Taxpayers take plea to county commissioners

Local merchants and commercial property owners opposed to paying higher taxes met with Boundary County commissioners Tuesday to talk about options.

“It’s horrible,” county assessor Dave Ryals told the business owners, many of whom will pay twice as much in taxes. “I wouldn’t want to be in that position, but there is nothing I can do.”

Property owners proposed the county should have used the income approach, which would look at what the building would rent for instead of the market value approach, which uses last year’s sales of local commercial properties.

“It is not going to change anything by using a different approach,” said Ryals.

He claims that regardless of the method used, the state will come in and use the market value approach to compare it to Ryals’ numbers.

“Right now we are in trouble because of what the real estate market and the economy has done,” said Donna Capurso, owner of Selkirk Mountain Real Estate.

There were no commercial sales to re-evaluate the property taxes for years and years so they just left you alone, Ryals told the group. This year there were enough sales to conduct the state studies. They saw we were way to high and said for me to fix it.

With the property tax increase, many local business owners are faced with either raising their tenants’ rents, which will cause them to move to another location, or find a way to pay the tax.

“I’m with you, I hear you and I feel your pain,” Ryals told the group again. “There is just nothing I can do.

He also recommended the business owners contact the state legislation to make them aware of the situation.

“This is your money and your tax dollars,” he continued. “I encourage you to stay with it.”