Letter: Property tax relief is a priority for Legislature

Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 | 8:51 a.m.

The issue of rising property values in Southern Nevada brings back memories of my days as the senior field deputy to a Los Angeles County supervisor. This was the first district to be reassessed with increased home values ranging from 400 percent to 600 percent.

Residents demanded property tax relief and reform and I was assigned to help develop Los Angeles County's proposal. I debated both Howard Jarvis and Paul Gant on their proposal, which was ultimately passed as an initiative, Proposition 13.

Subsequently, during the 1980s and 1990s, I was the executive deputy to Los Angeles County's assessor and deeply involved in processing appeals and property tax reductions. In many cases it took several years before reductions were set for hearings, or processed and realized. I saw the action from the trenches. The solution is not in the assessor's office. The solution is proper legislation with how assessed values are determined and to what limits.

Causes of these robust increases are the results of building commodity increases (labor, material, and land cost), greed increases by developers who increase their prices several hundreds of thousand dollars on the next unit in their development, and the influx of "cashed-in equity" money from property owners in California who are investing in "cheap" Las Vegas properties.

I can guarantee you that, if nothing is done now, Nevada's elected representatives will experience real "shock and awe" when next year's tax bills are mailed to homeowners.

GIL EISNER