apples to apples, so we have to show this meetings last year Value to this meetings this year value. Um and then the agricultural land.

00:07:29,800	The average dollar per acre that the county had was $481 from the state of North Dakota. Cropland 743 06 non crop land 1 65 74 that we’re we’re seeing egg land sales matter of fact we have one out by Mono and that sold for over $13,000 an acre so Right.

00:07:55,230	It’s that top land is being assessed at 743, and it’s selling for 14,000 so So now going back to that same value if it’s so much more valuable than it was a year ago or two years ago. Why should we drop the price three or 3.717%? Uh, that that happened in the 19 eighties, when the Legislature decided they didn’t want to use market anymore.

00:08:15,830	Pro production right? Um, you know that they always said. So what happened in the eighties was you had land that’s sold in the early eighties for 1000 bucks an acre and by the late eighties, it was 100 bucks an acre because the savings and loans bank when they crashed, took a bunch of Done debtors down with them and that they wanted to have that

00:08:32,670	never happen again. So. That’s why they went to this model I. I think we need to tweak that, But? That’s the Legislature not the county. I wish there was a way to do that so we could get closer to a way There is a way if we decide to go with no no increase or no decrease.

00:08:45,370	That is that is correct, but I have to do this to decrease because I’m already at 100%. OK. I have no choice on that. That one that was to keep us under that 100% threshold. Otherwise the state we are at 99 or whatever. I’m like 99.8%. Ok, thank you. On.

00:09:02,500	The next section is the burly county sales ratio study. As You know we have to. We have to track the sales every year that happened in the county, commercial and residential and we have to determine a market value based on those sales.

00:09:18,770	Um, so for for the 2023 for the 2024 year, we use 2023 sales and we we had 100 and 22 sales. In residential that we determine were good arm’s length transactions out. This is outside of the city of Bismarck, um, that we felt confident. Could it? Could it, influence our market and have a an influence on that market.

00:09:37,770	That brings our median ratio We have to work off the medians to 84.9%. So. That means to be at 90%, which is required by the state. We have to increase at least 5.1% or after the after the new construction were a little over 6%. So we’re coming in about that 91% Mark how much of really we like to be on residential? Our commercial.

00:09:58,630	We had 34 sales or appraisals that we did and that as a at 94%, we’re gonna come in somewhere around that 96% on commercial because we have new construction built into that value increase that we have and again.

00:10:15,700	These are for outside of the city on the city is allowed because they are a class one city to do their own sales ratio. Study. Um which I’m glad of the the other four cities in the in the county are fall under our sales ratio. Eventually Lincoln will get big enough that they’ll have their own. Um, but They’re assessing anyway, so we would continue to include them in ours.

00:10:29,700	Any questions on the sales ratio side of that. And then at the end, I just have a conclusion of the 2024 assessment rule in burly county is continue to to experience rapid upward growth, and part of that is due to The fact that there’s just not as much inventory in the market we don’t see the number of spec

00:10:49,630	houses we used to see 20 years ago when that interest rates would go up like this. The Spec House market would start to, They’d have to start lowering their prices because the construction loans well, now we don’t see Like Mitzel with 2 300 spec houses going on at any one time And. When that happens.

00:11:09,370	Those developers aren’t at nearly at risk because you as the Owner or carry in the construction loan, not the developer, so they don’t have that incentive to lower that price to get that inventory out of there their market so that that’s what we’re not seeing right now.

00:11:27,230	So therefore, when I when I talk about upward growth, I’m talking about prices. Um and inventory but not like there’s not a lot of available inventory. This condition causes a stable but growing economy in in burly county, the real estate market that has remained steady for years with sales numbers consistently good throughout the county.

00:11:48,130	Uh, this is now being beginning to explode, which has been happening now, for about three years. We’ve been seeing this like rampant explosion. Um you guys are also seeing that on the budget side of where stuff’s costing a lot more, um, and that that’s driven by the fact that people’s wages need to go up because their housing costs go up.

00:12:03,130	Their grocery store costs go up. Um, with the current conditions. We are beginning to see that market trend. Um And, and it’s causing some instability. We? We hope We can cure a lot of that, or at least keep monitor on that. These guys are gonna start doing another reassessment project this summer. I’m just looking at properties.

00:12:22,400	It’s It’s a constant thing that we have to be out there looking at stuff all the time. Um and then I go out and to say some of the value changes that we are experiencing are due to the lack of availability of properties for sale.

00:12:36,270	Um, we in a market this big we should have several 100 houses on the market, and there’s days we Have 50. And so the buyers don’t have a lot of they have a limited supply to pick from. So. What we’re seeing is it’s It’s a seller’s market.

