Davison County leaders wrestle with land value assessment appeals

Apr. 16—MITCHELL — Davison County leaders Tuesday afternoon wrestled with land value assessment appeals, with some saying the process remains complicated with ensuring fair and equitable treatment of all landowners.

The Davison County Consolidated Board of Equalization met to review various categories of assessment recommendations, approving most of them and holding off on some to consult with legal representation on the remaining appeals.

The board of equalization was working on approval of about 297 appeals, with all but one having come to an agreement between landowners and the county prior to the meeting. Four of those appeals were eventually withdrawn.

That number of appeals is a jump of about 10% over 2023, which saw a total of 269 appeals pass through the board of equalization, with 19 cases coming before the board itself after an agreement on assessment value could not be made between the county and the landowner. There were 29 withdrawals of appeals in 2023.

Members of the board discussed several aspects of the process Tuesday afternoon, ranging from the shift of some properties to a different land classification and the difficulty in assessing property when there are few or no similar properties to compare it with.

It all comes down to fairness, said Randy Reider, chair of the Davison County Commission and a member of the Davison County Consolidated Board of Equalization.

"If you don't find it acceptable, you can appeal," said Randy Reider, chair of the Davison County Commission and a member of the Davison Consolidated Board of Equalization. "You're asking for fair, and I hear (the county equalization office) use that word every day. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what's fair when properties are unique. Everyone is trying to work toward fair."

Ensuring the fairness was the focus with a property assessment that came before the actual board Tuesday.

The property, located at 114 W. Fifth Ave.and 500 N. Rowley St., was assessed in 2023 at $9,372 for the land, $62,825 for the house and $26,301 for an additional buildling. That comes to $89,929 total.

The assessment for 2024 was originally $12,425 for the land, $129,572 for the house and $13,132 for the additional buildling for a total of $155,129.

The owners of the property, John and Brenda Weisser, requested the assessment be reduced because the house portion of the property is in the middle of a renovation and is a ways off being completed.

The board of equalization agreed, and ended up reducing the valuation of $129,572 on the house to $113,132, bringing the total valuation of that and its associated parcel to $138,432 for 2024, as opposed to $155,129.

John Claggett, another member of the Davison County Commission and the chair of the board of equalization, said that kind of situation is part of what makes fair land assessment a challenge.

"(It can be a challenge) when a house is maybe under a remodel at the time," Claggett told the Mitchell Republic following the meeting.

But there are other challenges that come with dealing with multiple categories of land, like owner-occupied and agricultural. Land that can seemingly belong to one category can sometimes end up classified as another type, he said, and that makes it tricky to make sure everyone is being treated fairly.

With heavy growth in Davison County in recent years, getting it right is important, Claggett said.

"That's the hardest part for us — making sure when we're doing that that we're doing it correctly for everybody. That takes a little time to wrestle through," Claggett said. "We're very fortunate in Davison County. We have good things happening, good numbers and good population."

Another challenge is making sure the right calls are made on property that may have changed classifications since the past year, causing the property to go up or down in value. During the Tuesday meeting, board of equalization members noted several properties that had switched to an ag classification from other categories.

Understanding those changes fully is more about making sure the board makes the correct decision, regardless of the assessment changes upward or downward.

"Sometimes there is a financial advantage to doing it that way, and the question is how that puzzle fits together. It's just very, very fluid, and that's the hardest part," Claggett said.

Understanding all the nuances is a challenge for board of equalization members, as well as the staffers at the county equalization office, who have to explain the finer points of assessment to both concerned landowners as well as members of the board itself.

The vast majority of assessment appeals never come to a direct interaction between the board and the landowner. Most of the time, concerns between the county and the landowner are settled between equalization office employees and landowners before reviews like Tuesday's meeting are even held.

"Our crew here works on it individually. They met with a ton of people and they came to agreements," Claggett said. "It's kind of a Rubik's Cube, and they do a great job."

Claggett would like to see more action at the state level to make the process easier for everyone to understand, including county employees and elected officials alike. That would likely take action from the state legislature, with it creating a more uniform formula that every county could apply the same way.

Claggett said these types of conversations come up frequently with the South Dakota Association of County Commissioners, with whom he serves on its board of directors. A more uniform system would make the process easier, he said.

"The legislature puts together things and gets it in rough form and it comes down to the counties to each individually figure it out. I'd much prefer to have a state system that is the same for every county, and you run it that way no ifs, ands or buts," Claggett said. "And who do you talk to at the state level? It should be the same person talking all the way across. South Dakota is moving in the right direction trying to do more of that stuff."

The board moved into executive session mid-afternoon Tuesday to consult with legal representation but expected to reconvene at another meeting later to finish with this year's round of assessment appeals.

When it does, Claggett said the board would continue to work on making sure assessments are fair across the board for everybody and all kinds of land classifications.

"At the front of it is fairness, fairness, fairness," Claggett said.