The Jefferson County Council appropriated an extra $18,500 to the Jefferson County assessor’s office for a trending contract with Nexus Group.

County Assessor Margaret Hoffman recommended signing the contract. Trending is part of the process of reassessing property values.

At $54,500 for one year, the contract was not the cheapest of the four bids the county received, Hoffman said. But Nexus Group’s track record with the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, which must approve Nexus Group’s findings, is impeccable, Hoffman said. Twenty-one other counties have contracted with Nexus for their trending consultations, and all have passed, she said.

“We can’t afford to have anything but a vendor who will do the best job possible,” Hoffman said.

When asked if the trending consultation would cut down her need for personnel, Hoffman told the council that she would still be understaffed. A lot of the burden would be taken off the assessor’s office, she said, but the amount of work required of her office would not be less.

Ken Surface, vice president of Nexus Group, said the county’s cost will include updating the cost tables. Right now, he said, Jefferson County is operating on cost tables from 1999. According to the contract, Nexus Group will also deal with the appeals process, if necessary.

Surface said that three employees would probably be working in Jefferson County on the trending.

According to state law, trending will now have to be done yearly. Council President Joe Craig understands this to mean that the county will have to pay a similar amount for trending every year.

Craig called trending an unfunded mandate during the council’s meeting.

“When I said that it was an unfunded mandate, I meant that the state’s making us do this to make it more fair, but we have to pay to make it more fair,” Craig said later.

The assessor’s office already had most of the money to pay for the contract in its budget. The additional $18,500 for the contract will come out of the county’s reassessment fund, rather than its county general fund. The state allows an approximate 3 percent increase in the general fund, depending on the county’s tax levy, but the reassessment fund has no state limit on its increase, Craig said.

Also at the County Council meeting Wednesday, Jefferson County Clerk Kim Smith approached the council to see if its members have heard any more information about the County Board of Tax and Capital Projects that the Indiana General Assembly passed last year, as reported in Wednesday’s Courier.

The board would have authority to change the budgets and tax rates of many county agencies, including the County Council.

The new board would have nine members, two of them elected.

Smith said several people have approached her, interested in running for the two elected positions.

Craig said that the way he understood it, it is the council’s choice whether or not to approve the new tax board, which was announced soon after Mitch Daniels’ property tax relief plan that includes eliminating township assessors and turning over some county government functions to the state.

“In our size county, I don’t think it’s necessary to add another layer to the projects we already have and another cost to the county,” Craig told the council.

The council will consult county attorney Wil Goering.

If there is to be a road improvement measure it will be up to the citizens of Ridgecrest.

Wednesday night, the City Council decided to table the measure, effectively ending the likelihood of a measure reaching the ballot in the next election cycle. The Council was unable to reach “unanimous consent” on whether it should hire a consultant to conduct a survey, even after opening up $15,000 designated for art in the medians.

By making the $15,000 available, the idea was to conduct a joint survey for an infrastructure initiative, in addition to a Parks and Recreation measure. The estimated cost of a consultant is $15,000-18,000.

Combining surveys would create the perception the council is “trying to slip something by” citizens, said Mayor Pro Tem Steven Morgan.

Conversely, Councilman Ron Carter was steadfast in his support of a consultant.

“I will not support a tax increase unless I know what this community will support and I will not be able to get that information unless we have professional consultants doing it,” said Carter. “…You can’t keep doing the same process if you want a different result.”

The Infrastructure Committee had proposed an increase of 3/4 cent sales tax, which would have raised sales tax to an even 8 percent. A measure would have also included three major stipulations: a list of specific projects, no discretionary spending, and a sunset clause. Under a sunset clause, the collection of sales tax expires after a set number of years.

A sunset clause of 10 years, with a 3/4 cent increase would have raised an estimated $20-21 million, according to Vice Mayor Tom Wiknich. Every 1/4 cent would accumulate approximately $750,000 a year.

And to ensure no discretionary spending, Wiknich and Public Works Director Dennis Speer compiled a list of over $27 million in projects, meaning that if more than $20-21 million was raised, the money would have been used for other road projects.

