Only one Bannock County couple appeals recent property assessments
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - A Bannock County couple appealed the assessed value of their property Thursday, claiming it was valued at nearly $200,000 more than it was truly worth.
"Earlier this month, we had evaluations go out for about 300 parcels of property, related to new construction," Bannock County Commissioner Steve Brown said. "From those 300, we only had one person appeal."
Generally, the appeals are discussed by the county assessor's office and the property owner before the hearing, but it appears that was not the case this time.
"The frustration today was that this appeal was filed two weeks ago and there was only one," Brown said. "And during those two weeks, the assessor’s office was unable to reach out and try and resolve this issue."
According to the couple, there had a been a few emails and missed calls from the assessor’s office, but nothing to move towards a resolution.
During the hearing, the commissioners, serving as the Board of Equalization, sided with the property owners and ruled that their home value should not exceed $372,900. Commissioner Brown said "overwhelming evidence" provided by the homeowners made the decision easy.
"That really is the bottom line," he said. "As we sit as judges in a board of equalization, we have to have a preponderance of evidence. That evidence we felt was supplied today."
Bannock County Assessor Sheri Davies said "in her heart of hearts" she feels like she should appeal the decision, but she won't.
"With everything that has to happen in my office, that can't be a priority," she said.
Davies feels that the property is "definitely" worth more than the appealed change, but said it wouldn't be right to the county for her to further the appeal.
"Pretty soon, we're going to reassess," she said. "That's gonna adjust all the values in this county again ... we're going to bring them all to market value."
