Dakotafire Get your spark here.
The 2013 Clark County assessment valuations will be mailed out by March 1, 2013, and the value of property is dependent upon the type of property owned and where it is located.
“Ag land will be increasing again, which is really no big surprise,” Clark County Director of Equalization David Paulson stated.
Paulson noted that land is assessed on the average agriculture income per acre for the county using an eight-year average, from 2004 to 2011, excluding the highest and lowest value.
“As commodity prices have increased significantly over the last few years, the crop revenue per acre has also gone from $206 per acre in 2010 to $306 per acre in 2013,” Paulson continued. “This (increase) has a direct effect on the assessment of ag land.”
South Dakota State University, along with the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Agriculture Statistics Service, provide the data to establish the crop revenue. Sales of land are no longer used in valuing ag land.
“Using the data, the income from the major crops grown is used, as is cash rent, to determine valuation,” Paulson said.
The Director of Equalization office’s total valuation for 2013 is $730,000,000, up from $631,000,000 in 2012.
“Our average assessed value will go from $875.00 per acre in 2012 to approximately $1,050.00 per acre in 2013,” Paulson said, and he noted that ag land in Clark County is still only being assessed at 25 percent of the average sales price.
The Director of Equalization reminds all that the assessments are factored to 85 percent each year, meaning the value on one’s assessment notice is higher than what the taxable value will be.
“We will know that taxable value by April 1, 2013,” Paulson said.
House Bill 1003, passed by the 2012 South Dakota State Legislature, revised the limitations on adjustments of ag land values.
“This was done so that the productivity value could be reached sooner by removing the ten-percent limit on increases and allowing up to a 25-percent increase in valuations on cropland and 20-percent increase of non-cropland,” he continued.
The State Legislature enacted this method of valuing ag land starting in 2010, and at that time the use of comparable sales was removed from valuing land.
“Using sales of ag land would, for example, mean increasing ag land values about three to four times,” he said. “The amount of increase in valuation does not mean the tax will increase that same percentage. Factors such as levies, budgets [and] current level of assessments all enter in to the valuation equation.”
Concerning non-ag property, sales are continuing to be used at looking at the assessment to sale price, and Paulson stated that this past year’s sales of residential and commercial property showed assessments at 95 percent of market prices.
“One exception to this would be small acreages, and those properties will have an increase in land value for this year,” he explained.
Paulson requests property owners to look at the assessment notice and ask the question, “Is my property assessed higher than the market value?”
Appeals must be filed by March 14 with the local Board of Equalization.
The Director of Equalization office also continues with the reappraisal inspections of properties within the city of Clark.
“We will resume these reappraisals this spring into summer, and the adjustments from these appraisals would be for assessment in 2014,” Paulson said.
Property owners with any questions should contact the assessor’s office at (605) 532-3751. Local boards of equalization meet March 18 through 22.