For Councilman Dan Clark, it sounded like deja vu.

“What has changed?” asked Clark. “We’ve been here before some of us 10, 12 years. What has changed? Absolutely nothing I have heard has changed from the last two experiences I have had here.”

Clark’s “last two experiences,” referred to Measures “I” and “Q.” Morgan remembers those measures as well and thought they would pass. Hiring a consultant will “galvanize the opposition,” said Morgan.

“I still don’t believe from the general opinions of the public that I have received that a poll is necessary,” said Morgan. “I do, however, believe that help in the educational process is going to be necessary to reach the individuals that…open their ballot two days before the election and decide what they’re going to do.”

Holloway raised the idea of using the $15,000. The money was initially allocated for art in the medians, though the Arts Council and Quality of Life Committee may open up the money to placing art on other City owned property.

The proposaed measure was different from the previous two, said Tom Wiknich. People who voted against Measures “I” and “Q” would vote for the proposed measure, as long as it included the three stipulations, said Wiknich.

Also, grassroots efforts to educate citizens would have been greater, according to Wiknich and Holloway. Both the Chamber of Commerce and Indian Wells Valley 2000 said they would help inform citizens. Although the Chamber of Commerce was undecided as to whether they favored a measure, President Janis Bottorff offered the group’s outreach.

“We would like to pledge our support to be a vessel for that distribution of accurate facts and get that information out to the many people who are uninformed or who need to be educated with the accurate facts,” said Bottorff.

Eric Mattson was not surprised that the small vacant lot he bought last year near the shores of Lake Waconia was increasing in value.

What shocked him was the $189 million market value the Carver County assessor’s office came up with for the 55- by 80-foot lot, making it the most valuable property in Waconia and possibly the county.

“It was such an obvious mistake,” said Mattson, 41, who was looking at a property tax bill of $2.5 million. “It was over the top. It was very funny.”

The story has been creating quite a few chuckles since it began swirling around Waconia this week.

But no one is laughing at the assessor’s office, where the problem started. Neither is anyone at the Carver County Board, the city of Waconia or the Waconia School District.

Those three entities — which were counting on the $2.5 million in increased property tax collections — now face the daunting task of raising taxes or cutting budgets to make up for the shortfall.

“This is not an ‘oops.’ This is a major error that affects an awful lot of people,” said Mark Lundgren, director of the Carver County division that oversees the assessor’s office.

Error wasn’t caught at first

What has Lundgren and other Carver County officials most concerned is that the error was not caught for several months. It was discovered only last week when the property owners called to complain.

“Our initial reaction was shock,” said Susan Arntz, Waconia’s city administrator. “We were puzzled why it wasn’t caught earlier by the county.”

In the fall, the county sent out tax estimates to 34,000 property owners. Now, it must send out new estimates.

“We need to take accountability. This was clearly our mistake,” said Carver County Administrator Dave Hemze.

He also has to figure out how to cover a $900,000 shortfall in the county budget.

County, city and school officials are expecting a lot of hard questions next week when they hold special meetings to discuss what they are going to do to balance their books. If they tried to raise taxes on other property owners enough to cover the shortfall, the increase would range from about $30 a year on a typical home in Carver County to as much as $330 on a typical home in Waconia.

So officials are looking instead for ways to cut proposed spending.

Hemze, for example, has decided to forgo buying a new $100,000 truck for public works, as well as delay furniture purchases and reduce the county technology budget by $90,000.

“We’re not going to stop plowing snow. We’re not going to stop mowing parks,” said Waconia’s Arntz, whose city is facing a shortfall of about $750,000.

‘We were assured’

Arntz and Waconia School District Superintendent Jerry Kjergaard said Thursday that they had questioned the county’s initial numbers when they came out in August.

“We didn’t think it was right, but we were assured that it was correct,” said Kjergaard, who is trying to figure out what cuts might need to be made to the district’s budget plans. “I’m not happy, but what is it they say happens?”

