Michigan Association of Equalization Directors Executive Board Meeting Minutes Doherty Hotel, Clare, Michigan May 2 nd 2014 at 10:00 a.m.

Transcription

1 Michigan Association of Equalization Directors Executive Board Meeting Minutes Doherty Hotel, Clare, Michigan May 2 nd 2014 at 10:00 a.m. 1) Call to Order: President Kimberly Halis called the meeting to order at 10:06. 2) Roll Call of Board Members: Officers Present: President, Kim Halis; Vice-President, Doreen Dewald; Treasurer, Nick Wheeler; Secretary; and Past-President Mary Cornell Board Members: Donna Vandervries, Ed Vandervries, Shila Kiander Officers Excused: Matt Woolford; Secretary Attendance: A total of 27 people signed the attendance sheet. Equalization Directors or representatives of 24 Counties were present. 3) Approval of Agenda: A motion was made by Nick Wheeler to approve the agenda and seconded by Mary Cornell. Motion carried. 4) Approval of Previous Minutes: A motion was made by Ed VanderVries and seconded by Doreen Dewald to approve the minutes from April 4 with a correction to the next meeting date being May 2 nd. Motion passed

2 5) Correspondence: None 6) Reports: a. Treasurer s Report: Nick Wheeler presented the Treasurer s Report for November. A motion to approve the report was made by Doreen Dewald and seconded by Ed VanderVries. Motion carried. b. Legislative Report: The tax tribunal work group and proposed changes were discussed. The possibility of legislation opening up the small personal property owner exemption was also discussed to allow them to go the boards of review in July and December. House Bill 5496 was mentioned which would have vacant commercial and industrial property subject to a specific tax. c. Education Committee Our upcoming conference was discussed. The registration fee will be $250. A Motion was made by Ed VanderVries supported by Mary Cornell to reduce the registration fee by $100 for registrations paid by the date stated to be due in the flyer if the counties who register by that date are members in good standing of MAED. Motion carried. The MAA meeting will be held on Tuesday at conference. A motion was made to allow nonmembers to attend out 10 hours of education at conference. The fee will be $50 and will include the two education sessions Dave Rice s six hour on Challenging Highest and Best Use on Monday and Tim Schnelle s four hour update on Wednesday including lunch on Monday only. Motion made by Nick Wheeler supported by Ed VanderVries. Motion carried. Kim Halis discussed a grub crawl at conference on Monday night. There are two $75 rooms. One will be used for Tim Schnelle who we are paying his expenses to speak at conference. The other room will be raffled off. Dave Rice is not being paid his expenses instead we are paying him a $900 honorarium. Conference information will be out next week. d. Standards Committee e. Scholarship Fund Committee - 2 -

3 Peggy Noble reported they had one scholarship to approve. That is for Theodore Summers of Alpena County for the Valuation class in May in Okemos. It is for $200. A motion was made by Doreen Dewald supported by Shila Kilander to approve the scholarship. Motion carried. Another scholarship for Tammy Stewart for the MCAO program was discussed as well but will be brought to the annual meeting as it carries into next year. It is for the fourth semester of the program $500 payment. f. MAA The proposed changes to the tax tribunal were discussed from the tribunal work group. We also discussed the Autzone and other appeals. We discussed the fact that Roger McCarty is running for IAAO board. MAA conference is in August 3-5. There are 12 hours of credit there. The 2015 conference is in Bay City. Online education is now up on the MAA website. g. STC/ACD Dave Buick discussed preliminary equalization. He also discussed the ACD staff Gaylord meeting which dealt with developing statewide equalization procedures. He indicated that he is moving forward on replacing staffing but trying to adjust the degree requirement for candidates with an MAAO or MMAO designation. h. MAC i. MTT No Report. Kim Halis discussed the contact received from Tribunal Chair Steve Lasher. He has indicated that he would like to attend our meetings and speak in June. He is also interested in attending our conference. Kim and Doreen Dewald will meet with Judge Lasher following the June meeting to discuss this

4 7) Ad-Hoc Committees 8) Old Business None 9) New Business MAA s request for a contribution to their conference was discussed. Nick Wheeler reviewed our records and found we have only made a contribution once when IAAO was involved last year. Last year $1000 was given twice - $2000 total. It was determined that no contribution would be made and Kim Halis send a response to MAA. 10) Other Matter of Concern Essential services and personal property tax changes were discussed. E Equalization was discussed. Ed VanderVries discussed a unit with a factor that on uploading had a difference of $798 due to rounding. Ed VanderVries sent out the salary survey and it is due in the middle of May. To date he has had over 40 responses. Howard Heidemen discussed the reporting requirements associated with the personal property changes. Assessors are required to report by June 5 the commercial and industrial personal property reduction due to the small taxpayer exemption between 2013 and This is necessary to reimburse the cities and recalculate the debt millage rates. Both the ad valorem and IFT property is to be used. The IFT is not always calculated the same way so it makes it hard to report the IFT value. The IFT could be split between replacement new facility personal property on land classed commercial and classed industrial. Value of property switched between classes is excluded from the calculations. value includes the renaissance zones. The reported The values are the 2013 BSA as final as existed and 2014 as of state equalization. It will be revisited based on revised calculations. IFTs are a problem. There will be a second round of reporting in August if the law passes. We will be hearing more about the reporting from Treasury. There will be a notice to assessors next week

5 There was significant discussion on these issues. Ed VanderVries discussed the request for amicus curae support for the Covert Township appeal. Some of the issues include filing a statement as a prerequisite to appeal and what constitutes a statement must it be complete. Also the relevance of the purchase price to true cash value is an issue. Litigation cost and who pays the local unit was discussed. The definition of turbine is part of the issue. Veterans exemptions were also discussed and Dave Buick indicated that ACD is aware of these issues. He indicated that he has heard there have been Board of Reviews with asset tests on this which is improper. The legislature is looking at changes on the Veterans Exemption. Tony Myard discussed the AMAR results for Cass County. The results are distributed to ACD, Equalization and the township supervisor or clerk. 90% is required on field work. He is happy with results. The issues have been with ECFs, land values and land value maps. There are now pictures on the STC website for land value maps. 11) Adjournment The next meeting of Executive Board of the Michigan Association of Equalization Directors will be held at the Doherty Hotel, 604 North McEwan, Clare, MI on June 6, at 10:00 a.m. The motion to adjourn by Ed VanderVries was seconded by Mary Cornell and was unanimously approved. The meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m