Incline property owners file another lawsuit

Incline Village property owners have filed another lawsuit challenging Washoe County's property tax bills.

The Village League to Save Incline Assets and activist Maryanne Ingemanson filed the suit this past week in Carson District Court arguing the Washoe assessor is trying to raise their property taxes above the level approved by the county board of equalization.

They said those increases are being imposed, "notwithstanding the decision of the Washoe County Board of Equalization to set aside such assessments and roll back to the taxable value of the land portion of such assessments to 2002-2003 levels."

The property owners won an earlier ruling that Washoe County can't use different assessment methods and "factors" to set property taxes at Incline than it uses elsewhere in the county.

But county lawyers say that ruling applies only to the 2002-03 tax year, not to subsequent years.

County officials say the state Board of Equalization ruled they should use the same methods and factors used elsewhere in the county during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 tax years to bring those property values forward.

In the lawsuit, Incline landowners say that resulted in an 8 percent increase for 2005-06 and a 2 percent increase for 2006-07.

They argued the court should prohibit the county from applying those increases to their tax bills saying their bills for the past two years should be rolled back to the amounts paid in 2002-03.

The lawsuit involves a total of 104 parcels of land. Washoe County has not yet filed its formal reply to the complaint.

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