By DALE HOGG
Barton County Media Consultant
Barton County Clerk Bev Schmeidler on Tuesday morning presented a detailed listing of added, abated, escaped and refunded taxes to the County Commission for final approval. These actions are routine adjustments made to correct property assessments.
The orders for these tax adjustments are maintained on file within the County Clerk’s Office. The corrections are initiated by requests from either the County Appraiser’s Office or the County Clerk’s Office.
What does it mean when the commissioners are presented with added/abated/escaped tax requests on the agenda for approval? What are they and why do they occur?
These may be routine, but the commission’s OK is the last in a detailed chain of events, said Barton County Appraiser Wendy Prosser.
“The process of adding value, adjusting value, or removing value is done through a well-documented, multi-office procedure, often referred to as an AAE (add/abate/escape),” Prosser, said.
Each June, the county appraiser certifies the appraised values on real estate, personal property, and oil and gas to the county clerk. After the certification process, there may be cause for those values to be adjusted.
“Valuation adjustments, or changes, can occur throughout the entire year and can occur for many reasons,” Prosser said. Real estate changes result due to a valuation appeal or if a property is granted an exemption from ad valorem (property) taxation by the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA). Oil and Gas value changes transpire as a result of a valuation appeal or low production exemptions granted by BOTA.
“Personal property changes, however, are the most common,” she said. Unlike oil and gas, where the ownership is as of Jan.1 of each year, personal property values are prorated if items are purchased or sold during the tax year and can be split between buyers and sellers. In addition, personal property value changes can occur as a result of a valuation appeal or exemption ordered by BOTA.
“For transparency, auditing, and reconciliation purposes, these changes must be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for approval,” she said. Generally, the presentation is made by the County Clerk’s Office or the Appraiser’s Office.
So, back to Tuesday’s meeting, Schmeidler presented batch nine of such adjustments. It amounted to just over $56,000 in tax refunds, mostly on oil and gas properties.
But, Prosser said, this doesn’t necessarily mean the county or the other taxing entities in the county are out that money. Since oil and gas totals fluctuate, governing bodies don’t count those funds into their budgets. But that is not the case with real estate and personal properties, which are factored into spending packages.
Prosser said the number of batches seen in Barton and other counties is abnormally high due to staffing issues at BOTA that created backlogs over a year in some cases. Now, staff is in place and the board is playing catch-up.
She noted this delay has created budgeting headaches for officials across the state.