Lundgren said the trouble began in August when a clerk went into Mattson’s file to change the designation of the property, at 233 Lake St. E., from homestead to non-homestead to reflect its change in status after its sale.

The clerk filled in the $18,900 proposed valuation, but then mistakenly hit the key to exit the program. The computer added four zeros to fill out the nine numerical spaces required by the software, thus indicating the value was $189,000,000.

Increase by a factor of 10,000

The error was compounded when proofreaders failed to notice that the value of Mattson’s property had increased by a factor of 10,000.

Lundgren said the county has instituted new procedures to assure this doesn’t happen again, including daily proofreading of property tax records that are changed.

Mattson, a consultant who used to work in mergers and acquisitions, said the error was discovered by his wife, Julie, last month when she opened the county’s property tax estimate mailed to their home.

She called the county assessor’s office to say the property tax estimate was wrong. Although the valuation has since been changed, Mattson’s wife got no immediate response from the county assessor.

“I’m sure they get a thousand calls a day from people saying their property tax bills are wrong,” Mattson laughed.

Then she called Mattson to try to explain to him what she was seeing on their proposed property tax increase.

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/12234526.html

t’s a bitterly cold Friday morning in Olympia and the one day special session is now history. Not much to do yesterday other than catch up on paperwork, telephone calls and watch the House and Senate reinstate the 1% property tax limitation that was tossed out a few weeks ago by the Supreme Court. Not too much drama either as the limitation bill passed easily from both chambers and was signed instantaneously by the Governor. The most popular person in Olympia yesterday seemed to be some fellow called ”Will of the People” who was referred to by virtually every speaker in committee or on the floor. Perhaps I’ll get to meet him some day soon.The previous Wednesday, the Senate Higher Education Committee held a hearing at 3:30 p.m. on the two North Sound campus reports prepared by NBBJ consultants and the UW. I was on a panel of presenters with Debora Merle from the Governor’s Office and Martin Regge from NBBJ Consultants. As has been the case with most legislative hearings on this topic, most of the questions and passion surrounded the NBBJ report which ranked the Pacific Station site in Everett as the preferred location for the new campus.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) and Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington) asked the most pointed questions of NBBJ as they have expressed their public support for the Smokey Point site in Marysville. Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens) also asked many questions about the ranking of the sites and criteria chosen as he has been a public backer of the Cavalero site in Lake Stevens. Committee chairman Sen. Paull Shin (D-Edmonds) did a good job of keeping the committee focused and allowing each of us on the panel to make our respective presentations.

While the ultimate location of the campus site remains in the hands of the state legislature, the Pacific Station site did get a boost on Thursday as the Everett Herald reported that Sen. Jean Berkey (D-Everett) has thrown her support behind the Pacific Station site.

http://depts.washington.edu/staterel/wordpress/?p=171

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magine, sang John Lennon. And that’s just what proponents of the Decades Music Theme Park project are doing. They picture a major rock-and-roll-based attraction in Eloy, with exciting rides, re-creations of album art, concert spaces, music impersonators and hotels. Sounds like fun.

But Arizonans are being asked to do more than imagine.

Supporters of the $800 million project want the legislation to let them create a special district that would allow them to levy a sales tax to support tax-exempt bonds. And thus they can get cheaper financing.

This wouldn’t be a first. Lawmakers have already approved a similar package to spur development of a theme park in Williams.

But that doesn’t change the bottom line: Arizonans are being asked to give substantial privileges to Decades. The public would have a stake in its success.

So lawmakers can’t consider this project with stars in their eyes. They need to take a clear, cold look at key issues, including:

• Attendance: Decade’s projections are extremely optimistic, with 6 million visitors in the first year. Only six U.S. theme parks, all in Florida, reached that level in 2006. “Nobody gets 6 million visitors their first year,” says Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services.

