OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Douglas County’s assessor, under fire for big jumps in property tax valuations, said she’s considering options to ease taxpayers’ distress but that suggestions so far from the county Board of Commissioners wouldn’t meet state requirements.
Assessor/Register of Deeds Diane Battiato and the board have been flooded with complaints since preliminary evaluations for 2017 were posted last month. The county’s total taxable valuation would increase by about 8.5 percent, Battiato has said, which is on top of last year’s state-mandated increase of 7 percent on residential properties in central and west Omaha.
Battiato told the board Tuesday that she’s determined to reduce many of the preliminary increases, the Omaha World-Herald reported (https://bit.ly/2k2vfsc ). But the 3 percent cap the board proposed in a nonbinding resolution Jan. 31 wouldn’t work, she said.
Valuations under such a cap would compute to just 91.4 percent of market value - short of the state valuation requirements of 92 to 100 percent of market value - and likely trigger another state order to raise valuations, Battiato said. Also, such a cap would let some fast-appreciating homes fall too far below the required market value range, she said.
A suggestion to roll 2017 valuations back to the 2016 figures also would leave the county short of the state mandate, she said.
“Rolling back to 2016 is not even an acceptable amount to send in (to the state),” Battiato said.
Her staff has been working on options that would lessen some of the jumps but still comply with state law.
One would rework 2017 valuations so the overall figure would be at 92 percent of market value. The other would redo valuations so the county overall would be at 93.5 percent of market value.
She can’t yet tell individual property owners what those options would do to their tax bills, Battiato said, but either still would result in significant valuation increases.
The final valuations are set in May, and taxpayers can file formal protests in June.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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