00:12:57,130	It’s trending towards You know people are getting what they’re asking, Uh, there’s there’s more million dollar houses on the MLS now than I’ve ever seen in my life. Um And it it they’re not. This isn’t like you used to have them just on the river. He never saw a million dollar ho. I mean we have million dollar houses in regular neighborhoods now. And.

00:13:11,870	They’re the same houses that we’re selling for 500,000, not that many years ago. The state of Artico and burly county continue to lead the nation in trends of low unemployment and new construction. Um, our our unemployment. I think the last thing I heard was like 2.9%. Um, So.

00:13:31,570	You know we’re we’re literally just stealing employees from each other all the time because there’s not enough people. And we have a market that’s exploding and from which from this equalization standpoint causes some volatility that we have to be closely monitored, and that’s what we’re continuously doing. Uh, I know Alison’s probably on our next rotation of Reassessment projects at this time, they’re doing the same thing at the city.

00:13:50,300	If you flip to the next page. I gave you a nice draft. That kind of shows you You know where our value broke down. That’s the full county city included That’s a million acres of egg land that makes up 3% of our value. Commercials 28.89% residential makes up 68.1%. Before to the next page.

00:14:17,130	It gives you a breakdown of each small cities, I. I don’t need to read the numbers to you, but it’s just there for you to look through there for you to kind of grasp Where all that, But I gave you in the report comes from On that next graph is the city of Bismarck.

00:14:31,970	City Bismark is 63%. 63.5% residential 36.5% commercial. That’s a good Break. Um, you need that commercial property residential property struggles to pay for itself because of the the services they require garbage schools, streets, kids. Then if you go to the next one, that’s that’s excluding the city of Bismarck.

00:14:57,570	There you Egland makes up about 12% outside of the city. Um, And if you look Uh, residential makes up a bulk chair. We don’t have a lot of commercial outside of the city of Bismarck. Part of that is because they need services. So.

00:15:14,270	Um, we don’t have the ability to provide them the services so we end up with like storage units, shop condos, But, We don’t have any big There’s no WalMart. It’s not going to be on a septic system so And. Then if we go to the pages behind there, that’s just a breakdown of each one. Um, the first one is the cities that we have.

00:15:29,970	We do the assessing for the city of Lincoln. The city of wing. Uh, city of Regan is done by Marie Horning who’s here? City of Bismarck is obviously done by their staff and then the city of Wilton is actually done by McLean County.

00:15:47,170	Which is a weird quasi thing that we have an agreement with McLean County because City Hall and Wilton actually falls in McLean County, so they come down and do the 120 parcels that are in burly county. On the next page is the unorganized townships. Those are all ones that you’re going to act on today. Um They’re they’re gonna we, you you sit as their board of equalization.

00:16:07,600	If you look The increases are in Burnt Creek, Fort Rice, Lincoln Riverview. That’s because those are the ones that have homes. Um There. There’s nobody in Phoenix. There’s nobody in Lyman. I mean Phoenix doesn’t even have a house on the tax rolls. So Florence Lake and Canfield.

00:16:30,530	Canfield has a few homes, but those two townships joined us a few years back because it’s just not for Florence Lake. It’s just not economically viable to stay operational. And, then the pages after that are all the, uh organized townships. Some of those we do under contract. A. Lot of those are done by Marie and hers. And then we have a couple other people that do some rural townships.

00:16:55,600	Marie gets to bounce around the county for the whole month of April. In, the south to the north to the middle. I’m glad she’s a contract employee with them. They we don’t have to pay for a car. She gets a lot of gravel miles. I mean if you look they all unless you can tell which ones have houses.

00:17:16,330	Apple Creek Township obviously has houses. But then you go down the list. Boy, it had Boyd had a little bit of an increase because they have houses in Boyd.

00:17:29,170	Um, but the ones the ones that don’t have houses have a decrease of 2 to 3%, and that’s because they’re bulk share of their value is made up of egg land. And. That’s Why, From a standpoint of the tax equalization director. We try and keep that a land as close to 100% as possible because 60 to 70% of our townships.

00:17:44,700	That’s their only revenue source and if we start lowering, I mean if we if we would take that egg line down to 90% instead of 100, that’d be a 13% decrease from last year. Now those people have a 13% reduction in their value that they get to tax on. And. Most of these townships are at 18 mil.

00:18:02,000	So It’s not something we talk about, or think about from the tax equalization standpoint, but I do when it comes to value. That’s that far under the market. And, then the page 12. And 13. That’s the increase due to new construction versus valuation, non existing property. So this is just a snapshot. Of.

