No refunds for Incline property owners while tax appeal is debated

There will be no tax refunds to Incline Village property owners until an appeal of a district court order rolling back property tax values is final, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled this week.

A group of 17 owners at Incline won a ruling from Carson District Judge Bill Maddox rolling their taxable values back to what they were in 2002-2003 and granting them refunds for the difference over the last two years.

Maddox agreed the complex system of "views" and other ratings used to assess those properties should have been certified by the state before being implemented.

The high court is still considering the Washoe County Assessor's Office appeal of that decision. In the meantime, the assessor asked for a stay, which the court this week granted. That means those property owners won't get refunds until and unless the appeal of the methods Washoe used to value those properties - and of the values themselves - is decided in their favor.

The 17 property owner are among nearly 600 in Washoe County's corner of the Lake Tahoe Basin appealing the assessed valuation of their homes and businesses. While the court case proceeds, the county board of equalization continues to work its way through that stack of appeals.

The ruling states that the county tax board should consider "the reasoning of the district court's order" as it processes those additional petitions to have property values rolled back to the 2002-2003 tax year.

It also states that the stay should not be interpreted as any indication of whether the property owners or the county will finally prevail in the case.

-- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.