“Back to Ickey Nickel Trivia, I am your host Big Daddy. Thank you so much for coming out tonight.”
Usually, on Wednesday nights at the Ickey Nickel, the focus is on 20 questions over a beer or two.
“Which musical film has the opening lyrics ‘I have chills they’re multiplying’?”
“I think we won this round.”
But, on a recent visit, the owner of the establishment wants the answer to a more challenging topic.
“The value went from $480,000 to $700,000 and something.” I am floored they can even say that is possible.”
“That’s bull. You can’t even make a living.”
Mick Verzani who bought his bar and grill for $425,000 about three and a half years ago saw his assessed value on his property jump almost 70%.
“In all honesty, the business has been for sale for a while and I haven’t even had an offer for what I’m asking. And, what I’m asking is less than that. So, if the city wants to give me the money they think it’s worth, they can give me the money and they can certainly have it back.”
Verzani isn’t the only one concerned. When the City Assessor John Lawson sent out notices in the middle of March more than 800 people contacted his office.
“I think it was shocking. But the sales ratios for commercial property which was the biggest. In 2017, our sale ratio was at like 72%, for the year ‘18 it was 69.38%. So, to get to the market value we have to raise property basically 44%. And, if we don’t do it in the Spring the state comes out and the Department of Revenue issues an equalization order in the fall and that be a blanket percentage on all properties.”
Lawson says during an informal appeal process from April 2nd to the 25th his office adjusted the value on about 400 properties. Almost 200 requested formal appeals that started the first of May.
“The board of review hears their side asks questions if they need to, has information from the assessor’s office and makes a decision whether they believe if their value is correct. If they should lower the value and some instances could even raise the value.”
One homeowner appearing before the board of review, Jim Clark. Clark bought his home in Morningside back in 1972. His property value increased by about a third.
“The letter they said me said the average was 10% and I guess mine wasn’t average. I may not be successful in this, so it might be worth the effort I guess.”
Clark spent about ten minutes before a board comprised of three local experts.
“It was very streamlined it went quick.”
“They were very courteous.”
“Maybe it will help, we’ll see.”
Clark also compared his home with others near him, something he worries pits neighbor against neighbor.
“There valuation is much less than mine. So, I picked them and hope I haven’t offended anybody.”
“If you want to keep your taxes in control you need to make sure the evaluations are correct. Feels not fairly applied in his case.
City Assessor Jim Lawson says he doesn’t set the local tax rate and must follow state law when it comes to how a property is assessed.
“I am bound from the code of Iowa. The laws on how the property is supposed to be assessed and the market value. I don’t set the market value. People buying and selling property set the market value.”
“We don’t set the taxes. The value is basically turned into the state. The rollbacks are set giving the taxing bodies taxable valuation that is divided by what their budget needs to be.
The owner of the Ickey Nickel Mick Verzani also plans to fight his assessment.
“I want to see how they assessed it that high and for what reasons.”
Verzani turned in his paperwork at the city assessor’s office and is waiting for a face-to-face meeting with the review board.
REPORTER: “What would you like to say to the city?”
“The sad thing to say is if they keep doing this on taxpayers, homeowners and everybody else. They probably will end up moving out of the city.” “No offense I moved out of my home because the taxes were way too high. I moved out to the county where it is way cheaper.”
Verzani built a new house in the outskirts of nearby Lawton about a dozen years ago and hopes he still afford to stay in business in Sioux City.
“Let’s make businesses work that we have. Let’s make things copositive for the community. You can’t tax your community to death.”
If you haven’t filed an appeal on your property assessment you still have time. Usually, the deadline is the end of April but because Woodbury County was declared a Federal disaster area the appeal process has been extended until June 5th. The city assessor says to file the appeal as soon as possible.