COMMISSIONERS FAVOR 2011 REVALUATION
Mitchem, Klein vote against move

Lincoln County Commissioner Carrol Mitchem was one of two commissioners Monday night to vote against moving the county's next revaluation from 2011 to 2010.

By Jon Mayhew (LINCOLNTON) -- Grab your wallets and pray.

Monday night at the county commission meeting, commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of moving the next Lincoln County revaluation ahead one year, meaning instead of 2012, the next property revaluation is scheduled for 2011.

Commissioners also decided to keep the revaluation process in-house, meaning no outsourcing of the revaluation process.

Commissioners Carrol Mitchem and James Klein voted against the move. Commissioners Alex Patton, George Arena and Bruce Carlton voted in favor of the move.

Despite the "yea" vote, Bruce Carlton commented that as the result of the last valuation -- which in some cases more than doubled property values in Denver -- he knows "people personally that are losing their house because they cannot afford the property."

He also said that he wants to bring "some relief" to the taxpayers of Lincoln County.

"I don't buy it that people have a tough road to hoe," said Carlton. "At this point and time, we aren't giving people real value on property. It's not the tax department's fault. It's the economy."

Before voting no, Commissioner Mitchem said the tax appeal process in Lincoln County is not taxpayer friendly. Out of more than 46,000 parcels in the county, about 6 percent -- or 3,500 landowners -- appealed their revaluations. Of that number, about 5.7 percent went to Raleigh.

"We don't have a good appeal process here in Lincoln County," said Mitchem. "The reason why Raleigh isn't hearing more from Lincoln County is because by the time (landowners) get to that step, they're so beat down."

Michael Brown with the state department of revenue disagreed with Mitchem, calling Mitchem's comment "loaded."

"Nobody wants to pay taxes," said Brown. "As part of the appeals process, public relations plays a big part of the process."

Brown said that in looking at a piece of property, the state looks for three different sources of revenue including cost and income a piece of property could generate.

Mitchem didn't like the rationale.

"You're telling me that if I own a mobile home and rent that mobile home out, then I'm not only paying taxes on the income but on the property as well," said Mitchem.

The original issue brought before commissioners was whether or not to outsource the revaluation process in Lincoln County.

Tax administrator Madge Huffman told commissioners it would cost more to outsource revaluations than keep them in house, a practice that's been done since 1993.

Huffman said at the time of that revaluation, people were so upset with their property valuations that people took their protests to the streets.

"There were people driving around in pickup trucks with signs on them," said Huffman, "in the Courtsquare."

Huffman said the cost for the current in house reval process is around $1.456 million. Outsourcing, the cost goes to more than $2 million.

"Also, it opens up the possibility for a lot of incorrect information and other mistakes," said Huffman.

At first, Huffman maintained that shortening the cycle to three years would reduce costs. However, after questioning by commissioners, Huffman admitted the cost would remain the same, that the county would by paying the cost one year earlier.

Commissioner Mitchem said he remembers the 1993 revaluation very well.

"The most thing I heard from citizens back then was how can people who live in Arkansas and Ohio can come in here and revaluate our property," said Mitchem.