Dear Incline Village & Crystal Bay Property Owners,

In hopeful anticipation of a Supreme Court decision on any one of our three cases that are currently under submission, we had delayed in writing another Alert. However, many of you have been asking for information of any kind on the tax situation, and Thursday after Thursday have passed with no rulings from the Supreme Court. (Note that the Nevada Supreme Court issues their rulings once a week, on Thursday morning via their website.)

Since Alert #144, all of the refunds for the 300 Petitioners that had appealed the assessed values for the tax year 2006/07 have been issued by the Washoe County Treasurer. However, as we had suspected, the actual amounts that were received by the taxpayers were less than the settlements that were agreed to on their behalf, by Attorney Suellen Fulstone and the State Board of Equalization.

The Washoe County Treasurer unilaterally lowered the refund amounts and the interest (in favor of the County – naturally) by the amount of the 2006/07 “abatements”. This reduction had never even been proposed or discussed at any of the settlement hearings.

A legal action was filed on November 1st by Attorney Fulstone in the Carson City District Court requesting, a) the “settlement” decision of the State Board be set aside and the decision of the 2006 Washoe County Board of Equalization be reinstated, b) the 300 taxpayers be refunded the total amount of excess taxes that were paid for the 2006/07 year, c) specific performance by the County of their contractual obligations under the settlement agreements or damages and d) attorneys fees.

The opposition attorneys, State and County, now have 30 days, (until December 1, 2007), to reply to this new Complaint.

The disposition of the 2006/07 refunds for the remaining 8700 property owners in the IV/CB area is one of the cases now awaiting a decision before the Supreme Court.

HOW ABOUT THE 2007/08 TAX YEAR?

On September 28, 2007, we attended our last hearing before the State Board of Equalization. They offered the same type of “settlement”, proposed by the Washoe County Assessor, for the 2007/08 tax year as had been previously accepted for the 2006/07 tax year. We now knew however that what was offered and what was actually delivered would be quite different. Attorney Fulstone denied, on behalf of the 1000 Petitioners for the 2007/08 year, to accept the offer.

What we already had won at the 2007 County Board of Equalization in February was a reduction of the property assessments for the 2007/08 year to their 2002/03 values.

The State Board of Equalization then ruled in favor of the Assessor’s “Settlement Proposal” and will issue “written decisions” about November 28th. A “Supplemental Tax Bill” from the office of the County Treasurer raising property taxes will then be sent to the 1000 taxpayers who already have been issued lower tax bills based on the County Board’s decision last February.

Approximately 30 condominium properties were offered no relief at all, as the Assessor claimed that they had not used any of the illegal methods that were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in their property evaluations. Of course, the decisions of the State Board further exacerbated the unequal taxation of properties against which we have been fighting for five years.

Attorney Fulstone will be filing yet another lawsuit for Judicial Review as soon as the “written decisions” for 2007/08 are issued announcing the State Board’s latest fiasco.

REAPPRAISAL VALUES?

To further brighten your holidays, all of us will be receiving the infamous Assessor’s “Postcard” for our 2008/09 property tax assessments around the same time that the 1000 (2007/08 petitioners) will be receiving their increased “Supplementary 2007/08 Tax Bills”. We are anticipating, based on comments made by Assessor Josh Wilson, that our land values in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay areas could easily double!! This, in spite of the slumping real estate market.

Thank heavens that the Nevada State Legislature passed the 3% Tax Cap in 2005 for most of the residential properties in the state. The actual amount of the taxes that you will have to pay will NOT be as high as the increase in your reappraised value might indicate, as your taxes can only be increased by 3% over the prior (2007/08) tax year.

An article that was published in the Reno Gazette Journal on October 23, 2007 can be accessed on our website at www.NevadaPropertyTaxRevolt.org/07/RGJ-071023.pdf. The title is “Messy property tax system is bad news for homeowners”. I think that you will find it quite interesting.

Once again, our thanks for your continued support and confidence in our ultimate victory. Don’t think for a moment that we are through with this battle!! A lot is still happening behind the scenes.

Sincerely,