00:18:28,070	What adds to the new construction and what adds to that value, So if you look at the first one, it’s Apple Creek. Apple Creek had new construction total of 4 $4,882,200. That’s new houses. That’s land changing from agricultural to commercial for, or residential four buildings. I mean as you go down that list, Gibbs had 9.5 Million or, well 8.5 million Hay Creek had 18 million. Well that would make sense. Hay creeks, our most populated township.

00:18:51,100	Hay Creek is the one place that does have quite a bit of commercial. Um, Fort Rice. Not much There’s not very many houses down there, um, City of Lincoln. That’s pretty consistent all the time. Lincoln Township. 5 million.

00:19:13,230	You know Lincoln Township has growth, but Lincoln Township’s acres that are available to be developed or Shrinking every year because it it it’s hammed down by the river, so it’s not gonna get any bigger. Burn Creek. Burn Creek has an ample place to grow. So Burn Creek is one of those townships that we’re seeing a lot of growth 7.2 million.

00:19:29,830	Um so the total new construction excluding the city of Bismarck, is just shy of 52 million. For 2023. And. That’s What Our office does sorry that should say 2024 on the top of that, not 2022. That’s just what our office does when we’re out and about doing assessing.

00:19:52,330	That’s when we’re when we’re looking at new construction, uh, when we’re valuing people’s properties Any any growth outside of that, she That’s reassessment work. We go out and look at a house or, um, we’d make adjustments to our costing tables because we’re falling behind the market, Then that’s That’s included in in the reassessment. Then. The. Last page is the exemptions we have, and the reason this is included is because you guys approve them with emotion.

00:20:09,870	So, Um the only exemptions we have in burly county. Currently our wheelchair and blind exemptions. So if you have a wheelchair if your house is equipped for a wheelchair, you can get an exemption. And if you’re visually impaired I. Don’t remember what the Term they use is but it’s all has to be determined by a Dr..

00:20:29,470	Um, you’re allowed to get an exemption on your home. And then we have a two year new home exemption in the city of Lincoln. Which they didn’t renew, so this will be the last year for that. We had gotten rid of that before. Then they brought it back, and now it’s gone away again.

00:20:44,070	That and what that is, is that was a $75,000 off of Your first your value for the first two years of the ownership for the first person if they applied. That’s all I have for the report. I do know there are some people here that wanna speak.

00:21:03,830	Um we can go through those ones that I handed out first and get those off your docket. Um and then we’ll let people come to the podium. And if they have, If we have questions. We can go from there. The first one I gave you was from Circle K. They’re appealing three gas stations here in the city of Bismarck. This is attack.

00:21:24,670	She brought this stuff to us last minute last year. Um, she called me 36 minutes before this meeting today. Wanting to know if she could get on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting. And I told her it was for today. She said she was going to send me this information. This is the information she included.

00:21:41,730	Um, these are one page sheets out of a Marshall and swift cost estimator. Um they’re not appraisals. We. I told her that my recommendation was going to be to deny these today simply because I can’t look at three gas stations in 36 minutes for this meeting, So, Um if you guys have any questions, we

00:22:00,370	we’ll touch base with them and and see if there’s something we need to do, but they need to get this on to our minutes, basically so they can move on to the next step. Um, I, I assume they appealed that the city.

00:22:15,900	She told me they appealed to the city is the city shaking her head? No, um This is their last step so we can deny them And. This is where it stops. But. Um I, don’t she didn’t give me time to get any of this information. So my recommendation on these ones would be to deny you don’t have to make that motion yet.

00:22:29,430	We’ll make it at the very end. OK. Thank you AL commissioners. Any questions about I have two more that I handed out to you guys. Uh, The. Next one.

00:22:45,270	They’re both from the same tax rep, so we’re going to talk about them in one and I gave them to you in two packets, but we’re gonna talk about them as one package. Uh, you’ve also seen these properties before. They’ve appealed through abatements. They’ve appealed through taxi causation. Uh, these ones did not appeal to the city of Bismarck.

00:23:00,470	Um, when I sent them up to the city of Bismarck, the city of Bismarck graciously sent down their information supporting their value that they have on them. Um, since I was just in inspected all these properties last year. I feel that the city of Bismarck’s valuation is sound, so my recommendation would be to deny. Uh, these will also not go on to the state board because they didn’t follow the process to appeal at the city level. So.

00:23:18,930	The requirement of the of the State Board of Equalization. Just, So. Everybody knows that’s here. Um, if you want to appeal to the state board, you have to start with the local board.

00:23:33,830	If you if you Usurp the local board and you come directly to the county, which is legal by law, then the county’s decision is final, and typically we will negotiate back and forth between the city and us if there is something that causes us heartburn, Alison knows we talked to her all the time.

