Walters wins tax reductions

Dan Kulin

Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.

The state board that presides over appeals of property assessments gave golf course developer Billy Walters a small victory Thursday when the board members agreed to lower the assessment for two golf courses.

But while the state Board of Equalization knocked down the assessments from the Clark County assessor for this year -- lowering Walters' tax bills by an estimated $4,000 -- the action still left the values much higher than Walters wanted.

Walters' lawyer, William McKean of Las Vegas-based Lionel Sawyer & Collins, said he will probably appeal the board's Thursday decision to District Court in Carson City.

Rocky Steele, assistant director of assessment services in the Clark County assessor's office, said he was pleased with the board's decision because it does not have a substantial impact on the assessment.

Steele said a preliminary look at the impact of the decision showed the total tax bill for the two golf courses affected, Royal Links and Desert Pines, would be $234,792, a total savings of $29,617.

Based on the Thursday decision, the total assessment for Royal Links on Vegas Valley Drive in Sunrise Manor went from just over $13 million to almost $11.3 million.

Walters' appeal said the golf course is worth about $4.47 million.

Desert Pines on East Bonanza Road near Pecos Road was assessed at about $11.2 million, and will now be assessed at about $10.2 million.

Walters' appeal valued that golf course at just under $5.6 million.

The board's decision did not affect the tax bill for the Bali Hai golf course because the assessed value of that land did not change from last year to this year, Steele said.

Bali Hai, which is just south of Mandalay Bay on the Strip, was assessed at about $23.1 million, and Walters' appeal said the assessment should be just under $13 million.

Walters was also appealing the $27 million assessment of the Stallion Mountain Country Club on Flamingo Road just east of Boulder Highway. In the appeal, Walters asked the assessment be lowered from about $27.1 million to almost $11.3 million. However, some of the land was recently sold for residential development, and so the assessment must be recalculated, McKean said.

The Board of Equalization voted 5-0 Thursday to change the land value portion of the assessments for the two golf courses. The action overturned a February County Board of Equalization ruling, in which that board upheld the assessments from the county Assessor's Office.

McKean and Timothy Morse, an appraiser also working for Walters, told the state board Thursday that the assessor essentially created values for the golf courses. The assessor failed to take into account comparable sales, and did not follow the standardized manual that sets values for all kinds of property called Marshall & Swift, they said.

But Richard Stewart, a county deputy assessor, said the Marshall & Swift book allows for some flexibility in assessments.

"One size does not fit all for golf course land values," he said.

Board member Stephen Johnson said he thought the county followed the guidelines from Marshall & Swift, but said he also thought the land values were assessed too high.

Johnson then suggested the board reduce the land values to last year's levels, and his fellow board members agreed.

Following the meeting, McKean said the board's decision shows that they agree there was no basis for increasing the assessments over last year.

Under last year's assessment, which is in effect now, the Royal Links land was valued at about $1.9 million, and the Desert Pines land was valued at almost $1 million.

Walters' appeal asked that those land values be $160,780 for Royal Links, and $98,470 for Desert Pines.

McKean said he did not know when the appeals will next appear in court.