The Board of Equalization of the Fairbanks North Star Borough on May 16, 2025, voted 5-0 to grant a deadline extension for a disabled‑veteran property‑tax exemption application filed by Troon E. Hopkins, allowing the assessor to accept the application as if it had been filed on time.

The extension was requested after the Borough Assessor denied an "unable to comply" extension for Hopkins. The assessor's office told the board it had denied the extension because its records showed the applicant’s documented medical treatment ended in November 2024 and because Hopkins’s mailing address of record remained a Dallas, Texas address until an April 29, 2025 change of address. The assessor representative told the board, "It had ended on February, fourteenth," referring to the deadline for timely applications, and said the office found Hopkins was listed as receiving a disabled‑veteran exemption on a Texas property for the 2024 and 2025 tax rolls.

Hopkins told the board he spent much of 2024 in Texas "seeking medical treatment and, also working," and that he moved into the Fairbanks residence in January 2024 and had difficulty getting a mailbox set up. He said he opened a P.O. box and that the assessment notice and later denial arrived there. He provided the board with a Department of Veterans Affairs rating letter showing a 100% disability rating and a temporary driver’s license dated March 14, 2025.

Board members debated whether the evidence met the borough code definition of "unable to comply," which the chair had read into the record from the Fairbanks North Star Borough code, paragraph b of section 8.16.10010. The assessor’s presentation emphasized that the unable‑to‑comply showing must document a serious medical event that prevented meeting the deadline and said the medical letters submitted covered treatment only through November 2024. The assessor also noted Hopkins had not updated his mailing address of record until April 29, 2025.

Several board members said they weighed Hopkins’s 100% VA disability heavily when considering whether his circumstances fit the code’s phrase "serious medical or other similar serious condition or event beyond the taxpayer's control." Member Shuster argued that "being a 100% disabled vet comes with serious conditions that might not always come with a doctor's note," and urged the board to consider those limitations. Other members expressed concern about the mailbox/address issues and about whether the record showed a medical event extending into the filing period.

After discussion, Member Shuster moved to grant the extension request for PIN 0501522; Member Evans seconded. The clerk called the roll: Evans, Ferguson, Sow, Shuster and Markwin voted yes, and the motion passed unanimously. The board’s action directs the assessor to accept Hopkins’s disabled‑veteran exemption application "as if timely filed" for the tax year at issue.

The board’s review distinguished the extension question from a final exemption determination: the extension allows the assessor to consider the application on its merits; it does not itself grant the exemption. The assessor reminded the board and Hopkins that applicants may apply again during the next filing cycle; the assessor said applications for the 2026 roll are accepted beginning July 1, 2025, with a deadline of Feb. 14, 2026.

Hopkins thanked the board after the vote. The meeting then proceeded to other business and adjourned.

Nut graf: The extension ruling lets the assessor accept Hopkins’s 2025 disabled‑veteran exemption paperwork despite a missed deadline; the decision hinged on competing facts in the record — the assessor’s chronology of medical treatment and address records versus Hopkins’s testimony and supporting documents, including a VA rating letter. The board cited the borough code’s "unable to comply" standard and weighed the applicant’s 100% VA disability in reaching a unanimous decision.