Despite declining real estate values, the state ordered the Rio Arriba County tax assessor’s office to increase assessed property values earlier this year, County Assessor Art Rodarte said.
State Tax and Revenue Department Appraisal Bureau Chief David Ortiz ordered the increases in a March 31 email, County records show.
Residential property assessments will increase by 6.1 percent and commercial property assessments will increase by 10 percent, Rodarte said. Property owners were notified of the increase in April and will see the increases in their November tax bills, Rodarte said.
“It’s across the board, so everyone’s hit by the same amount,” County Assessor Art Rodarte said. “State statute says we either increase residential property values by 3 percent every year or 6.1 percent every other year. We’re on a two-year cycle so we increase by 6.1 every other year.”
Tax bills will be mailed Nov. 1 and the first half of the bills will be due by Nov. 15, Rodarte said. The second half of the tax bill is due Dec. 15 of the following year, he said.
Rodarte’s office has received at least 30 protest letters from largely new or absentee property owners since April, complaining that the County’s increased full value assessments outstrip market values, County records show.
Rio Rancho resident Elizabeth Williams said she was shocked by the $203 increase in this year’s County notice of assessed value for an unimproved lot in The Pines development, from $3,333 to $3,506.
“It’s a five-acre plot about 11 miles southwest of Tierra Amarilla, near (El) Vado lake,” Williams said. “It’s unimproved with an arroyo through the middle. The culvert has deteriorated so much we can’t drive the road anymore. So the property value has declined, if anything. We are old people on a fixed income. They should keep it like it is.”
While he has little latitude when it comes to the state-mandated increases in valuation rates, Rodarte said he tries to accommodate genuine reductions in property values.
“Something like that, with an arroyo across the property, by physically inspecting the land, our appraiser can adjust property value assessments,” Rodarte said.
The disconnect between recent declines in properties’ market values and this year’s tax valuation increases galls some County property owners.
Denise George moved from Virginia to Laguan Vista last year only to see her 12-acre property decline in market value by $50,000 — and the County-assessed value of the property increase by $25,000, she said.
“It has a house and guest house, and a garage,” George said. “The increased assessment is absolutely a hardship. I put the house on the market for $50,000 less than I paid a year ago and haven’t had anybody look at it. Market value is down, absolutely. In the current market, I find it inflated, definitely. It’s not worth what they’re saying it is worth.”
Protests are first handled by the County Assessor’s office, and then forwarded to a protest board if the property owner is dissatisfied with the outcome, Rodarte said.
“Then they can go before the protest board to prove their assessment is incorrect,” Rodarte said. “If something’s way out of kilter, we’ll recalculate and adjust it.”
State statute requires each county to create a valuation protest board consisting of three members, two of which are appointed by the county commission. A third member of the protest board must be a state Finance Department employee. Property owners may appeal protest board decisions in state District Court.
No cases have yet to go before the County tax protest board in 2008 or 2009, Rodarte said.
“It would have to be a huge amount of money to do that,” Rodarte said. “Most of the protests we’re receiving are over $10 tax increases.”
Unlike residential property rates, Rodarte has not increased commercial property assessments since being elected in 2002, he said.
“I guess I just felt commercial properties were paying a fair rate as it was,” Rodarte said. “But now, the state feels we need to increase commercial valuations by 10 percent to bring it closer to market values.”
The County’s property value assessments have not kept up with market values over recent years, Rodarte said.
“Properties have not sold but I don’t know if property (real estate) values have decreased,” Rodarte said. “Home values are probably correctly assessed but there may be discrepancies in land values. In La Mesilla, we assess unimproved land at $60,000 per acre but land is selling for $80,000 an acre. So we haven’t caught up with market values.”
But newer homes or recently purchased homes will be assessed at higher values reflecting actual sale prices, Rodarte said.
Owners in different school districts will also see different tax rates for equivalent properties because of different mill levies, Rodarte said.
For example, Lumberton home owners paid $20.58 per $1,000 taxable property value in 2008, while Ojo Sarco residents paid $14.47 per $1,000 taxable property value, according to County documents.
The increases will be added to properties’ total or “full value,” meaning the total 2009 value of the land and any structures or improvements, Rodarte said. The full value is divided by three and property owners are only taxed on one third of the full value, called the taxable value, Rodarte said.
State Tax and Revenue Department Appraisal Bureau officials did not return calls for comment.