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Woods County excise board signs assessment report; county assessed value down roughly $4 million
Summary
The Woods County Excise Board approved the county's assessment report and signatures were collected for submission to the state. County staff reported a decline in total assessed value of about $4 million and discussed tax-increment financing (TIF) areas and public-service assessments including wind farms.
Woods County Excise Board members voted to approve the county's assessment report and authorized signatures for the document to be sent to the state after a presentation from county assessment staff.
County assessment staff told the board, “We got it all finished up the other day, and it is ready to be… for you guys to sign off on it, and then it can be sent down to the state.” The staffer said total county assessed value, including TIF areas, was down by about $4.0 million compared with the prior year and that the figure was better than expected.
The presenter said public-service assessments —categories the state assesses directly, such as electric companies, railroads and certain video services — are set by the state and listed the county's wind farm as included among public-service property. “Public service is gonna be… the companies that the state assesses themselves that we don't have any control over, like, the electric companies, the railroads, the airlines, some of the video type things like Netflix,” the staff member said.
Staff described how the county calculates its TIF (tax-increment financing) figures: the base amount is the property value in the year the TIF was established, and any growth above that base goes toward the TIF. The presenter identified an Avard Rail Park TIF and an arena-area TIF that spans part of the town of Alba and adjacent rural property, saying, “So the money from the TIF… anything over that amount goes towards the TIF.” The assessment packet provided to board members included a county total and the separate TIF values and additional pages with breakdowns and graphs.
The staffer reported there was one outstanding protest — from an entity identified as Redline — and that the protest period had not yet closed. “We only have one protest that I haven't heard anything on and that's with Redline. Their time isn't up yet,” the presenter said. The staffer also said there were no public-service protests this year.
Following the presentation, a board member moved to approve the assessment report and another board member seconded. The board voice-voted “Aye,” and signatures were collected on the report so originals could be mailed. The motion passed and the report will be sent to the state, according to the meeting record.
Board members and staff briefly compared year-to-year changes with neighboring counties, with staff noting Alfalfa County was down about 1,985 (units not specified in the presentation) while Major County showed a larger decline; staff said they expected more information after an upcoming conference with peer counties.
The county assessment packet provided to the board contains the detailed numbers, graphs and a multi-page breakdown of values, and staff indicated members should consult the packet for line-by-line figures.
