County approves abatement corrections for disabled-veteran exemptions; auditor says mistake limited to one assessment year

Pennington County commissioners unanimously approved a set of abatement requests March 4 to correct how disabled-veteran exemptions were applied for tax year 2024.

Shannon Rittberger, a county equalization official, told the board the office had reviewed the statute and initially applied the exemption only to the dwelling, rather than to the dwelling and the land as the county had done previously. “To correct that I come to the board and I ask for an abatement to essentially make land and building exempt, apply the exemption as it had been done in the past,” Shannon explained.

Why it matters: the change affected properties that had relied on the long-standing practice of exempting both dwelling and the land under it for qualifying disabled veterans. County staff said the error affected only the 1 year assessment cycle for 2024 and that the abatement approvals will restore the exemption to its prior scope for those parcels.

Details and examples: auditors and commissioners reviewed an example assessment for a property with a total valuation shown as $174,388; the abatement request resolved a roughly $7,000 taxable value that remained after the office—s one-year change in application.

Board action: commissioners moved and carried approval of the abatement applications by voice vote. Auditor Cindy Moller and equalization staff said the adjustment is limited to the single assessment year in question; the board asked staff to ensure future annual reports and consent calendar materials clearly list personnel and payroll changes and to present policy options so the process is more transparent.

The county did not identify a multi-year fiscal impact tied to these corrections; county staff said the errors were limited to last year—s assessment and will be resolved through the abatement approvals.