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County rejects all but one appeal
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Mower County Board of Commissioners, acting as the Board of Equalization, upheld all recommendations of Mower County Assessor Richard Peterson Tuesday with the exception of one.
Mike Adams, rural Elkton, won a reprieve from losing his agricultural homestead exemption classification.
Adams will, however, see a dramatic valuation increase on his rural Elkton property.
A week ago, the Equalization Board heard seven appeals of the county assessor’s action either to take the lucrative agricultural homestead exemption status away and/or increase valuations to the 90 to 105 percent sales ratio category.
At the time, Peterson said he recommended no changes.
Two of the appellants returned Tuesday morning with new information to support their appeals: Adams and rural Austin property owner, Kyle Klaehn.
One-by-one, the equalization board addressed the appeals.
Mower County Auditor-Treasurer Doug Groh sits on the equalization board with the five county commissioners.
Craig Oscarson, county coordinator, announced all of the appellants had received letters in advance notifying them of the Tuesday morning meeting and the board’s wishes “only new information would be heard.”
Dan Hoffman
Dan Hoffman was unable to attend the meeting. He had appealed the valuation increase on rental properties at Dexter and Adams, saying there were no comparables in the out-county area.
The appeal was rejected unanimously.
Austin Eagles
Dean Adams, an Austin attorney, represented the organization in its appeal. The Eagles moved into a new location after being a recurring victim of Austin flooding. Peterson placed a $906,000 valuation on their new headquarters off 11th Street Northeast.
The appeal was rejected unanimously.
Margaret Johnson
The equalization board decided they had no jurisdiction over the appeal, so the county assessor’s action stands.
At this point in Tuesday’s meeting, Peterson announced again how he based his decisions to reject all of the appeals including Johnson’s.
“I heard no additional information that was given that would change my mind,” he said.
Mike Adams
The owner and operator of the Ice Haus Inn bed and breakfast and a hay farm near St. John’s Lutheran Church, rural Elkton, has been before the equalization board four times in 14 years without success.
At the start of his testimony Tuesday, Richard P. Cummings, board chairman and 1st District county commissioner, announced, “Any repeat testimony will be stopped,” and Adams responded, “That’s not a good start is it?”
Armed with photographs of his hay ground, Adams plunged ahead with the argument he was “producing an ag product of quality.”
With a first cutting of 859 64-pound bales of hay, “Adams said, “There’s no way we could produce that much hay on less than 10 acres.”
Ten acres of tillable land is one of the criteria for obtaining the agricultural homestead exemption classification.
Peterson’s response was Adams lost the tax credit because the hay was not harvested as an ag product in the previous year.
“It was not really 10 acres last year (when Adams claimed he was cutting hay for profit on his farm),” he said.
Adams and Peterson, went back and forth to make arguments for their respective opinions. Groh joined the debate.
When the discussion ended, Tucker made a motion to allow Adams to retain his agricultural homestead exemption classification and Hillier seconded it.
All six board members voted “Aye.”
Then, Hillier made a motion to allow Peterson’s valuation recommendation to stand and Groh seconded it.
It was unanimously approved.
Diane Englehart
Five board members voted “Aye” and Tucker voted against the rejection.
Kyle Klahen
The only other taxpayer to supply additional information Tuesday was Kyle Klaehn, an Austin businessman, who has also been before the equalization board previously to appeal re-classification and increased valuations.
A year ago, Klaehn successfully won the Minnesota Department of Revenue’s reversal of Peterson’s action to strip him of the agricultural homestead exemption only to have it re-instated again this year by the county assessor.
Klaehn argued his interpretation of the state statute , concerning the 10 tillable acres requirement so often cited by Peterson, was that it isn’t always necessary.
Klaehn pointed to an orchard or a hog confinement operation or other “intensive” farming use of land less than 10 acres in size as examples to support his case.
The appellant and the board members, as well as Peterson, exchanged information until a Tucker-Hillier motion to reject the appeal was approved.
Troy Miller
he appellant purchased a home for $187,000, which Peterson valued at $247,000 despite the fact it was on the “for sale” market since 2005 and ostensibly had no comparable sales to itself despite the fact it is located in a neighborhood of homes values tens of thousands of dollars more.
Miller’s appeal was the quickest to be decided Tuesday. The board unanimously approved the rejection.
Scott Johnson
Still another walk-in appeal by Racine businessman, Scott Johnson, was also turned away because the county assessor had no jurisdiction over the matter.
Johnson’s appeal was as intriguing as any.
His antique shop is closed for several months during the year, but he does Internet business, too.
He wanted a reduction in his valuation, because, Johnson claimed, the business was not “open” for more than six months each year.
John Felten
No action was taken on John Felten, rural Rose Creek, who made an appeal that water issues affected his farm land’s valuation.
Last December after the county assessor stripped the “taxpayer friendly” agricultural homestead exemption from as many as 500 property owners, there was a storm of protests.
Because valuations also were increased, the taxpaying pain was doubled.
Peterson said the assessor’s office had erroneously granted the tax credit and not valued property as high as the law allows, because of the actions of a previous office employee now retired.
However, unpopular, the county assessor said his actions were justified and necessary.
By increasing the valuations, that also increases the tax capacity of Mower County; ergo: When taxes are levied, more taxes are paid.
Hillier has denied there is any attempt to increase the tax capacity to prepare the county for an upcoming jail-justice center referendum.
Adams, the most vocal critic of the county assessor’s actions — with the county board’s acceptance — was complimentary after Tuesday’s meeting.
“All in all, it was a very fair action,” Adams said. “The burden of proof was on me, the equalization board listened and acted accordingly.”
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