NPTR: Alert #145: State tax board's attitude appalling

[Wayne Fischer]

*Update on Our Property Tax Battles*

*ALERT: *#145
*DATE:* October 8, 2007
*TO:* Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners
*FROM: *Village League Tax Revolt Committee

*Dear Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners,*

An article in Friday's Bonanza newspaper provides an excellent update on 
the recent State Board of Equalization hearings. A special thank you to 
Les Barta for writing the article.

Best Regards,
*Wayne Fischer,* Webmaster
Nevada Property Tax Revolt Web
www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org

===============================

*State tax board's attitude appalling*

Bonanza (opinion page)
October 5, 2007
www.tahoebonanza.com

By Les Barta
Special to the Bonanza

    Last Friday, after a full day of Incline area property tax hearings 
before the State Board of Equalization, I left the Legislature building 
in Carson City to head for home. In the parking garage I came upon a 
prominent state board member laughing heartily with the Washoe County 
Assessors over a nasty remark he had just made about the Incline area 
taxpayers.

    They were startled to see me, but I was not at all surprised by 
their demeanor. All day long the board members and the assessors mingled 
closely with each other and their respective attorneys, huddling in 
strategy sessions during the breaks, stoically supporting each other 
during the hearings, and entertaining each other in taxpayer mockery 
sessions.

    This was not surprising, because the State Board and the Assessor 
have been losing co-litigants in lawsuits brought by the Village League 
and Incline area taxpayers. The State Board has actually coauthored 
several of the documents submitted on behalf of the Assessor, including 
a Supreme Court brief for the 2004 case expressing identical arguments 
made by the Assessor and the State Board.

    This same State Board, the one writing briefs and arguing fervently 
on behalf of the assessor, has now judged the assessor's appeal on the 
same issues that they argued together. Yet amazingly, not one member of 
the State Board or the Assessor's Office - or for that matter their 
respective attorneys - cares to acknowledge this patently obvious 
prejudice against the taxpayers. How can a taxpayer possibly hope for 
justice when his adversary is his judge?

    The State Board's performance has been seasoned with defiant 
references to the courts and indignant remarks toward the County Board 
and others with whom they disagree. Their tone is one of contempt for 
Incline area taxpayers, many of whom they coerced into accepting a 
"settlement offer" under threat of having the Assessor's 
unconstitutional higher values restored.

    These quasi-judicial public officials have engaged in nothing short 
of open contempt for the legal system and the public interest they are 
sworn to protect. They were even cautioned to respect the taxpayers and 
comply with the courts in a letter from Gov. Gibbons, who was alerted to 
their errant behavior. The State Board's response to the Governor was 
evident last Friday when they let it all hang out as a sort of parting 
shot in a grand finale of arrogance and disrespect.

    Meanwhile, the State Board systematically upheld the Assessor in 100 
percent of the Incline area tax cases, including all of the 
unconstitutional 2007 assessments that had been reduced by the County Board.

    When the taxpayers proved that the 2006 assessments were 
unconstitutional, the County Board reduced them to 2002, as they were 
instructed to do by the Supreme Court. So the district court asked the 
State Board why on earth it still wanted to drag the taxpayers through 
another round of Assessor appeals. But the State Board simply ignored 
the district court, ignored the Supreme Court's instructions, ignored 
the overwhelming evidence presented at the County Board, and raised the 
2006 assessments anyway.

    In my own case, I had been awarded an additional view reduction in a 
unanimous decision by the County Board - the very same "B" panel that 
had been assembled by the Washoe County Commission in an effort to stem 
the tide of rulings favorable toward Incline area taxpayers.

    Because the assessor was unhappy with this additional reduction, the 
State Board arbitrarily overturned it and reinstated the higher value, 
even though the separate "view" decision had never been appealed by the 
assessor or noticed for a hearing by the State Board, and I never had 
any opportunity to present the evidence that had so thoroughly convinced 
the County Board. The assessor characterized my protest of this denial 
of my due process rights as "game playing." When I objected to this, a 
State Board member loudly exclaimed, "Mr. Chairman, shut him up."

    Still bothered by my objection, that same State Board member then 
abruptly stormed out of the next hearing on equalization of all 2007 
Incline area assessments.

    In that hearing, the Assessor's lawyer argued that the County Board 
of "Equalization" had no legal authority to "equalize." Naturally, the 
State Board agreed with this ridiculous claim and ultimately refused to 
even consider the 2007 equalization issue.

    Last Friday's performance by the State Board was an utterly pathetic 
display of arrogance and low moral character - the crowning achievement 
in a season of defiance and disrespect for the authority of law.

    The State Board members have worked hard all year for minimal 
reward. Yet whatever dignity they may have earned by their efforts was 
erased by their conduct in this disgraceful parting spectacle.


  /  Les Barta is an Incline Village resident and a member of Incline's 
Tax Revolt committee./



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