Relating to property assessment standards and litigation

This bill relates to property assessment standards and litigation. The international association of assessing officers (IAAO) is a nonprofit professional membership organization of government assessment officials and others interested in the administration of the property tax. The IAAO regularly publishes standards related to property assessments with the goal of advancing more equitable property appraisals, assessment administration, and property tax policies. Current law requires the director of the department of revenue (director) to prepare and issue a state appraisal manual which each county and city assessor must use to assess and value all classes of property. The bill requires the director to adopt real estate property assessment standards for the state appraisal manual in conformance with the standards developed and published by the IAAO. Such standards must include the use of the coefficient of dispersion (COD) and price-related differentials (PRD). COD is the measure of the spread of values about the median value of a class of properties. When the difference between the median value of a class of properties and the actual value to sales value ratio of a property increases, the COD will increase as well. CODs above a certain percentage are seen as inequitable.99 percent unless there is good cause for a variance. PRD, or analysis of assessment bias, is used in order to determine whether higher-valued properties are overvalued or undervalued in relation to lower-valued properties.03 unless there is good cause for a variance. The bill requires the COD and PRD of a class of property to be calculated based on comparisons of the actual value of property in the same class. The bill defines, for the purposes of protesting an assessment, “like property” as all property within a given class of property. The bill limits the employment of special counsel to assist a city legal department or county attorney in litigation dealing with assessments to cases where the opposing party is a legal business entity, including a nonprofit entity. Under current law, a city legal department or county attorney may employ special counsel to assist the city legal department or county attorney in any litigation dealing with assessments. The bill allows a property owner to appeal the assessment of any other property provided that the property with the assessment to be appealed is located in a taxing district to which the property owner appealing the assessment owns property of the same class.37 (protest of assessment —— grounds).