Countywide : Assessor Says Tax Appeal Process Lags

The county’s property tax assessment system is becoming clogged because the assessor’s office is not receiving appeals in a timely fashion from the office of the clerk to the Board of Supervisors, a top county official said Thursday.

County Assessor Bradley L. Jacobs said his office received only 15,000 appeals through December, about half the number it had by the same time in 1994. Property owners file appeals with the clerk of the board’s office, which eventually forwards them to the assessor for processing.

In a memo earlier this month to Clerk of the Board Kathleen E. Goodno, Jacobs said, “The lateness of the work is intensifying problems and has the potential to choke the appeal system in 1996.”

The county has two years to respond to a disputed tax assessment, or the property is automatically given the owner’s proposed value. Jacobs said the assessor’s office must get the appeals as soon as possible to make sure they are addressed before the deadline.

As property values have declined in the last few years, thousands of owners have sought to reduce their tax assessments, creating a backlog of appeals. In 1994, dozens of appeals passed the two-year deadline without being resolved, forcing the county to reduce the values.

Goodno could not be reached for comment Thursday. County officials said the clerk of the board’s office will soon receive an optical imaging scanner that could speed up the appeals process.