A record number of Anchorage residents are appealing their property tax assessments this year and that’s created a large backlog.
But on Tuesday, the Anchorage Assembly voted to appoint a dozen new members to the Board of Equalization, which is the body that hears the appeals. It's the first time all 21 of the volunteer seats have been filled. Ian Moore is chair of the board.
“With more members on the board,” he said, “it should just be more efficient for us to get through this huge number of cases we have this year.”
Nearly 2000 property owners filed appeals this year. That’s roughly 10 times the number of appeals filed a few years ago. Moore estimates it would've taken until November for the Board of Equalization to resolve the appeals without the 12 new members.
Jack Gadamus, who oversees property assessment for the city said this year, the municipality changed the way that it calculates property values. State law required the shift, in order to align with national standards. Assessors now look at sale prices of a much larger number of nearby properties when determining how much a home is worth, said Gadamus. That gives them more data, so they can get their assessment as close as possible to market value.
The majority of Anchorage property owners – about 58% – saw very little change to their property value, Gadamus said. Around a third of property owners actually saw their taxes decrease. But 10% of properties did increase by more than 10%. That amounts to nearly 9,000 properties in the Anchorage municipality. Gadamus said the number of appeals makes sense.
“One way you can look at it is that the process works, right?” he said. “People are coming to us with legitimate thoughts or questions and we're appreciative of that.”
About 80% of property owners actually withdraw their appeals before they go before the Board of Equalization, Gadamus said. The assessor’s office meets with residents and takes into account information they might not have included in the assessment. Most of the time the assessor’s office comes to an agreement with the property owners and adjusts the assessed value, he said.
New members on the Board of Equalization will be trained in coming weeks and are expected to start hearing appeals by mid-April.