00:23:52,300	Um, but On these situations we’ve literally looked at these multiple years in a row, and there’s nothing that’s telling us that they’re overvalued. So. Those are the only three I have. I know there is people here that would like to speak. Thank you, Um This is a point of reference. This is the meeting annual meeting that we go over all of the assessments.

00:24:13,100	Uh, city and county and, uh, This is the time if anybody wants to complain and say they’re they’re under assessed or over assessed most likely over assessed. This is the time to do it. So, uh, this one that’s concerned the the, uh, Mac stores.

00:24:29,370	Uh, that’s a city one, and I would like to have the city representative come up and explain how they do things and why and where, and just so we give them a a chance at, uh, explaining how we do that. How. You do that, OK? Um, For those of you that are gonna come up here that are in person today. Not. Alison, you don’t have to, but there is a sign up sheet.

00:24:43,330	If, you can get your information written down because we’ll give you a call after the meeting in case we need to come out and take a look at it. Hi. I’m. Alison, I’m with the city of Bismarck. Um, which which one were you concerned about the circle The Circle C stores. OK Sure.

00:25:03,070	Yeah And As said, Um they just submitted their information to him like 36 minutes before the meeting here today. Our office has yet to visit with them about these properties For this year. This is the first we were made aware that they were concerned with their value.

00:25:17,900	Um, And, So we haven’t even had a chance to take a look at this, but we would You know, like said, we’ll definitely take a look at it and reach back out to the the tax rep.

00:25:36,030	Um, but this is their final final result, isn’t it? This is their final chance for this year, but we don’t have any any information to review prior to the meeting today to say that we should make an adjustment. Yes or no? I. I wouldn’t mind taking this as individual property because that’s the state or the city, does it and they they didn’t do their job. They weren’t diligent about getting it in time, so we could even look at it.

00:25:49,900	Or they could even look at it, so I would like to act on this one. Right now. Commissioners any questions or any motions to make I would move to deny the circle K request. Second, we have a motion on the second Uh, roll call. Vote, please. I need a discussion. Roll Call vote, please Comm. Schwab. Yes Comm. Munson Comm. Woodcox.

00:26:11,230	Yes, thank you. You want to take all three of these right now? The. Next. Two are motels both motels Anybody? Here to represent those two motels. Anybody here represents a two motels now. These are assessed by the city of Bismarck as well. City of Bismarck as well, OK. Comm.

00:26:33,670	any questions of the city of Bismarck, Assessing department When, did you? When? Did You say you received these? Oh These ones I got, uh, end of last week. So, Um, after the packet information had went out, but before so I had time to look through their stuff. Um, the the circle K. One was the one I got today.

00:26:50,300	36 minutes before the meeting. Um I but I’ve looked at. I’ve reviewed these motels in the past. Um this is the Wingate Hotel and the Candlewood suites both up by north WalMart. Both of them were here. Same information they’re providing you this year. They provided you guys last year. Um Man. We.

00:27:07,370	We’ve had abatements in in front of us for the same properties. Same information. Same thing, Um, the The Authorized tax agent is a literally a tax rep that just, uh appeals property taxes all over the country. And then they work on a contingency basis for for the most part, Um if they save them 1000 bucks, they get a percentage or Comm..

00:27:28,800	I would like to act on these two properties together. Uh and I. I ask again. Anybody here to represent those two motels. I don’t want to give them the opportunity to, uh, say we just ran it right through without any discussion. So. These are, uh, a for discussion. No more. Nobody here. OK.

00:27:47,300	I’ll call for the For a motion in a second. I will move to deny that Peterson hospitality and the Bismarck skyline hotel partners, um, application Second And we’re taking both of these together. Is that correct, OK the motion to second to deny the authorization of the property tax.

00:28:11,430	You either to accept that the excess value that that they have assessed any other questions. Call for the vote. Please Comm. Schwab Comm. Woodcock? Yes, Comm. Munson. OK, thank you. No. Now. I do. I know there are some people here that might like to speak. Now. I take these individually Like. I said before.

00:28:30,630	Uh uh, This is the opportunity for any taxpayers in the city of city and the county of burly to come and, uh, discuss their assessed properties and and we will go them on individually. So. Anybody here that wants to step up. Please give us your name and your, uh, property address. Good afternoon chair woodcocks and members.

00:29:38,000	I’ve shown you the, uh Appeal that I’ve had given to the city. In its entirety there. You want to take a few minutes to read through that if you haven’t already I have some photographs to substantiate. My claim. And, if if we could. I kind of like them back If you just Uh, in the paragraph three.

00:30:14,000	Where it talks about, Uh, The deferred maintenance items of my home. The home flooring. Like. I said here is original from 1997. And I You can see from the For all that it probably needs replacement. But Haven’t got around to doing that. The carpet does comprise majority of the home 80% of the House. The Original wood Deck has photographs there as well. In severe need of replacement.