• Management: The major consultant for the park is Peter Alexander, who created attractions in major theme parks based on Batman and King Kong in the 1980s and mid-1990s. While project supporters call Alexander an industry icon, his name isn’t familiar to some major theme-park experts, including Speigel, the past president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

• Market: The theme-park industry is mature, with little growth in attendance outside the Disney parks. Hard Rock Park, a similar project, is opening in Myrtle Beach, S.C., next spring. It should give an indication of whether a rock-themed park will draw crowds. Decades supporters are assuming that the $400 million S.C. park would be a complement, whetting people’s appetite for a larger attraction in the West, and not a competitive threat. Meanwhile, there’s competition from theme parks next door. “You’ve got the entire developed Southern California market just a few hours away, which markets aggressively,” says Robert Niles, editor of the Theme Park Insider Web site.

• Legal rights: A rock-and-roll park will require legal permission from a lot of stars or their estates, not to mention royalty payments. Some of the most towering names, including Elvis and the Beatles, are indispensable. The Decades group says it has an LA attorney working on these issues.

Usually, these are issues that a company and its investors wrestle with on their own. But they’re seeking the ability to issue tax-exempt municipal bonds, which lowers the cost of borrowing. They want the Legislature to let Decades establish a special district on its property that could issue tax-exempt bonds. The district would have the authority to impose a sales tax (capped at 8 to 10 percent) to repay the bonds.

Supporters point out that the new tax wouldn’t replace the regular sales tax but be on top of it. They say taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for repaying the bonds.

But Kevin McCarthy of the Arizona Tax Research Association sees a risk if Decades flounders. “When bonds go bad,” he says, “it reflects poorly on everyone that’s involved.” There could be pressure for a bailout.

Decades is promoted as an extraordinary opportunity for Arizona. Legislators are being asked to give it an extraordinary privilege. They need to give it extraordinary scrutiny first.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1202sun1-02.html

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Cambria County taxpayers will face a 1-mill increase in 2008 to begin paying off the $10 million Cambria 911 updates and the new wireless communications project, the commissioners said Wednesday.

A 1-mill hike would mean a $12 increase in the yearly tax bill on the average residential property, they said.

The 2008 budget, which goes on public display today, shows a spending increase of 3.89 percent. It totals $154.28 million, up about $5.5 million.

A major financial challenge for 2008 will be Laurel Crest, the county’s nursing home. It is showing a $2.2 million deficit this year – reduced to $1.1 million by drawing on reserve funds – and a projected loss of $2.7 million if patients and revenues do not increase, commissioners said.

A special meeting is slated Dec. 28 for adoption of the budget and taxes.

President Commissioner P.J. Stevens described the budget as the “bare minimum” necessary to operate in the new year.

Stevens said the commissioners made every effort to reduce costs and increase revenues where possible, but inflationary pressures were felt in fuel, utilities and wages.

The tax increase will bring Cambria’s total tax levy to 23.25 mills – 17.5 for general operations, 4 for debt service, 0.75 for community college, 0.5 for the county library system and 0.5 for parks/playgrounds.

The property tax is expected to bring in $27 million, funding just less than 18 percent of the county’s budget, chief clerk Mike Gelles said. The rest of the budget will be paid through state and federal reimbursements and other sources.

This will be the third time the present board has raised taxes.

In April – when the $10 million loan was approved for the wireless telecommunications project/911 updates – the commissioners said it wouldn’t cause a tax increase.

But inflation made a hold on taxes unrealistic, they said. Eventually, profits from the new venture and reductions in the county’s communications costs are expected to pay the tab.

The county will make its first loan payment of $918,000 in 2008, Gelles said.

Commissioner Bill Harris said the network, which will be made available to private providers, is an investment in the county’s future.

The commissioners listed three bright spots in the 2008 budget:

n A reduction in county contributions to the retirement fund. Three years ago, the cost was $1.4 million. For 2008, it’s projected at $400,000.

n The health-care committee was able to negotiate a minimal increase of 5 percent on insurance premiums. That’s still an increase of $600,000.

n Higher revenues at the prison for housing out-of-county inmates. The county is anticipating $2.5 million in 2008; in 2007, they were $1.6 million.

