Time to tighten belts, reduce budgets

It is that time of year when the county and city sit down to put together a budget for the coming year.

That means that we the people who pay taxes to support those entities need to pay attention.

There is no doubt in my mind that the commissioners and council members are good citizens and want to do what is right for the continuing good of the county and city.

Past experience also tells me that perhaps those good people may be standing too close to the forest to see the trees and may give in to the temptation to push the pencil to raise our real estate taxes rather than make painful cuts to expenses.

The impetus for broaching the subject of taxes and real estate valuations was a letter that I received recently from the County Assessor.

The letter explained that the hangar Grannie Annie and I own at the McCook Airport had been reappraised with the value increasing by almost 33 percent.

Good news in respect that the increased appraised value would be a good argument for setting the price if (big if) I decide to sell it.

Curious as to how the Assessor revalued my property I trundled down to the courthouse to ask. The gracious lady that drew the short straw and had to wait on me explained. The County had hired an outside firm to do commercial real estate reappraisals throughout the county as they hadn’t been looked at for several years.

There are three approaches to valuing property; income, market and the cost approach.

The income approach didn’t work as my building is not used in a business as a money making venture.

Market was not very appropriate as few, as in no, like properties had been bought or sold for years. That left the cost approach to value which is based on what a like building would cost to build new and then depreciation applied for the age of my building.

It was for me a very satisfactory answer.

I am satisfied that my reappraisal was reasonable and proper. I have however been contacted by other owners of commercial real estate properties who have a different opinion.

They are squawking because they feel that their new assigned values were way too high. For those of you that feel your new values are too high, there is a mechanism to protest those new valuations.

Contact the County Assessor file a formal protest and the appraisers will look at it. If their explanation does not satisfy then you will be able to take your protest to the County, the three Commissioners sitting as a Board of Equalization. They may or may not grant you an adjustment so I wish you luck.

For your information, the Assessor’s office informed that there had been very little change in the evaluations of the other classes of real estate, Agland, Mobile Homes and McCook Residential, in Red Willow County.

Actually, under Agland, grassland was decreased a bit in value. In some cases, residential property was rolled up a bit as the costing approach to value has grown somewhat outdated.

Yeah, I know most of the above is about as clear as mud unless one has studied real estate or been involved in county/city government.

Rest assured that your old columnist has been there and done that. I’ve also noticed that no one who thinks their property is valued too low ever issues a protest or complaint.

Nevertheless, be assured that the courteous ladies that work in the assessor’s office are happy to try to explain how your real estate values are derived.

Okay, now that one is assured that the property valuations for tax purposes is reasonable and in accordance with state law why is that we believe the property taxes that we have to pay are out of line?

The final judgment lies at the hand of the commissioners and city councils that set the levy to meet their budgeted expenses.

I would recommend that each should prioritize those expenses. By law, local government is required to build, repair and maintain roads and streets.

Each is required to do public safety to include police and sheriff. Fire departments and ambulance are essential. Personnel to handle essential services must be paid and fringe benefits are a factor.

The city elects to do utilities, water, sewer, electricity, gas, and garbage, however, some of those services could likely be more efficiently handled by private enterprise. Libraries and city parks are nice additions to the community. Schools take a huge bite out of our taxes and school boards have their hands tied by state-imposed dictates.

The County owns Hillcrest Nursing Home which seems to beg for more efficient management.

The County Fair has become a revenue producer for the county but two health departments? Is it essential to give tax money to an economic development entity? And, yes, there are myriad other rivulets of tax money flowing to nice to have enterprises that are not required by state law.

A dollar diverted to taxes is a dollar that our businesses, the lifeblood of our community, can’t use to make that business better. Each extra dollar that our families pay out to non-essential taxes is a dollar that they won’t have to make their lives better. It is time to tighten our belts and slim down the budgets.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail