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Advisory and Consulting Services Contact Me I am available for selected engagements to provide advisory services in the following areas: Property Tax Policy
“Reform” of the property tax system has been a frequent topic of interest among citizens, policymakers, elected officials and candidates for political office. Many of the well-intended reforms in the past have actually made operation of the property tax system worse and more unfair to the taxpayers they were intended to benefit. Before proposing or acting upon a new reform proposal, it would be wise to obtain expert advisory services from an independent source for a review of the reform objectives and for recommendations of how to best attain the desired goals. Property Tax Equity Expert Witness
The results published in my dissertation provide statistically significant evidence that assessment caps and homestead exemptions, as a means of limiting property taxes, actually reduce tax equity among the taxpayers that the policies are intended to benefit, and may not limit property taxes. Elimination of such tax administration policies is recommended as the means of returning equity to property taxation throughout the United States. However, it is highly unlikely that such action is possible either legislatively or by referendum. These policies remain politically very popular and the subject of much demagoguery because the perception held by many voters is that such preferential assessment policies benefit them (see Rick Shenkman’s 2008 book, Just How Stupid Are We?). Hence, the only practical means of returning property taxation to a true ad valorem market value standard, which is the only manner by which it will function equitably for all taxpayers, is through the courts using evidence produced by the findings in my dissertation and other scientific studies that examine equity in relation to taxable net assessed value. As the author of an important study on the problem, I am available to serve as an expert witness in legal proceedings as well as hearings on property tax proposals for implementing or expanding such policies. Mass Appraisal Performance Analysis
Reassessment of real property for the purpose of local taxation is usually followed by various media reports about the general reappraisal of the jurisdiction and anecdotal accounts of problems. However, there exists a primary question that is normally not addressed: Did the reassessment improve property tax equity among taxpayers compared to the equity that existed prior to the reappraisal? That is the only reason to expend the money to perform an expensive reassessment project. This question cannot be answered with examples of problems and anecdotes. It can only be answered by objective scientific research. Many believe that the reason for reassessment is to increase tax revenue, but it is not. The true purpose of reassessment is to realign the proration of the cost of providing the local government services according to relative property values (the ad valorem tax concept). Whether property values are rising or falling, the actual property tax revenue collected is determined by the approved tax rates. If a genuine effort was made during the reappraisal to improve equity among taxpayers by realigning taxable values according to market conditions, then some of the properties might receive tax bill increases, while others would have decreases. The taxpayers with reduced bills normally do not complain, but some with increases will frequently complain. It is possible that the overall reappraisal task was done well and the problems being reported are the normal clerical errors and anomalies that occur in any mass appraisal project. Nobody can know the actual situation without doing the necessary independent research at some point in time after the completion of the project. Analysis performed by the organization that actually did the work, using the data that were available at the time the work was actually done, may provide an accurate indication of the mass appraisal performance quality, but lacks the credibility of an independent, scientific study. I have 35 years of experience in mass appraisal and the topic of my dissertation was property tax equity. I have developed statistically supported methods of evaluating property tax equity and can provide an independent evaluation of the mass appraisal performance for a recent project. I can also provide an unbiased evaluation of existing equity. Property Tax Revenue Management Process Review and Re-Engineering
Local government procedures and business processes are dictated by existing statutes, which are frequently written in broad language that may be subject to various interpretations. Offices in the same state may have quite different interpretations of the proper implementation of a particular statute. Many local government office procedures for revenue management have been passed from experienced employees to new employees through the years as turnover in the office staff occurred. Some were quickly changed to satisfy deadlines when legislative changes were incorporated, without sufficient study of the consequences. When computerized systems were introduced or upgraded, sometimes the handed-down procedures became requirements for the new system; other times the restrictions and features of the new software gradually became the accepted office standard operating procedure. An independent review of existing business procedures can result in process re-engineering for improved efficiency and reduced operating cost through changes in those procedures and the related software. Software and System Integration Conceptual Design
Performing a business process review may indicate a need for improvements in the software that supports local government office operations, and better integration between offices in the workflow that supports local government revenue management. A document that describes the desired software and system integration concept, stated in generic terms that are accurate, yet not software product specific, is a necessary part of any request for proposal. Independent advisory services providing assistance in analysis and preparation of such conceptual design documents can be very useful to the local government organization. |
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