00:30:49,430	All exterior windows are original. Namely the the daylight window that is shown Is bold and that is, uh I’m sure it’s 25 to 30,000 to replace that one. Again. If. It isn’t broken. I’m just of the substantiation that you don’t fix it. If. You can live with it.

00:31:12,570	You know it’s old fashioned, right, OK? Driveway pads. No. I know some of those photographs are again in need of replacement. When you do a Um Drive by assessment. I AM, Speaking of the comps that I received. That’s largely what it is you you really can’t see the The focus of the property from the driveway.

00:31:40,700	Until you get out and go inside the house. And. It was, I Think two at least two years ago that the city did come in. And. None of my concerns were substantiated. To their effect. I disputed that. But again. It just didn’t go anywhere. I.

00:32:06,830	I expected Some mitigation, perhaps on valuation, Uh, for for Leon’s part, it’s It’s my word against their word. In assessing Unless you go get a professional. Assessment that you’re going to pay $1500 for Is it really worth it? You know to each year is that would have to be accompanied every year, I presume. You do have a property card.

00:32:28,300	I believe as given to you by the city. We’re in it. States Page two that The condition. Is listed as normal. So I was a a former city councilman myself and I worked with, uh, Marshall Swift software. And. I know I also worked a little bit with Vanguard. So the some of the terminology that they use. Classified this home as normal.

00:32:57,030	To me. The home ought to be considered below normal. And. I’ll read Just a statement to you that justifies that. But. The wording is a little different, it says a home condition fair to average would be a home that’s in need of moderate repair, refinishing and or renovation. With, some items and satisfactory condition. And. That’s What.

00:33:24,930	I feel what I’m looking at is a home that’s in need of Not substantial repair, but If. You’re going to compete with those that are Um, manufactured or built as of late. I don’t have the the the nice rock work that some of these homes have. I don’t have the nice furnishings. Like. I said.

00:33:47,230	I don’t have the fluorine that they have. And. Uh I. I really truly expected A mitigation number. You know the one the library represented to you is what I’d be willing to live with or anywhere in between. I just didn’t feel that, uh the 10.67% increase was justified on this particular home.

00:34:11,370	Um And and I did. She did provide to me, Um I believe there are so, uh, value ratios. Sales ratios. Yeah. A sales ratios. From the area. It’s the Pebble Creek area, which comprises about six blocks. I understand Off of North 19th. So in that, uh, addition, you had a sales of six homes were sold in 2023.

00:34:43,300	Four were higher than the assessed valuation, but three or two were severely lower. They. The homeowner took losses. So I mean it’s It’s a 4 to 2 ratio. Maybe, Uh, maybe that should be considered as well. I mean not everything is is roses up there. It’s obviously If.

00:35:07,900	You’re if you’re only 4 to 2, you’re You’re 65%. You’re not 100%. I mean enough to justify whatever you wish for evaluation. Ah! Let’s see. One more item I’d like to point out before. OK? So In closing. I watched the city Board of Equalization. Meeting. And. To me The process is somewhat ill fated. If.

00:35:52,100	A person is not there on an individual basis representing themselves. You’re somewhat succumb to the The summation that everything is in a a lump pile. We’re going to either address. Everything is one. I’m Glad I came to this meeting because this is the only presentation that’s a fair shot. I mean the the city process just doesn’t do justice.

00:36:11,870	When it’s their call against your call. So. I’ll stand for questions If there are any Commissioners any questions of Darwin. I had one. This new assessment value is 510. Would you sell it for 510? I think in If I could get 510. Would I Sell it your question. I would indeed sell that. But. I don’t think I’m gonna get that.

00:36:39,630	Because of the things that are, and you said six homes in your area. Four of them were sold for more than the assessed value and two were under correct. That’s correct, OK? Um, I know the profe the assessors that are here from the city. The city handled this one. And.

00:36:55,630	I’d like to ask for one of them to come. Whoever did the assessment and my first question was. Is there? A. Was there a citywide assessment. Of any kind in the last year. Citywide not just individual properties, but OK, OK. Hi. Um Yes. There was, uh, a reappraisal we do We look at all values every single year just like Al has to.

00:37:22,900	Um, but we do have the city split up into 66 different areas. Um, so we can we can make a physical review of all those properties once every six years. OK.

00:37:43,730	So when is the last time you did a a wide assessment of his area? Pebble Creek in 2023 for the 2024 assessment and that everybody in that area want The, same percent 10 point or approximate. Not everybody would have went up the same percentage. It would have just depended on the information we had on those properties If. We had information that was incorrect. In the past, Some might have changed if we were able to get inside some homes and found we had something incorrect.

