Board of Equalization upholds assessor recommendations in two Brookings County appeals

The Brookings County Board of Equalization on April 8 voted to adopt the assessor’s recommended values on two separate property assessment appeals brought by Tim Bauer and Dan B. Bauer.

The board approved the assessor’s recommendation for Tim Bauer, setting the combined assessed value at $164,700, and approved the assessor’s recommendation for Dan B. Bauer with a combined assessed value of $329,700. Both motions passed on recorded roll calls with all commissioners voting in favor.

Jacob (Assessor's Office) told the board the office made a policy change affecting ag properties between the 2024 and 2025 assessments. “Historically, we valued all structures in the county based on replacement cost new,” Jacob said, describing the use of Marshall & Swift cost tables dated to January 2020 and then applying age and condition depreciation. He said the office previously applied a 50% negative factor to ag outbuildings; for 2025 that factor was changed to 85%, and the assessor said his intent is to move to 100% in the next reappraisal cycle. “What I did was I took that factor from 50 a year ago to an 85,” he said.

Tim Bauer, who appealed his assessment, told the board he has owned his property since 1993 and objected to a sudden large increase in the assessed value despite no recent improvements. “I27ve owned it since '93 and then taxes have gradually went up and all of a sudden now … $30,000 in assessments … It just don't make sense to me,” Bauer said.

Jacob explained to Bauer that the change is a methodologic reappraisal to better reflect market values for acreages and outbuildings; he emphasized that reappraisal value is different from “growth” and that taxing levies will be set later to account for reappraisal. “If we gained 50% in ag building value, countywide … all that added value is considered reappraisal. The levy will come down to compensate for the percentage of reappraisal value added,” Jacob said.

On the board floor, a commissioner moved to adopt the assessor’s recommendation for Bauer’s parcel values and the motion passed on roll call: Commissioners VanderWaal, Post, Miller, Hosler and Jensen recorded aye votes.

Dan B. Bauer also appealed the county27s valuation on his acreage, telling the board many of his buildings are old and not usable for modern farming. Jacob pointed to a 2020 sale of comparable acreage and said the assessor’s change in treatment of ag outbuildings was intended to bring assessed values closer to observed market prices. The board approved the assessor-recommended values for Dan B. Bauer by roll call (VanderWaal, Post, Miller, Hosler, Jensen: aye).

The board did not direct further study or a different valuation method; both appeals were resolved by adopting the assessor’s recommendations.