<BASE HREF="http://www.nevadapropertytaxrevolt.org/alerts/Alert58.html">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 5">
<title>Nevada Property Tax Revolt</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#4682b4">
<table width="750" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" bgcolor="#b0c4de" cool gridx="10" gridy="10" height="1211" showgridx showgridy usegridx usegridy>
<tr height="56">
<td width="749" height="56" colspan="4" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img src="../images/HeadImage.jpg" alt="" height="56" width="749" border="0"></td>
<td width="1" height="56"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="56"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="14">
<td width="1" height="1154" rowspan="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1154"></td>
<td width="179" height="1154" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="1">
<table width="160" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="8" bgcolor="#f0f8ff">
<tr>
<td><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><br>
<a href="../index.html" target="_top">Home</a></font>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/WCPropInfo.html">Property Information</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/Forms.html">Forms</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/NewsArticles.html" target="_top">News Articles</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/AlertArchives.html" target="_top">Alert Archives</a></font></p>
<p><a href="../pages/TaxLinks.html"><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Tax Links & other<br>
Taxing Information</font></a></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/LegalSupport.html" target="_top">Legal Support &<br>
the Lawsuit</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/AlertEmailList.html" target="_top">Subscribe to<br>
Alert Email List</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/AboutUs.html" target="_top">About Us</a></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><a href="../pages/Contributions.html" target="_top">Contributions</a></font></p>
<p>.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<td width="569" height="14" colspan="2"><spacer type="block" width="569" height="14"></td>
<td width="1" height="14"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="14"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="1140">
<td content csheight="1140" width="551" height="1140" valign="top" xpos="180">
<div align="center">
<p><font size="+2" color="red" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Summary of Taxation Hearing</b></font></p>
</div>
<div align="left">
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>ALERT:</b> #58<br>
<b>DATE:</b> October1, 2004<br>
<b>TO:</b> Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners<br>
<b>FROM: </b>Nevada Property Tax Revolt Committee<br>
</font></p>
<p><b><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Dear Fellow Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners,</font></b></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">A subcommittee hearing of the Nevada State Tax Commission and the State Department of Taxation was held this past Monday (September 27th) in Carson City. Dr. Marvin Wolverton, a noted tax assessment expert and professor at UNLV, made a presentation of his study based on the results of tax methods emanating from the Washoe County Assessor’s Office.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Without trying to bore or confuse you with the detailed statistical data, I would like to give you the essence of his findings. He used actual selling price data for homes sold over the last three years in Incline Village, the Lake Tahoe side of Douglas County, and the Damonte Ranch area in Reno. Dr. Wolverton compared the sales price of the property with the taxable value (as calculated by the County Assessor) at the time of sale.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">His findings were staggering. The best example of the inequities was between Incline Village and Douglas County. The average assessed value of homes in Incline Village was some 75% of the sale price versus the homes in Douglas County which were assessed at only 45% of the sale price. </font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Therefore the property tax burden in Douglas County is considerably lower. These same kinds of results were also found within Washoe County, as well as within Incline Village itself.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Dr. Wolverton’s study showed that the ratio between assessment value and sales price varies wildly. By law this ratio is supposed to vary only by 5%. But in Incline Village the variation is an order of magnitude greater. This indicates that the Washoe County methods fail to uniformly and fairly assess Tahoe Properties</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Dr. Wolverton’s study has one clear message:</b> The assessment methods used by the Washoe County Assessor resulted in widely disparate, unequal and non-uniform valuation. He was not trying to prove that Incline Village and Crystal Bay was being unfairly treated, but rather that the assessment methods were not yielding consistent, uniform and legal assessments.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Of course, our County Assessor, Bob McGowan, did not even bother to attend the hearing. Before he ever saw the presentation, he told us that he was not surprised that a study commissioned by The Village League would yield results unfavorable to his office. </font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">We’re equally sure that the tax guru’s at both the Assessor’s Office and Department of Taxation will spend countless hours of energy trying to discredit his work. Any unbiased observer would see the merits of Dr. Wolverton’s study and the conclusions simply can’t be swept under the table.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Executive Summary:<br>
</b></font><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Please <a href="../pdf/WolvertonSummary.pdf">click here</a><u> </u>for a one page executive summary of Dr. Wolverton’s Ratio Study (in pdf file format).</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Les Barta’s Letter to the Nevada Tax Commission:<br>
</b></font><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Please <a href="../pdf/LesBartaLetter.pdf">click here</a> for the two page letter Les Barta wrote to Barbara Campbell. The essence of the letter is that we all know the Washoe County Assessors are doing a bad and illegal job of assessing Lake Tahoe Properties. So why do yet another ratio study that will only validate Dr. Wolverton’s conclusion.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Stay tuned as the issues heat up.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">Regards,</font></p>
<div align="left">
<p><font size="+2" face="Times New Roman,Georgia,Times"><i>Chuck Otto</i></font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>Chuck Otto,</b> Tax Revolt Committee Member<br>
The Village League to Save Incline Assets<br>
<a href="mailto:%20cottogolf@aol.com">cottogolf@aol.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org">www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org</a></font></p>
<p>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</td>
<td width="18" height="1140"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1140"></td>
<td width="1" height="1140"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1140"></td>
</tr>
<tr height="1" cntrlrow>
<td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td>
<td width="179" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="179" height="1"></td>
<td width="551" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="551" height="1"></td>
<td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td>
<td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</body>
</html>