00:37:59,770	We definitely would have adjusted. Um, but yes, there’s this particular property. You didn’t go inside. We did not. I. Don’t believe Casey got inside this property last year.

00:38:18,630	She was in it a few years back, OK, and you’ve already reviewed this as a in the city portion of the the appeal was heard by the by the city by the city board. And and that went, how how was that They? They denied it A recommendation for change, so they left the value the same. Any questions, Commissioners. My only comment in is the four things that you you listed as problems or or minor problems that your house needs.

00:38:45,270	My house is built. 40 years ago, and I they got I got almost every one of these same thing we could do if we wanted to spend the money and like you do if it doesn’t not broken, I, don’t fix it.

00:38:59,630	So, if if the window leaks like Madden off, put a new one in or whatever they whatever it takes to fix it, but, uh, the driveway pads are the same thing. They got cracks in them and, uh, whether that’s a reason to reduce the property value. I don’t know that that’s true. They are professional assessors. I know you indicated you should.

00:39:17,700	You could get a professional as But, But these are professionals. They have the training and they are, uh They do? Uh, far as I’m concerned Good good assessments, and are they accurate and there is as good as we can get, uh, on whether you disagree with that or not, But, Uh, here we are with a 10% increase any further questions? Darwin? Anything further you want to

00:39:37,900	add or any any question you wanna two years ago? I? Don’t Recall who who The individual was, but we sat down. And discussed each of these items. And. I didn’t get any rebuttal from that person whatsoever. I mean, it’s like My opinion against theirs.

00:39:59,530	Not a bit of of philosophy included as far as reducing this price at all. And based upon the the the items that I presented here, Uh, like I said that The window. That’s bold, um Huge dollars. You know driveway. That’s $50,000, Perhaps And, and it’s just, um It ought to be taken into consideration the whole object of equalization.

00:40:26,230	Is that not correct? You know if you’re going to equalize property, we’re trying to equalize properties in that area. You have to look at the condition of the of that surmising factor is the condition of the property.

00:40:42,570	So if you were, if if this value was reduced back to what it was for 61, you would go ahead and do all four of these. Since you’re saving 50,000. You’re you’re saying in one year? I mean because this value could change in a year. You even if you you gave me AAA decrease today in one year from now, is they the city would have the object object to raise it again. Oh, that’s every year.

00:41:04,530	You know, every year there’s you know, could be a reassessment sometimes, like they said, there were six years they go through and assess everybody in that part of 66 portions of the city and yours was done in 23. So that’s about as a Update as we can get so Well 2022 is when they were last in the home.

00:41:22,730	I think she said 2023, but Yeah from the driveway again, you know, not not in the hole, Did you. Did they contact you Did You object to have that Nobody was in the home in 2023. Did You object to have them them come into the house. OK. So you didn’t know They were even doing it then.

00:41:39,700	No, except for like you say 2022 was the year I recall. OK. They were in the house at 2022 with two individuals. And any further questions to Darwin? Anything more you want to say Darwin? Well getting back to the the mitigation part where I put out a number.

00:42:03,700	They put out a number We meet in somewhere in between. Um How does that occur? What do you have to do to make that work? Yeah that portion. I don’t understand. OK? Ell. You wanna step up? I’ll beat Myer County Assess office.

00:42:28,870	Go now, So I I knew about these potential appeals from the city, but we hadn’t heard anything from the taxpayers, so we don’t I mean we don’t approach the taxpayer unless they come to us. Um, but I, I certainly can go take a look at this property. Um, that’s not ever a problem. That’s why I asked them for their phone numbers. I’ll call and we can make if there’s adjustments that need to be made.

00:42:41,830	If there’s discussions we need to have we can have those after this meeting. That’s not uncommon, um our last motion of our agenda before we before we adjourn allows you guys to give me that authority as the tax director. So You will certainly be getting a hold of Garwin to take a look at this property.

00:42:58,270	Um and see if we see some concerns, and then we’ll have discussions with the city at the same time. I mean 505 $110,000 Today doesn’t buy you a lot of houses. Unfortunately. That’s a sad statement for me I had to make but, um, old Lincoln House sell for 250 plus Mr chair that Comm. Munson.

00:43:17,670	So in 20 To 21. We actually had $100 decrease in the value of the home. And, then the 22. We just have a $6000 increase. Is it a good assumption to say that we should have had some increases a few years ago.

00:43:41,000	Um, that if if there was a way we could Do that every year Um, the difference between 2020 2021 was, you know, the the market during Covid was actually pretty good, but the number of sales during Covid was Down that we weren’t getting a lot of data, so we kind of tried If. You remember the county and the city tried to hold our values as best we could. Now.

