A group of Haines residents has taken up the task of updating the local property tax assessment process. They are holding meetings and drafting recommendations for the Haines Borough Assembly. It is a slow, complicated process, and the frustrations that grew from last year’s assessment are still very much present. 

Many homeowners don’t look forward to property taxes. But last year’s property tax assessments in Haines were particularly painful and contentious. Some residents rebelled against a process they saw as unfair, dysfunctional and vindictive. The countless hours they spent writing letters, testifying, and petitioning resulted in the termination of the assessor’s contract. 

Elected officials took note and committed to setting the course on a smoother path. They formed a committee to review the residents’ complaints, which included locals with a variety of relevant experience in construction, real estate, and property assessment. At their last meeting, Assembly Member Kevin Forster led the group through an exercise aimed at defining its priorities.

Forster said, “The group exercises are largely going to be revolving around sticky notes, to keep us from getting lost in the weeds on any one issue. After we’ve identified what we feel is a relative list of the issues and where we’ve gone wrong, Then we’ll take a break and hand a wad of blue sticky notes to all the committee members. And now we are going to throw up actions and priorities.”

A flurry of conversation, ideas, and colorful sticky notes followed. Committee member Scott Hanson brought his perspective as a borough employee with experience in property assessment. He said in the past few years the borough has increased its use of software.

Hanson said, “But the way the program is structured, tech guys just shake their heads, because it’s really hard to hang on to those valuation records. You know we have the same models that we had thirty years ago. And it might be fitting, but it’s a good thing to consider. How could we incorporate these tech tools that we didn’t have 30 years ago or 25 years ago.” 

Committee member Paul Rogers said he wants to change some of the language the borough uses to define assessments.

Rogers said, “I think equitable is a vague term. Rather than equitable, we need objective.”

The public chimed in and Assembly Member Forster read off their notes. There was mention of educating the public. Also noted was the difficulty of assessing properties when the state doesn’t require disclosure of the amount for real estate transactions.

Forster said, “Does mass appraisal work for Haines or does it need modifications… We need additional staff in the land department… Equitable: what the government tells you to convince you that they can take my stuff and what they tell me to convince me that it’s ok to take your stuff.”   

This is not the committee’s first brainstorm. During a previous session, the group agreed on five proposals they sent to the borough assembly for immediate consideration.

One proposal is to change the composition of the Board of Equalization, the body that hears the appeals from property owners. Currently, the assembly serves as the board. The proposal is to have board members selected from the community based on relevant experience.

Another proposal would require the assessor to share documents with the appellant 10 working days before any hearing in front of the B.O.E. Insufficient notice was a particularly sore point for some residents during last year’s appeals.

Other proposals are to bring assessment methods in line with national standards, such as expanding the information the assessor must share and which the board is allowed to consider during an appeal, and additional information to provide property owners as part of their assessment notice.

But these proposals were not included on the assembly’s recent agenda and several people voiced their exasperation. Blythe Carter was one of them.

Carter said, “It was of great concern that the action requests for the property assessment Ad Hoc board are once again not on tonight’s agenda. This is yet another example of procedural errors committed by the borough.”

Some taxpayers said they felt censored by the borough and stonewalled by the administration. 

Mayor Tom Morphet apologized.

Morphet said, “I take full responsibility for not getting those items on the agenda. I apologize, there was a couple reasons for that, it seemed like the first priority was changing the BOE, and that kind of came to us as a pre-written ordinance. And so I was the one who recommended to the manager, we should have the attorney look at this, because it looks like it’s ready to go, it was written in code language.”

Morphet says he feels the assembly is open to the recommendations from the committee, but cautions that borough policy has to match state laws, and shouldn’t create unreasonable hardship for borough staff. The five recommendations from the committee will be discussed at the next borough assembly meeting.

Morphet says he hopes this year’s property assessment will be smoother. The borough hired a new assessor, a company based in Anchorage that serves communities similar to Haines, including Wrangell and Petersburg. Morphet says the company will be able to bring a team to Haines.

The Ad Hoc committee on property tax assessment’s next meeting will be on February 14th.