NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
RENO COUNTY — Reno County property owners likely received their valuation notices in the mail over the weekend, and Reno County Appraiser Michael Plank wants to remind them that his office's job is to reflect actual value, as the market sets the value.
"Everything we do is statutory," Plank said. "It's all state law. It's all driven by Topeka. For residential property, we look at sales, we look at sales comparisons. Statutorily, again, we have to value every single property in the county every single year. We're valuing ones that have sold versus ones that haven't sold. We use the ones that have sold to tell us what the real estate market looks like, to give us an idea of the value of the ones that haven't sold. It's an appraisal principle called comparable sales. We have replacement cost, for commercial and industrial, we have an income approach to value that we can utilize, and so we generally look at all those where we can and then select one that we think is most appropriate, and then select a value that we think is most appropriate."
Also, it's important to note that valuation is one variable in the tax equation, the other is the mill levy. A "mill" is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
"The ones who set the mill levy are generally more your local elected officials, your city councils, your school boards, your county commissions," Plank said. "If you're in the rural areas, your fire districts, townships, entities like that. They set the mill levies, they set their budgets, which determines the mill levies, they take a formula and our valuation is a part of that formula. We are a part of the process."
Appraisers are not supposed to have an adversarial relationship with property owners, and Plank wants you to know that they want questions asked so they get it right.
"We're county employees," Plank said. "We're residents of Reno County. We're taxpayers, too. We live and work and play here, as well. Just give us a call. If you have questions about your property, or even about any other specific property, it's all public information. Give us a call. Ask your questions. We'll do our best to try and answer them. We're happy to talk to folks. We're happy to help educate folks on the process, whether it's the valuation process or the taxation process, or whatever questions they may have, and if we don't know the answers, we'll tell you that and we'll say, you know, give us a chance to figure that out and we'll give you a call back."
The county has a staff of nine field appraisers. There are over 35,000 parcels in Reno County. The state requires that every property be visited at least once every six years. They do that and they also go out on any sales that they get and also any permits like remodels or garages or additions.
If you have questions, give them a call at (620) 694-2915.
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