00:44:00,270	We might be suffering a little bit of that consequence today. Um, but I think it was the right thing to do. Then I still think it was the right thing to do today? Um, but yes, that in in an ideal world we would like to see that Steady. Changes up or down, not swings. But. Anytime, you’re dealing with reassessments.

00:44:21,230	That’s what happens. You know we look at areas of town and you know we’re we J Comm. Woodcox You are correct. We are professionals, but we are also giving our opinion of value just like he’s giving you his opinion of value. And.

00:44:37,970	I understand that? I mean you know we can have differences in the office where we have to discuss them amongst staff. And like, why did you have this versus? Why? Do? We have this and that happens. You know what We are we are looking at it the best we can, but I’ve never set eyes inside the home.

00:44:49,800	Um, I think it’s best that I, go and take a look at it after this meeting adjourns today. Um you know, we we obviously we have to get through the election. So next week, the end of the week. We’ll be looking at these properties. Um and then any adjustment that we can make we that needs to be made.

00:45:02,770	If it’s if it’s there. We will make it before we turn in our final abstract in June. Darwin. Would that be a good pro program for you. If, we come. We.

00:45:19,630	Don’t do any action on this today, But we allow you and the are assessing department to come into your house and look look the thing over and see what we can do. Yes, I would certainly agree to that. OK, great. Then. We’ll let that property pass. We’ll move on to something else. Darwin. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it? Oh. Yeah. Here’s your pictures we can We get a receipt. So. You got the product back to it.

00:45:39,370	I witnessed We’re on TV. So. OK the next property. We don’t have any, You know next coming from the audience any anybody else here to to, uh, want to review their assessment? I guess I I was gonna explain just by sitting here. I’m Sorry. I can’t quite I.

00:45:57,270	My hearing is not that great, but and you step up and give us your name. This is the opportunity you’ve got, and we want to take advantage of it so Yes. Good afternoon. Uh, I’m Don Williams. We live at 9131 Wentworth Drive.

00:46:17,830	It’s in Burn Creek Township and, uh, I did get a letter of, uh, reassessment and checked with a couple of the neighbors. They didn’t seem to get one. So I didn’t know if I was being singled out for some reason or not, but, uh uh, I just looking for a clarification on why the values have increased as they have in the last couple of years. Uh, they’ve increased, uh, about 8.5% in 22.

00:46:34,300	And then, uh, they’re 23. I should say And then it’s, uh, about 12. Projected in 20. For taxes, So I guess I was just kind of looking for some clarification rather than I can take care of that step up and Uh, so the reason that some some of the reason that people get an increase in their neighbors

00:46:51,970	don’t is there’s 22 things that happens there one we for 2023 years, so the 2024 assessments you’re seeing now we adjusted our costing manuals. So.

00:47:09,330	We went from a 2008 costing software through Vanguard to a 2020 casting software and about every 15 years they trying to update those costs for us, so we had to put those costs on in 2023 the reason we needed to do that is because we were falling behind the market. Um, you’re out there. We had detached structures that were at 30,000 and we’re seeing them being built for 90,000.

00:47:25,230	We can’t get past 30,000 because they’re costing system isn’t there yet? Um, so some of those changes are happening. And. Then if you have a neighbor who has a much smaller house, his land value makes up a bigger percentage. Then, of course, when we don’t change the land, but we change his house. His doesn’t go up over that 10% threshold.

00:47:40,270	The reason your neighbors wouldn’t have got one is because there’s what was not over 10%. They could have been a 9.3%. They could have been at 3.9%. I don’t know that. Um without looking at it. But if you wanna put your name down, I’ll certainly give you a call and we can come visit. Good idea that that’s excellent idea.

00:47:55,500	Is that OK with you. Yeah. We’ll contact you and get together and come out and look at the property and review all the documents and see what we can do Sure. Well be worth the can, uh, write your name and phone number, OK? Great. OK, thank you. Anybody else that wants to speak to their property value.

00:48:17,900	First call. Anybody else wants to speak to their individual property value. Second call and third call and final. Anybody here to speak on the value of their property assessment value.

00:48:37,270	If not Discontinue the Participation from the audience will go back to where we are acting on the various properties and now you will need that lead us through those various motions. We need to make. Big Street. So the first thing I need you to do is I need you to Adjourn this meeting and convene as the township unorganized township Board of Equalization for Burnt Creek, Riverview. Florence Lake Fort Rice. Lincoln Canfield Lyman in Phoenix. OK.

00:49:10,930	We will just continue this meeting. Close the meeting and open up as the, uh Technique was the the, uh what we the we are the unorganized township supervisors. We have a motion. Do. We need a motion to approve those UN assessed townships assessments you do? I would move to approve the assessments of the unorganized townships.

