Kootenai County Assessor on track for 2023 deadlines

COEUR d’ALENE — The Kootenai County Assessor’s Office is reportedly on track to meet its statutory deadlines this year.

“Everything is right on schedule,” said Chief Deputy Assessor Ben Crotinger. “No problems at all.”

In 2022, the assessor’s office missed multiple deadlines, leaving county taxing districts temporarily unable to finalize budgets. With the first of this year’s deadlines fast approaching, Crotinger met with county commissioners this week to update them on his office’s progress.

“Given what happened last year, with missing some of the statutory deadlines, we want to try to make sure to avoid that,” said Commissioner Bruce Mattare. “So many other departments rely on the assessor’s office meeting their deadlines.”

The first deadline facing the assessor’s office is June 5, when assessment notices must be mailed to property owners.

After that, the assessor must provide the property rolls to the county auditor by June 26.

Idaho law requires each county auditor to release the final new construction roll by the fourth Monday in July and the remaining rolls by the first Monday in August. These property rolls detail appraisal values, which taxing districts use to complete budgets.

Last year, Kootenai County Assessor Béla Kovacs delivered the rolls more than a month late. This meant all taxing districts in the county had to create preliminary budgets based on estimated revenue, rather than official numbers.

Kovacs indicated last year that the delay was due in part to an extraordinarily high volume of assessment value appeals.

More than 700 Kootenai County property owners appealed their 2022 value assessments, compared to just 81 the year prior and 76 the year before that.

Crotinger said the assessor’s office aims to avoid an avalanche of appeals this year. To that end, assessment notices are expected to include additional information about how property values and taxes are calculated.

“I don’t think anyone wants the number of appeals we had last year,” Crotinger said.

Legislative changes that went into effect last year necessitated changes to the computer systems used by the assessor’s office. Kovacs said his office encountered problems while making the changes, causing further delays.

This year, Crotinger said, staff are testing systems early to identify problems.

“We’re really trying to get out in front of it and try to deal with these things as early as possible,” Crotinger said.