HomeMy WebLinkAbout790746.tiff BOARD OF EQUALIZATION HEARING
EXCERPT
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
WELD COUNTY, COLORADO
JULY 19, 1979
TAPE #79 - 81
COMMISSIONER KIRBY: I think if Mr. Leech would explain
research done to arrive at the 8% in lieu of the 20, it might be
useful to get that into the record,
HERB HANSEN: All right, Mr. Leech. Right here.
COMMISSIONER KIRBY: Fine
HERB HANSEN: Back there or come forward or
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: I think we' d get it on tape, it probably
would be better if you came up to the mic.
JOHN LEECH: My name is John Leech and I represent the
work for the Division of Property Taxation, State of Colorado. One
of my assignments when we were trying to implement Senate Bill 214,
one of the requirements was that the administrator should determine
an amount to be allowed for furniture to be deducted from the value
of the mobile homes. I conducted research in this field in three
manners. I contacted all the manufacturers of mobile homes in the
State of Colorado by letter or by person to determine the percent
of the total value of the mobile homes they sold that was accounted
for by furniture, which we would consider to be exempt. This ranged
from 5# to as much as 10% according to the five manufacturers in
the State of Colorado. It was obviously, ah bigger percent for
single mobile homes then it was double mobile homes because if
you purchased additional washers and dryers or disposals or units
of this type. Obviously, in a double wide you only need one
whereas, two single wides you need two. So the percentage of
furniture ah counted for in a double wide was less than that accounted
for in a single wide. Then, I conducted a survey of the mobile
home dealers most of them told me that even though they ordered
mobile homes with full compliments of furniture, that very seldom
did they sell um, with the total compliment of furniture. So
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that would lead me to believe even less of the value then manu-
facturers told me would be attributed to furniture. In other
words, the mobile home dealers wind up every year with alot of
furniture left over, but they order it from the manufacturer
furnished because it shows better and it' s easier to sell.
Although, alot of times people who buy mobile homes don' t necessarily
buy all the furniture that comes with it. So they wind up about
once a year having a big sale of surplus furniture. The other
area of research was in determining what the problems of the
Assessors would be our division held four regional meetings in four
separate portions of the state where we asked the Assessors or
representatives to be present and discuss with us the problems that
they for saw in implimenting Senate Bill 214. In all of these
meetings we poled people who had done research in their areas and
their research indicated that an allowance for furniture would be
from 5 to 10%. Ah, this not all Counties had made a complete study
of this the first time around, but in all four this was a consensus
that arrivedat before we left ah that particular region. When it
came time to instruct people in the use of the manual, ah, the
advisory council which has to approve all the manuals and instruction
that the Division of Property Taxation publishes discussed this
problem at great length and it was a decision of the tax administrator
and the advisory council that we should not publish in our publication
a fixed amount to be allowed for furniture deductions. Therefore,
the manuals adopted as it reads now and it says that the actual
value of the household furnishings which were included in the
retail delivered price when new licensed mobile homes , shall be deter-
mined and deducted from such retailed delivered price and in no
case shall it exceed 20% of the retailed delivered price. The
administrator and the Council felt that to make a flat deduction
of 8% or 5% or 20% was not just because it would not apply equally
because some mobile homes are bought without any furniture and
some are bought with a full compliment of furniture and for our
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division to say that a certain percentage was correct and should
be applied in all instances was not was what they felt the law
required. Therefore; we did not publish and did not require any
of the counties to use any particular figure in an allowance for
furniture but it was our conclusion after much study and three
methods of study that I have outlined that about 5% deduction
would be an average or a typical deduction for furnishings in a
mobile home and an 8% deduction would be reasonable for single wide
mobile homes. Are there any questions?
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: What is the percentage of deduction
in Adams County?
JOHN LEECH: Adams County took 20%
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: They used the 20%
JOHN LEECH: Right, they indicated before, ah, ever started,
before we ever drew up any figures they said don' t care what it is
we are going to use 20% that just flat straight across the board,
that makes everybody happy so causes less problems so that' s what
we're going to do and they told us that before we ever arrived at ah.
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: How many counties use the 8% figure?
JOHN LEECH: I don' t have an accurate count.
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: You don' t have an accurate count
JOHN LEECH; No
CHAIRMAN CARLSON! Do you have it?
HERB HANSEN: An estimated about 85% use it
JOHN LEECH: The only ones to my knowledge that use the
20% were the metro area counties and of course they do have the
largest number of mobile homes in them, but its not the largest number
of taxing entries.
HERB HANSEN: Can I make one comment?
CHAIRMAN CARLSON: Yes
HERB HANSEN: Our research showed that 8% was a fair
deduction and we went to mobile homes dealers and found out that
8% was a fair deduction and because of the many mobile homes that
we had to work with over 7 , 000 we took 8% across the Board on all
of them and we thought that was fair because as he said 5 to 8%
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looked like the states research showed and we took the maximum
there.
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