00:49:34,830	Second, give a motion in a second. This is a point of clarification. There are most of the townships are organized. They have their own boards and their own make their own decisions. There are some that we are as as a Bernie County Commission act as their township supervisor and their board of Equalization vote. So.

00:49:53,530	Uh, this is to take just the on runs to unorganized townships. Any questions concerns If not I’ll ask to call for the role, please. Comm. Schwab? Yes Comm. Munson Comm. Woodcock. Thank you So now I need you to reconvene as the board County Board of equalization. Ok Well. We will reconvene as the be County Tax Equalization board.

00:50:19,700	We need Number two a motion to prove agricultural land values. I will move to approve the agricultural land values to implement North. Dakota State Tax department recommendation on the average value per acre. Second Give a motion the second in discussion. Roll call, Please Commission Schwab. Yes Comm. Munson. Yes. Comm.

00:50:49,700	Woodcox No I just think agricultural land has not gone down whether India tells that it has. I don’t think it has two. Maybe. We can talk to the governor’s office or fundamental. Fundamentally. I agree with you. OK number three. We have motion to approve the assessment of the city’s of Bismarck, Wang, Regan, South Wilton and Lincoln.

00:51:15,300	We need a motion to that effect. So moved I motion to approve the assessments of the city of Bismarck Wing, Regan, South Wilton and Lincoln. Second OK we have a motion in a second roll call. Vote, please. Comm. Schwab. Yes Comm. Munson Comm. Woodcox Yes. Number four. We had most to prove the assessments of the organized and unorganized townships.

00:51:45,770	So moved What was that we have a We need a motion to approve the assessments of the organized and unorganized townships County wide. So I’ll second it We have a motion to second. Any discussion. Any questions Comm. for any question. If. Not. Uh, roll call, please. Comm. Munson Mister Schwab. Yes Commission. Woodcock? Yes. And number five.

00:52:17,100	We need a motion to approve the application of a property tax exemption for improvement to commercial and residential buildings. North Dakota Century code. 57-02 0.2, as recommended by the tax equalization Director Al Witmeyer. So I moved Second, we have a motion to second. Any questions on that.

00:52:39,570	You wanna explain that, please? That’s the list that was in the back of the packet at the back of the report. Um, those are the exemptions for blind wheelchair. Um and then the twoyear exemptions. Those are discretionary exemptions. That’s why you guys have to approve them. They apply to our office. We make sure that they legitimately qualify and then we we sign them.

00:52:58,230	Ha has nothing to do with, uh, homestead credit or anything like that. Homestead, the only and the only exemptions that are not we List is the farm residence exemptions because you’d have hundreds and hundreds of them.

00:53:14,830	Um, but Homestead credit and vet credit those that application process they apply, but that’s a credit, so we get a refund of taxes. That’s not actually an exemption. OK. Thank you? We have a motion in the second any further questions? Car for the boat. Can Comm. Schwab Yes Comm. Woodcox Comm. Munson. He got me He’s trying to trying to throw us off here. Man number six.

00:53:39,300	We have emotional proven except the 2024 real property assessment as equalized to authorize the county director to make corrections to property values in Bernie County as needed and further to an open to one on one journey yet, uh, that last statement says, to make corrections to property values in Burnley County as needed, and that’s We’re gonna do by calling that’s concerning the two properties that came

00:53:57,430	forward, So, We are authorizing that you are allowed to meet with them and work on the assessment and see what comes up. You. Will, you give us a report back and what we did a month or so from now. So moved Second The motion.

00:54:18,870	The second To Approve the except of 24, 2020 24 real property assessments. A further discussion. I call for the vote Comm. Schwab. Yes Mister Munson Commission Woodcock and I need a motion to adjourn Die motion to adjourn. Tiny. Thanks, guys do you want to? You want to keep going? Until the next meeting.

00:54:45,030	Yeah, I hear you a 2nd 2nd OK, we have a motion to second to adjourn any further discussion. If not half of the vote, Mr Schwab? Yes Mr Munson Commission Woodcox. Thank you. One of Yeah Go ahead, compliment the assessors because they have a very difficult job. Uh, most of them are are, uh Problem assessments that I I don’t know what you wanna call that. But. Anyway.

00:55:07,000	The. People are just don’t realize what property values have done, and they do an excellent job of keeping up with things and and we have got to be diligent in in keeping up every year and not letting it slide for three or four or five years and all of a sudden you

00:55:19,230	get a a big one. And, then, uh, that’s when we get, uh, the problem, So I think we’re doing a very good job. Anybody else have any comments concerns? Not meeting is adjourned. Thanks, Comm.. Yeah. I. Gotta. Go move my pickup for music before you