The final day of Board of Review hearings on property taxes is in the books and property owners are no doubt anxiously awaiting written responses. The Board of Review made up of Ron Wooten, Jim Taylor, and Michael Brown couldn’t give a solid date on when those would be issued, however.
Before hearing from Matthew McArthy, the board heard complaints from attorneys representing two Grayville area businesses. Horizon Hospitality, operating as the Quality Inn requested a lower assessment based on the property’s purchase price of around $2.1 million in March of 2023. The attorneys argued the occupancy rate and income dropped by 50% after a major vendor pulled. Furthermore, he says the property is over assessed by 20% compared to the Super 8 across the highway.
An attorney representing Meadowbrook Skilled Nursing and Rehab says other similar businesses in White County are assessed at less than $2,000 per bed while they’re new assessment puts them at $7,100 per bed prompting them to ask for review. The attorney says Carmi Manor is paying a quarter of what Meadowbrook is slated to have to cough up.
McArthy, an attorney himself, was represented by Daniel Hamilton who joined via phone and also is representing multiple other appellants who appeared before the board Monday. Hamilton called the 44% increase (54.52% with potential equalizer) to McArthy’s assessment absurd and an abuse of power. McArthy brought up a running theme alleging he had video evidence of Baxley on his property without an appointment.
McArthy: So whenever you entered onto my property after I sent you an email requesting you make an appointment before you come, did you not walk around my property?
Baxley: No.
McArthy: So I’ve got you on video walking through my yard and around my house.
Baxley: I may have walked around and looked, but I didn’t go walk around your property like this right here, no I did not.
McArthy: But you left my sidewalk and my front porch, correct?
Baxley: I had to get off your front porch to get back in my truck, yes.
McArthy: Sidewalk takes you all the way to the driveway.
Baxley: This ain’t about me. I had the right to look…
McArthy: You walked around the side of the house in my yard even though I’d asked you to make an appointment prior, correct?
Baxley: You have it on picture, so why would you ask me for?
McArthy: Because I’m asking you. I want you to confirm or deny it.
Baxley: Maybe I walked around and looked over there, maybe I didn’t. You got a new room over there, but I didn’t assess the new room.
McArthy: Ok.
Hamilton also tried to put Baxley on trial bringing up that 2023, being a quadrennial year, should’ve required every property in the county to be reassessed. Baxley said Township assessor Amy Edwards herself only turned in about 30 property reassessments during the year leaving him to get about 440 in himself. That number still falls well short of the around 35,473 total parcels throughout the county. Hamilton was driving at trying to get Baxley to admit he was targeting certain properties for higher taxes. He asked Baxley what criteria he used to decide which properties got reassessed.
Hamilton: So whenever you picked up and decided which properties to reassess, how did you determine which ones were going to be reassessed?
Baxley: Just by the appearance and what we had assessed on them. Then I went in and got particulars. This is not about me; it’s about the assessment.
Hamilton: I’m simply asking about the process, sir and the process led to the assessment. Therefore, it’s relevant.
Baxley: Ok.
Hamilton: Why was this particular property, the McArthy property selected for reassessment in 2023?
Baxley: Well, it’s a very nice piece of property and it just needed to be looked at. The assessed value we had on it wasn’t appropriate.
The nearly 50 minute hearing also delved into nearly two dozen comps and dealt with the ins and outs of when construction began and was finished on a singular outbuilding as well as whether that building was farm or non farm related.
Findings by the County Board of Review will be made public, but we won’t have a good idea on when those results will be released.
