Reappraisal fix needed... still

It appears that whatever delegation the Flathead Valley sends to Helena after next month’s elections, there will be a unified and highly justified priority on doing something about the state’s badly flawed reappraisal system.

Republican and Democratic legislative candidates consistently insist that the issue must be addressed. The 2008 reappraisal cycle slammed many Flathead County property owners in a completely disproportionate way by accounting for six years of booming realty trends and not adequately accounting for the real-estate bust that had fully materialized in 2008.

In short, the Department of Revenue’s official appraisals for many properties, particularly waterfront land, far exceed their actual market values.

A recession isn’t necessary for Flathead Valley property owners to be blindsided by vastly increased tax bills every six years — this is an issue that has been taken up by the Legislature several times, and every time frustrating obstacles are encountered and the supposed remedies come up short. That was certainly the case with the 2008 legislation, but we’re hoping the next session will be different.

A fundamental obstacle is the state Constitution’s requirement that properties must be taxed on fair market values, meaning that the appraisal cycle is a requirement. That leaves little room to maneuver to approaches used by other states, such as basing appraised values on an actual sales value followed by incremental and predictable annual increases in values.

Legislators have also had to struggle with constitutional equity issues when it comes to property taxes — the same methods must be used from one county to the next.

Another persistent problem is the resistance to reform presented by lawmakers from the state’s most rural, low-growth areas and other interests that simply don’t regard tax relief for Flathead County property owners as a priority. Consider, for example, the recent approval of pay raises for Lake County officials. Those raises assume the county’s property tax revenues will remain unchanged.

Our guess is that groups like the Montana Association of Counties, representing jurisdictions that depend on unchanged property-tax revenues, will be on hand to resist changes that result in any relief for Flathead County’s most severely impacted taxpayers.

But still, the Flathead County legislative delegation needs to put up a fight for the most effective and lasting type of relief possible.