Assessor seeks tax-exemption review

Carson City Assessor Dave Dawley has asked a district judge to review the state Board of Equalization decision that exempted a piece of Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center's land from property taxes.

The parcel in question is the future home of the cancer center to the northwest of the new hospital. Dawley said his office listed the property as taxable after the hospital converted from city owned to private nonprofit.

But CTRMC argued successfully that it should be exempt from taxation because it is owned by a nonprofit corporation and will be used for an exempt purpose once the center is built.

The assessor's office filed a petition last week in Carson District Court seeking judicial review of the ruling.

Dawley said the issue doesn't involve much money - only a few thousand dollars. But he said the board's ruling violates the law and opens the door to more challenges of whether nonprofit groups can hold on to land without paying taxes in the future.

"The law is very clear," he said. "Until the building is occupied and used for the purpose of a hospital - an exempt purpose - it is taxable."

Dawley said the lawyer who sits on the Board of Equalization agreed with the city's position and voted against granting the exemption.

Dawley said the same issue came up nearly five years ago when the hospital argued its main building site should be tax-exempt before the new hospital was constructed there.

He said his office and the city want a district judge to look at the facts, look at the law, then make a ruling settling the issue.