Title & Trust Co., Etc. v. Board of Equal., Ada County

486 P.2d 281, 94 Idaho 270, 1971 Ida. LEXIS 318
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1971
Docket10517
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 486 P.2d 281 (Title & Trust Co., Etc. v. Board of Equal., Ada County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Title & Trust Co., Etc. v. Board of Equal., Ada County, 486 P.2d 281, 94 Idaho 270, 1971 Ida. LEXIS 318 (Idaho 1971).

Opinion

SPEAR, Justice.

The appellants in this case are taxpayers protesting the amount of ad valorem taxes assessed against their real property in 1967. They challenge the method by which the Ada County Assessor established the value of real estate in Ada County for tax purposes, contending that it has resulted in their being taxed at a rate discriminatorily higher than other real estate owners in the county. Appellants concede at the outset that the assessor correctly set the full cash value of their properties and that they were taxed at the proper rate. They maintain, however, that the method by which the cash value of much of the other real estate in the county was determined was erroneous and inaccurate with the result that most of the other property was valued at figures below its true cash value. While such other property was taxed at the same percentage of the appraised value as appellants’, because of the disparity among appraised values as established by the assessor, appellants allege that they actually paid ad valorem tax based on a higher percentage of true cash value than did other taxpayers throughout Ada County generally.

Appellants protested the assessed value of their property for ad valorem tax purposes to the Board of Equalization of Ada County. The board denied a reduction in assessed value and the State Tax Commission and district court affirmed the denial. In the district court evidence was taken regarding the methods (in addition to inspection and evaluation of some individual properties) used by the assessor to establish the full cash value of parcels of real estate for tax purposes. Appellants attack each of these as inaccurate and resulting' in discrimination toward them.

*272 Most residential property was appraised by correcting the 1965 assessment to more nearly reflect the true value of the individual parcels. The 1965 assessment on these properties was established by the use of a “Manual of Appraisals” copyright in 1945 by Mr. Roy Leonards on, then the Ada County Assessor. This manual purported^ to establish cash value from the cost of construction during the period 1938-41. These costs were multiplied by two, to update the figures, and decreased to allow for depreciation. Taking these 1965 values, the assessor attempted to arrive at a true full cash value for 1967 by multiplying each by a multiplier calculated to accomplish this purpose.

The multipliers were developed by two deputy assessors, Mr. Crowe and Mr. Davis. Instances of recent sales and other data were examined for from three to forty parcels in each of approximately 300 of the 850 subdivisions in Ada County. Each man employed similar procedures. They looked for recent sales that they felt were arms length transactions of vacant lots and improved parcels in each subdivision, and, if a satisfactory number was not found, they solicited opinions as to value from realtors. Having found samples of what was felt to be transactions which approached true cash value, an aggregate of full cash value for land and separately for improvements was established for all the parcels examined in each subdivision. An aggregate of the 1965 assessed values of these parcels was then computed. The men then calculated a multiplier for the subdivisions examined by finding the reciprocal of-.-the r-atio of the aggregate of assessed value to the aggregate of the respective full cash values. Crowe applied the multipliers that he calculated for each of 60 subdivisions to the individual parcels in each subdivision and thus arrived at a full cash value for all such parcels. Davis found the average multiplier for the remaining 240 subdivisions examined and applied this multiplier to the remaining 790 subdivisions in Ada County. The average multipliers thus employed by Davis were found to be 8.0 for land and 7.5 for improvements.

For the year 1967, "the assessor determined the full cash value of choice residential view lots by physical inspection of the individual sites.

In the original townsite of Boise City, the assessor valued residential lots at $50.-00 per front foot. He determined full cash value of improvements on these lots by correcting the 1965 assessment with multipliers as above described.

The assessor fixed the value of tracts of agricultural land by various methods, depending on the size of the tract. If the plot was from one to five acres, the assessor appraised the land by increasing the 1965 assessment by a factor of 8, the county-wide multiplier for land which Davis had developed. For parcels from five to ten acres the assessor determined the assessed value by increasing the 1965 assessment by 10 percent. In 1966, non-irrigated land outside the urban area had been assessed at $2.00 per acre and irrigated land at from $57.00 to $71.00 per acre. The assessor increased the 1966 assessed value of both types of land by 5 percent for 1967. The assessed value for improvements on all types of agricultural land was determined by increasing the 1965 assessment, which was also based on the 1938-41 cost of construction previously discussed, by 5 percent.

The assessor fixed the value of commercial property in the county by several methods. Some 100 parcels had been reappraised for 1967 by physical inspection using a manual and sheets prepared by the Idaho State Tax Commission. Other parcels of commercial property, including some involved in this appeal, had had full cash value determined on appeals to the State Tax Commission and the district court, and the assessor used the values as thus determined in 1967. Remaining parcels of commercial property were assessed at the 1965 amount, which was based on the 1938-41 cost of reconstruction, except for some parcels which were reduced in *273 valuation where the assessor thought the 1965 figure was too high.

To these purported full cash values found by the assessor, the assessor applied an assessment rate of 15 percent.

Evidence presented by appellants was from two sources: a study of real property sales in Ada County conducted by the Idaho State Tax Commission and studies made by Mr. Johnston and Mr. Harper. The study conducted by the commission compared recent sales of property in all three categories to assessed valuation. In all, the commission surveyed 440 residential, 26 rural, and 14 commercial sales. The average assessment rate computed on the basis of the ratio between assessed values and sale prices was 12.7 percent for residential, 10.3 percent for rural, and 13.4 percent for commercial and the weighted ratio considering all types of property was 12.5 percent. Johnston’s study of fifteen (15) sales of property showed an assessment rate of 6.6 percent. Harper testified that in sales of agricultural land with which he was familiar, non-irrigated land was selling at from $45 to $110 per acre and irrigated land was selling at from $794 to $1210 per acre. These studies submitted by appellants represented less than 1% percent of the total number of parcels in the county and approximately 1.73 percent of the total assessed valuation of the three classes of property.

The district court made thorough findings of fact, 29 in number, of which the following are the most pertinent.

“XIV.

“The assessor determined in 1967 that all real property in Ada County should be uniformly assessed at 15 percent of full cash value.

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Bluebook (online)
486 P.2d 281, 94 Idaho 270, 1971 Ida. LEXIS 318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/title-trust-co-etc-v-board-of-equal-ada-county-idaho-1971.