Assessor briefs new Washoe County BOE members on ad valorem valuation and appeals process

County Assessor Chris Sarman and Chief Property Appraiser Howard Stockton gave a detailed orientation to new and returning members of the Washoe County Board of Equalization on the county's valuation methods, the appeals process and related statistics.

Sarman opened the briefing by noting the appeals filing deadline: "January 15 is our, is the deadline for the appeals," and said the office had several appeals still arriving. He described the assessor's mission to discover, list and value all taxable property impartially and noted the fiscal importance of the office, saying roughly half of the county's general fund revenue is tied to valuation work.

Stockton explained Nevada's ad valorem system and the two-component structure of taxable value: land at market and replacement cost new for improvements, with the latter calculated using the Marshall & Swift costing service and reduced by a state-mandated depreciation schedule (1.5% per year up to 50 years, or 75% maximum). "We have a very unique, Ad Valerum system in Nevada. In fact, we're the only state in the nation that has this type of system," he said.

Stockton reviewed the primary land valuation approaches used by the assessor's office — sales-comparison, allocation and abstraction — and described how staff requests additional information (for example, rent rolls or appraisals) in commercial cases. He stressed that appraisals are professional opinions supported by market data and described staff efforts to resolve many appeals before they reach the board.

Both officials provided workload and outcome figures to give the board context: the office manages roughly 192,000 parcels and cited $95,000,000,000 in assessed value (data dated to August). Sarman and Stockton described prior-year appeal volumes at roughly 100 cases (about 85 real property, seven personal property and eight exemption cases) and said about 50% of appeals are typically withdrawn after staff contact, roughly 25% result in stipulations, and the remainder proceed to board hearings. As of that morning, Stockton reported 45 appeals logged for the current cycle, with around 11 of those tied to Sparks Galleria and likely to be grouped together for hearing.

Stockton walked the board through the practical sequence of appeal-handling: staff outreach and packet review; requests for supplemental evidence; potential stipulation or withdrawal when agreement is reached; and, when disagreement persists, a hearing before the citizen board that decides the reasonable taxable value. He closed by encouraging members to contact assessor staff with packet questions and to rely on the assessor's summaries and market support during deliberations.

The orientation concluded with the clerk and assessor offering technical and procedural support for the upcoming hearing season.