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June 4, 2014
75 cents Teller County, Colorado | Volume 53, Issue 22 A publication of
pikespeakcourier.net
No Love Lost in assessor debate By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com Niceties aside, both candidates running for Teller County assessor in the Republican primary took pot shots at each other in a debate May 28. Supporters and opponents of Violet Watt and current assessor, Betty Clark-Wine, packed city council chambers. While Watt spotlighted reports of poor customer service in Clark-Wine’s office, the assessor countered with praise for her staff. Each candidate came prepared to respond to accusations hurled by the other. Sponsored by Teller County Republicans and moderated by Pete LaBarre, the debate started out easy enough, with Watt explaining how properties are valued. Residential properties, for instance, are valued by comparing sales in the same area, which is the market approach. “Any other types of property we can use comparable-sales, income and cost approaches,” Watt said. “Once we have the value we apply the assessed rate, depending on the classification of property.” For residential, 7.96 percent of actual value equals the assessed value, Watt said, while all other classifications are assessed at 29 percent of actual value. “All sales are put into a modeling process. Our appraisers modeled the area and determined the values on the individual properties,” Clark-Wine added. Because Watt was an appraiser in the assessor’s office she was asked if commercial values are higher within the Downtown District Authority. “Commercial properties are almost always sticky situations. The bulk of commercial sales were within the DDA and in Woodland Park proper. Compound that with sub-classifications of property - not only do we have retail we have office space, dental and medical buildings. The bulk of the sales were in retail and office spaces. When it comes to those two sub-classifications, the likelihood of the models being close to right, as long as the characteristics are correct, are pretty good. Any other sub-class of property is going to require further investigation. The assessor has no power to change the function of the DDA.” Clark-Wine was asked if there had been deals made when assessing properties within the DDA to get more taxes into the district. “I am not a fan of DDAs or urban renewal; however, they are statutory measures for cities to take care of blighted areas or areas that need improvement. The DDA in Woodland Park was voted on by the people in
Candidates for the office of Teller County assessor engaged in a lively debate May 28 hosted by Teller County Republicans and moderated by the chairman, Pete LaBarre, center. Violet Watt, left, and current assessor Betty Clark-Wine are running against each other in the Republican primary June 24. Photo by Pat Hill the district. They get their biggest bang for the buck on new construction. Most of my meetings with the DDA were about boundaries. There was an issue with the valuation of 13 properties inside the DDA - they were given a $25 per square foot break on exempt property…” Clark-Wine was cut off before she could finish her sentence. In the interest of fairness, The Courier asked for the rest of the story in an email: “Parking (downtown lots) leased to city is exempt from taxation and reduces the property owner’s bill: When the properties were revalued in 2007 and 2009 for the years 2008-2012 they were given a $25 per square foot exemption, which was much higher than the historical values of $2.50-$4.50 per square foot. The result was that the owner received a larger tax reduction and the taxing authorities received less revenue in that time frame. When properties were revalued in 2013, all commercial land in Woodland Park was valued around $4.69 per square foot. For 2013, the exempt portion was based on $4.69 (instead of $25 per square foot). This caused taxes to go up, even if the property value went down. On another issue, Watt was asked why she dropped the value of her own home by $76,901 in the northwest area where she had done the modeling as an appraiser. “The northwest area encircles my property.
The acting chief appraiser and the acting data analyst at the time I left the office was the assessor,” Watt said, referring to ClarkWine. Therefore, the assessor was responsible for checking the values of the model.” Watt’s home was then valued at $108,680. Was that fair and did Clark-Wine know that Watt had assessed her own property? LaBarre said. “I have a policy that any property that falls within your own area must be reviewed by the data analyst. We have a chief data analyst, Pam Killibrew, who was to review any properties and any individual who appraised their own property. That being said, we had a very busy season and I trusted Violet to do the right thing and to bring that to the attention of the data analyst to review her property. She could have protested and gotten the value where it should have been? Was it fair and accurate? No.” Watt added, “I did check my value around the surrounding sales in the Crystal Peak area; there was a fairly high foreclosure rate in that area; therefore, I could not support a higher value. Let it be known that I not only valued the northwest area of the county but all the vacant and commercial land in the county. I worked 357 overtime hours that I was paid for when I left - and that includes a 26-hour shift in order to
make sure taxpayers received their notices on time.” For all properties which experienced an error using the modeling, did all such properties get corrected or just those that were appealed? Watt replied. “There were properties that were corrected without an appeal and some that did not get corrected; in the northeast area there were properties under-valued. There were issues with the modeling. It’s just a bummer when that happens. So I’m hoping to correct that.” In response, Clark-Wine said that in Watt’s campaign literature, she said that 20 percent of all valuations had to be redone. “I don’t know where that 20 percent came from. The number of residential properties that had to be redone in the northeast area were only 2,300, the balance of them were agricultural and vacant. That is only 9 percent of 26,000 parcels in Teller County. Of those, 1/3 had no change or decrease, 1/6 increased 1 to 10 percent, 1/6 increased 11 to 20 percent and 1/3 increased 20 percent or more which is why we did not have a mass number of protests. The election will be decided in the primary June 24.
AREA SCHOOLS CELEBRATE COMMENCEMENT Woodland Park class of 2014 graduates. Page 9
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PIKES PEAK COURIER (USPS 654-460) OFFICE: 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863 | PHONE: 719-687-3006 MAILING ADDRESS: PO Box 340, Woodland Park, CO 80866 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Teller County, Colorado, the Pikes Peak Courier is published weekly on Wednesday by Colorado Community Media, 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT WOODLAND PARK, COLORADO. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 DEADLINES: Display: Thurs.11 a.m. | Legal: Thurs. 11 a.m. | Classified: Mon. 12 p.m.
Cripple Cree class of 2014 graduates. Page 11
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