Logan County Board votes to intervene if state's attorney and parcel owners cannot negotiate tax appeal

 

[June 28, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

At the Logan County Board’s Regular meeting on Tuesday, June 18, the board voted on whether to intervene in a Property Tax Appeals Board (PTAB) case.

Board members present were David Blankenship, Bob Farmer, David Hepler, Steve Jenness, Chuck Ruben, Bob Sanders, Scott Schaffenacker, Annette Welch and Jim Wessbecher.

Emily Davenport and Janet Estill were absent.

Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Ruben brought forward the motion for a resolution to intervene in a Property Tax Appeals Board case regarding two parcels.

At the board’s finance committee meeting held on Tuesday, June 11, Chief County Assessment Officer Jennifer Campbell shared information about the PTAB case, which was from 2016-2017.

Campbell said the property appraisal was done for the Logan County Board of Review to use as evidence. However, between when previous Assessor Denise Martinek left the job and Campbell started, there was time for the evidence to be submitted, but it did not happen because Campbell did not receive the emails about it. Campbell said since the evidence was not submitted, the county defaulted on their opportunity to provide it as evidence against the property owner making the appeal.

In a case like this one, the county can still intervene, but Campbell said she must have a resolution from the board to submit the evidence, but she was not sure if having the State’s Attorney represent the county would be a conflict of interest.

At the board’s Workshop on Thursday, June 13, State’s Attorney Brad Hauge said he talked to Campbell and told her he does not feel it is a conflict of interest to represent the county. Hauge said he could still request a hearing and the state can decide whether to allow the county to intervene even though the deadline for submitting evidence was missed.

On Tuesday, Hauge believed he would be able to work out the issue through negotiations with the parcel owner, but he wanted the board to vote on the resolution in case the negotiation fell through and they had to come back before the board next month.

At a prior meeting, Hepler said his understanding was that the Property Tax Appeals Board made a ruling on the property in question having a fair market value of $300,000 in 2016. After that time ended, Hepler said the fair market value was pushed back up to $650,000.

The board approved the resolution to intervene in PTAB case regarding two parcels with eight yeses.

Hepler abstained.

On another matter, the board unanimously approved a budget amendment to move $45,000 out of the deputies’ salary line item to the radio repair line item.

Board Chairman Emily Davenport asked about the expense at the Finance Committee meeting.

Logan County Sheriff Mark Landers said there was an unexpected expense for the new radios. They must put repeater systems in the radios to do a crossover, and Landers said none of that had been discussed previously. Fortunately, he can take the money from another line item.

[Angela Reiners]