There are many certification programs involved with property tax. I suggest that every NC property tax student be familiar with which organizations provide certifications, credit hours, and the requirements of those organizations. A certification or designation is required by law for some positions. Two are required in the assessor’s office. If you are one of the 100 appointed county assessors in North Carolina or a county appraiser, you must be certified by the NC Department of Revenue. Becoming and being a certified assessor or appraiser includes requirements for initial certification (certifying education) and also follow-up requirements for continuing education. If you represent yourself as a real estate appraiser but do not fill one of the two positions above, NC law requires your certification to be through the NC Appraisal Board. All other certification programs for property tax are not legally required in NC law but may be required by your employer or by your association. Perhaps you’re not currently in a position that is required to be certified but your future could lead you in that direction. Regardless, I think you should maintain your course records for attendance and successful completion of property tax courses. I have recognized uncertainty in this area over the years and it seems to be more so in recent times. I hope this post is a way to help bring us back to certainty. Continue reading
Category: Property Tax (page 1 of 3)
In a previous blog post, The COVID-19 Crisis and How North Carolina Local Governments are Budgeting for It, I laid out the results of a survey that the NCLM and the NCLGBA had conducted to counties and municipalities across the state in April. In this week’s blog post I am going to provide an overview of an updated survey that was send out in May. This survey had fewer respondents, but also provides more up-to-date information about the strategies and plans that local governments in North Carolina have, with another full months of information and better understanding of how COVID-19 is impacting their jurisdiction.
Continue reading
Recently the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) and the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association (NCLGBA) partnered on a survey of county and municipal governments across the state to better understand how local governments are budgeting for FY21. There are 142 responses. 29 are from counties and 113 are from municipalities. See the map below to see the number of jurisdictions from each county area (total of the county and municipal responses).
“I can’t think of anything that shows you are more committed to your work and your profession than a professional designation. A job applicant who has a professional designation earns an automatic interview from me.”
Marcus Kinrade, AAS, RES
Wake County Tax Administrator
In this post, I wanted to share that the School of Government’s Knapp Library has a new collection for North Carolina’s assessment community. This is a short post because I anticipate most of the reading will occur as you explore the links in this post. In January, IAAO announced the availability of their new collection of informational books on assessment, Apendium.
The county assessor’s office has a role in damage assessment.
WHY?
Damage assessment is a required process in North Carolina local government after a disaster for reasons in two categories.
First, the county assessor has the legal requirement to assess property for tax purposes. This means the county assessor is required by law to appraise, or value, all real property based on physical characteristics of each property, each January 1, whether or not there has been a recent disaster.
Second, to estimate damages for other, non-property tax-related purposes.
See additional damage assessment resources from the second category on our SOG resources page, here.
Since the assessor’s office maintains property data, is required by law to have appraisal experience, and must record January 1 physical characteristics of all property even in years without a disaster, the assessor’s office should be involved with damage assessment for both categories. Remember, the assessor must be familiar with January 1 property characteristics every year.
WHO?
After a disaster, individuals in local governments who are tasked with the damage assessment process have suffered loss themselves. With that in mind, assessors can offer assistance to one another and share expertise with affected counties. Hosea Wilson in Dare County is no stranger to disasters and the damage assessment process. He and others offer their assistance along with the support of the NCAAO/NCTCA.
Hosea Wilson, AAS, PPS, Dare County Assessor, 252-475-5938
Kevin Turner, AAS, Onslow County Assessor, 910-937-1230
Wes Wilson, RES, AAS, Onslow County Appraisal Supervisor, 910-937-1271
Justin Deese, RES, Craven County Chief Appraiser, 252-636-6640
If your office can spare help with damage assessment or otherwise, make sure your county emergency manager is aware that you have staff that can assist impacted counties so it can be coordinated through the webEOC system. And if you’re an impacted county, consider asking for this type of assistance so your staff can be at home with their family and friends as much as possible.
Together will will get through this. Together we can discover better ways to support one another through these times.
Dare County Disaster Assessment Guidelines / FEMA Damage Assessment Matrix
Note documents under this header are examples used in Dare County for prior damage assessment and may be modified for use in other counties. Hosea Wilson, Dare County Assessor.
DA_Guidelines Dare County guidelines – A quick reference guide to have in the field.
FEMA_DamageMatrix Dare County modified these for their jurisdiction and damage types
FEMA Damage Descriptions with photos
Dare County found that besides a field reference, review of these pre-event is helpful for consistency of reporting.
IAAO Resources provided October 7, 2024 in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
Jeff Neibauer, Brunswick County NC, Managing a Tax Office and Revaluation During a Natural Disaster Post Hurricane discussion begins at the 19-minute mark
Property Assessment in the Wake of Natural Disasters 2024
The importance of imagery- Disasters happen 2022
IAAO resources provided September 11, 2018 as Hurricane Florence was approaching NC.
Disaster_Recovery_Subject_Guide_Updated2018
Disaster_Help_A_Resource_for_Diaster_Control_and_Prevention_Initiatives
Disaster_USA_A_Perspective_on_the_Aftermath_of_Hurricane_Katrina
Many thanks to the IAAO Paul V. Corusy Memorial Library.
Introduction by Kirk Boone
Maybe the assessment stars were aligned two weeks ago when PTEP held IAAO 300, Fundamentals of Mass Appraisal, in Rocky Mount, NC.
- On August 20, the first day of class, WRAL, our local NBC affiliate, published an article about leading edge statistics software used to support Wake County mass appraisal. Marcus Kinrade, AAS, Wake County Revenue Director, shared the following article with me.
- WRAL is a pioneer in technology. In 1996, WRAL provided the first public high definition television broadcast in the United States. In 2016, they became the first US station to broadcast a full time service using standards for 4K ultra HD content.
- SAS Institute, the company providing the statistical technology, is leading-edge. The world’s largest privately held software company, right here in Wake County, is used by Google as a model for some of their own workplace development.
- Mr. Kinrade was attending IAAO 300 that week. The course introduces statistical techniques used in mass appraisal. Although IAAO 300 topics such as clustering and regression analysis have been in use for hundreds of years, it is the same mathematics combined with today’s technology and local government leadership that allow for what you’re about to read. This is an impressive collaboration between a leading-edge company and a leading-edge county.
It wasn’t always called the NC Candidates’ Club. There was no need to designate it as the “NC” club because we were the only such club in the nation. The club started in 1984 at what was then called the “Institute of Government”, so it was first named the Institute of Government’s Candidates’ Club. Just one year earlier, a young appraiser who started his career in Tennessee began lecturing at UNC’s Institute of Government. His name was Joe Hunt and is now known by many as one who advanced the science and art of property tax assessment in North Carolina.
Joe Hunt, CAE
How might a citizen advisory committee aid in the reappraisal process? In the SOG publication, “Creating and Maintaining Effective Local Government Citizen Advisory Committees, Upshaw, 2010″, here is the introductory reason to have CACs:
When communities face complex issues affecting large, diverse groups, citizen engagement leads to people being better informed, better able to collaborate with others, and more active in addressing issues that affect them. By sharing responsibility, local officials increase opportunities for citizens to contribute to the common good.
A question was asked earlier this week about a company’s records that do not agree with previous listings. I think an important question to ask in these situations is whether either resource (the records or the listing) match what really exists. This brings up a few good business personal property topics to review. Do you believe in Ghosts? Don’t be scared.
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