NPTR: Alert 211: What Happened?

[Wayne Fischer]

WHAT HAPPENED?

ALERT: #211
DATE: June 11, 2009
TO: Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners
FROM: Village League Tax Revolt Committee

Dear Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Tax Protesters,

First, a huge thank you to all of you who took time from your busy schedules to attend the State Board of Equalization hearing yesterday in Carson City. It was standing room only and the State Board members and the attending media did indeed take notice. The positive result that we achieved would not have been possible without your presence.

Our successful day was capped with an Order from the Supreme Court late in the afternoon indicating that its previous Order directing the State Board of Equalization to decide the Assessor's appeal on the mass rollback determination needed no further clarification, which has been our position all along. The Court's ruling was clear.  It was just not being followed by the Attorney General and the Department of Taxation.  The stay of yesterday’s State Board proceedings was denied as it was no longer necessary, since the State Board itself postponed yesterday’s proceedings after a two hour hearing. 

Attorney General Catherine Cortes Mastos did not attend the proceedings as she had promised; however, John Breternitz, the Incline Village Washoe County Commissioner was there to observe and offer his personal assistance in helping to resolve our ongoing legal battles.


WHAT WERE THE PROBLEMS?

In noticing the matter to be heard and preparing the record for the State Board to consider in making its decision, the Department of Taxation had, without letting us know, replaced the 9,000 Incline Village and Crystal Bay taxpayers, as parties to our case, with the 2006-2007 Washoe County Board of Equalization, which had originally ruled in the taxpayers' favor.  Of course, this would have meant that no one (including Attorney Fulstone or the taxpayers themselves) would have been able to represent property owners at the hearing.

No attorney(s) represents the County Board of Equalization outside of their actual hearings since the Board itself ceases to exist after its two month term each year. Also  there are no members of the current County Board that were members of the combined 2006-2007 County Boards that issued the "mass rollback" decision. Therefore there is no one who could appear for the Washoe County Board and defend their decision. 

As it was set up by the Department of Taxation, the State Board was only going to hear the Assessor's side.  And that's the way it started to play out yesterday.  When the State Board Chairman called the case to start, only the Assessor and his Attorney stood up.   Predictably, no one came forward on behalf of the County Board of Equalization.  

With no one representing the taxpayers or the 2006 Washoe County Board, the Incline Village and Crystal Bay property owners would have lost if the case had proceeded.  Since one must be a party to take a case to the Courts later, taxpayers would have been prevented from appealing any State Board decision and we would have lost our entire 2006-2007 victory.    

In addition to removing the 9,000 taxpayers as parties, however, the Department of Taxation, in setting up the case to be heard by the State Board yesterday, omitted critical evidence in favor of the property owners that had been considered by the County Board. 

This is important, because only evidence which is in the record before the State Board can be considered by the Courts later.  In our case, all documents pertaining to the County Board rulings in favor of the 300 individual properties, on which the mass rollback decision for all of Incline Village and Crystal Bay was based, were missing from the “record” prepared by the Department of Taxation.

Other defects were also addressed yesterday as well, such as Notices of the hearing not being sent to all of the affected 9,000 taxpayers as required by law.

This is not the first time that procedural deficiencies have occurred in cases as presented by the Department of Taxation to be heard by the State Board.  Not surprisingly, those deficiencies have always benefitted the Assessor. 


Reno Gazette-Journal Article

This morning’s RGJ paper published an article about yesterday’s SBOE hearing.  Click on the following link to read the article.


www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org/09/090611-RGJ.pdf


WHAT IS NEXT?

After the errors have been corrected by the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Taxation, another hearing, in the very near future, will be scheduled by the State Board. Needless to say, we will keep you fully informed as to the time and date.  Maybe next time, we will finally get some closure to this ongoing seven year saga. 

Once again, our grateful thanks to all of you for your attendance and participation. Having your support is truly what keeps us going. 

Sincerely,

    Maryanne Ingemanson

Maryanne Ingemanson, President
Village League to Save Incline Assets
mingemanson at charter.net
www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org

---------------------------------

Village League to Save Incline Assets Board Members:
- Maryanne Ingemanson, President
-Dale Akers, Historian
- Les Barta, Law Research
- John Carney, Analyst
- Wayne Fischer, Webmaster
- Todd Lowe, Financial,
- Chuck Otto, Public Relations 


Village League to Save Incline Assets, Inc.
Non-Profit Corporation - FEIN 88-0399029
1165 Vivian Lane, Incline Village, NV 89451
Phone: 775-831-4011, Fax 775-831-0325

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