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_339220924.html

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The Franklin City Council will meet with the Choose Franklin group at the Peabody Home today at 7 p.m. to hear a presentation from Don Jutton of Municipal Resources Inc. about the proposed Tax Increment Finance District (TIF) in downtown Franklin.

Jutton is a consultant employed by the Franklin Business and Industrial Development Corp. and he will lead a “nuts-and-bolts” discussion about what a TIF distict is and how it can benefit Franklin’s downtown and mill districts.

A TIF District captures future property tax values from development to repay municipal investments in infrastructure improvements.

http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071206/GJNEWS02/712060038/-1/CITIZEN

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Big surprise (note the sarcasm): at least one of the “developers” on the popular A&E TV show called “Flip This House” is not at all what he claimed to be. Confirming longstanding speculation, a Fox TV affiliate has been investigating the Atlanta team and in a two part broadcast series concluded the “deals” featured on the show were complete fabrications. Turns out a lot of people are out thousands of dollars as a result of investing with the “star” of the show (including a youth minister who lost $100,000). And it’s also apparent that the profitable “flips” on the show were staged, not real. The Georgia Real Estate Commission even concluded in an earlier investigation that the star of the Atlanta team “does not bear a good reputation for honesty, trustworthiness, integrity and competence” as they revoked his real estate license after reviewing his real estate broker activities. A&E has finally taken these episodes off the air. Too bad they didn’t check these guys out before they put them on the air in the first place.

Discernment. Someone at A&E didn’t have it. How many people watching this show didn’t have it? We’re to be good stewards. Investing with smooth talking charlatans isn’t good stewardship. Be careful who you give your money to, and don’t believe everything you see on TV….even “reality TV” isn’t always real.

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County health officials will spend $25,000 to determine whether property taxes could be raised to pay for increased efforts to control insect-borne diseases.

County supervisors on Tuesday authorized the expenditure, which will fund a campaign to gauge whether county voters support a benefit assessment that would increase the typical residential property tax bill by $10 per year. The new tax would create a countywide vector control district and generate nearly $1 million annually. That money would be spent primarily on mosquito control to prevent an outbreak of West Nile virus, a potentially deadly disease.

Jeff Hamm, county health agency director, said it will take his staff and a consultant about four months to complete the educational campaign and report back to supervisors on whether it is advisable to schedule an election.

Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the expenditure, with Supervisor Harry Ovitt voting “no.”

West Nile virus tends to break out in hot spots in different parts of the state each year, said Dr. Greg Thomas, county health officer. No one in San Luis Obispo County has become infected with the disease this year, but neighboring Kern County is this year’s hot spot with 137 human cases.

The county Health Department spends $300,000 a year on vector control with three staff members dedicated to the program. This is less than in comparable counties in the state.

A recent report by the county’s civil grand jury recommended the creation of a vector control district. Four of the supervisors said a district makes sense because it would create a reliable source of money for pest-control activities rather than relying on state grants.

“This is an insurance policy,” said Supervisor Jerry Lenthall. “To not do this would be betting against ourselves.”

Ovitt said he opposes the idea because he thinks there is little chance that voters will approve a tax increase in light of the slumping housing market. He would prefer to spend the $250,000 it would cost to conduct an election on the county’s current programs.

“What we are investing now is working,” he said.

Supervisors have two types of elections they can put on the ballot: a parcel tax or a benefit assessment. Staff is recommending the use of a benefit assessment.

In a benefit assessment, only property owners would be allowed to vote and each vote would be weighted depending on the amount of the assessment of the property. A similar vote was recently used to authorize construction of a sewer in Los Osos.

In a parcel tax, all voters — not just property owners — in the county would be allowed to participate, but the measure would have to pass by a two-thirds margin.

The Department of Local Government Finance announced this week that 23 county assessors are delinquent in providing property data for 2007 taxes, payable in 2008. Unless those assessors provide the information by Dec. 10, the DLGF said it will consider penalizing the assessors.

The DLGF announcement that La Porte County data for the next property tax year is past due raises questions about delivery of tax bills in 2008, according to Musgrave. 

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7100&TM=54754.11