Property Tax Assessments (audio)
Air Date:03/10/2010
By Jackelyn Severin
A measure dealing with property tax assessments on agricultural land passed the Senate. House Bill 1202 allows the Department of Revenue and Regulation to reassess property taxes in a county if there is a complaint filed on the local Director of Equalization’s original assessment.
Last Session lawmakers changed the way agricultural land property taxes were assessed from market sale price to productivity valuation. Senator Jim Peterson says many land owners’ property taxes have increased over seventy percent. Peterson says this should not have happened because last year lawmakers limited property value increases to ten percent.
Peterson says, “We want every property owner in the state of South Dakota to have their property assessed fairly and the same and every single county throughout this state.”
Peterson says this measure is needed to make sure local Directors of Equalization follow the law.
Opponents of the measure say productivity valuation is a flawed system and lawmakers should have a summer study to reevaluate the way agricultural land is assessed. The measure passed by a vote of 25 to 10. It now goes to conference committee for further revisions.
Member stations can download audio file here.
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