Wednesday, March 22, 1978
7
Form for reappraisal uncertain
Staff Writer
By CAROL HUNTER
Taxes paid by many Douglas County property owners will rise after a proposed property reappraisal is completed, county officials agree.
"I know it is inevitable," Donald Gordon,
Douglas Allen appraiser, who will take
this week to the office.
The question is how and when the reappraisal will be undertaken. Gordon is one man responsible for answering those questions.
How and when he undertakes a reappraisal will affect the taxes paid by every property owner in the county. And higher taxes on students are added on to students in the form of higher fees.
"Evaluations will all go up," Darwin Rogers, former county appraiser who resigned March 1, said. "I don't think people with $2,000 to $40,000 houses will have a big increase in taxes, but for those with above a billion, they are going to raise the evaluation tremendously."
THE VALUATION will rise because county assessments are now based on 1964 cost figures. Because of inflation, the market value and the cost of replacing a house built in 1964 has risen. However, the valuation has never been changed.
Gordon, who has been Wabuamie County appraiser for a year, has suggested an alternative to reappraisal to the county district and adds the alternative an equalization process.
Under the plan, the percentage valuations for all property within a certain class, for example, would be set at 20 percent. Then the taxing percentages of all urban classes (residential lots, commercial lots, vacant lots) would be set to 50 percent, finally, the percentage valuation of all urban classes and rural classes would be made equal.
"The equalization process is a way to get all the classes and subclasses of property assessed at the same percentage value," he said. "The advantage is that all this could be done within the office itself, with some added personnel."
BY USING THE equalization process, he said, the county would not have to hire an outside firm to do the work if the state or federal law prohibits a praisal probably would have a time limit which the county could not meet unless an outside firm were hired, he said. However, if the county's own personnel used the praisal process, they could meet the state's deadline.
The state may order a reappraisal when assessed property values in the state are lower than the value established by statute. State statutes declare that property should be appraised at its fair market value, and that it should be assessed on 30 percent of the market value.
However, the average assessed value of property in Douglas County now is only 10 percent of its market value, not 30 percent. The average residential state is also 9 percent of the market value.
AS AN EXAMPLE, 18 acres in Lawrence were sold in January for $200.00. That property is valued for tax purposes at a price less than 10 percent of its selling price.
In addition to being low, county taxing variations vary greatly between different types.
Although urban property owners pay 13 percent of their land's market value, owners of rural property pay only 6 percent of their land's market value.
According to Rogers, even the same classes of property are assessed for widely different percentages of their market value. An older house may pay only 10 percent of its market value, he said, because inflation had increased the value of the house above
its original appraisal. However, the owner of a newer home may be paying 20 percent more rent.
GORDON, WHO worked as Douglas county appraiser for six months before becoming the Baubusseau County appraiser, and was later appraised for fairly assessing property.
One type of appraisal would be to calculate the cost of replacement, minus depreciation. Another would be to estimate the property's selling price. A third type of appraisal considers how much income the property earns.
"You should use at least two approaches for every appraisal," Gordon said. "That insures that it will be the fairest type of appraisal possible."
ANY TYPE OF reappraisal would take a number of years, Gordon said. Rogers estimated a reappraisal would take three to four years.
Although the county commission has agreed to allow Gordon to hire some additional personnel, the commission has not yet established equalization process for a reappraisal
Peter Whitenlutten, commission chairman,
Peter Whiteutten, "You've given us a morsel to chew on.
I'll give you one."
Police call fire lockouts unusual
Rv PAM MANSON
Staff Writer
Despite two occasions in the last month when police could not enter locked buildings to investigate reports of fires, the KU Police Department said lockout incidents were not reported.
However, the department is investigating
ways to provide quicker access to campus buildings at night, Mike Thomas chief of the security team.
The department began discussing alternate methods with the Facilities Operations office and University administrators before the incidents occurred.
Fire fighters and KU police officers
Songwriter's bees are flying high
responding to a false fire alarm F2. 8b had to wait 10 minutes to get inside Spencer Museum because the night watchmen had been employed by employees of the museum opened the building.
Last week, KU police officers had to wait about 10 minutes to investigate a report of
RvDAVIDLINK
A 1975 graduate of the University of Kansa is pinning his hopes for fame and fortune on the success of a song he wrote with the unlikely title of "Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz."
Staff Writer
Mark Landis is working as a clerk in a paint store in Paola but thinks his song, which tells the story of a swarm of marjuanja-munching bees who produce a "high" variety of honey, has the potential to lift him above all that.
“It’s kind of a talky song, but I have a background tune to go with it. It sounds really good when done with the heavy Mexican-American accent,” he said.
Imagine, then, a simple guitar strain, as Lee Trevino breaks into song:
"The song is kind of a Mexican-American version of Jimm Staffard's Wild Wood Flower." Landis said. "Friends tell me it must just be funny enough to get published."
"Jose and me was out one day, just a camping by the Rio Grande, when a small yellow fox came up behind us."
my hand . . then came a couple more and looped sniffed and then I see what the hand was doing.
"There bees was high on honey that was smelling a whole lot like hash . . . Next year we're planning to train two hives to beat the border patrol.
University Daily Kansan
"our killer bees eat the killer weed and our honey sales seem to grow."
And that's the way "Buzzzzzzzzzzzz" goes.
"I wrote this song the night after our first baby was born. I couldn't get to sleep and it made me very upset."
The song is the first venture into the music business for Landis, who said that he was more of a poet and that his songwriting was "kind of a hit-and-miss situation."
Ianus preters to write lyrics rather than music but said he can compose music when he can.
"I don't have any background in music, but it's something I know I can do. I just kind of get the tune in my head and then find somebody who can write it down for me." he
Landis' problem now is to find someone willing to publish his song.
"I guess you could say I'm in the feeling-out stage," he said. "I've got 10 letters all Xeroxed and ready to go, but I not sure who to send them to.
"Friends tell me that if you send a song to a record company, they'll probably just rip it."
So Landis plans to get a registered copyright on "Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz," (that's with fifteen z's) and then send it to record companies.
"That way, that ripe me on and make a million dollars off the song. I can see them."
smoke in Bailey Hall. A night watchman unlocked the dogs.
Thomas said the two situations were unusual.
"I've had 13 years" experience and these are the few times there's been a delay," he said. "The night watchmen will always get there to open the building."
When the Lawrence Police Department, the Lawrence Fire Department or the KU police respond to an emergency call to a person who is being interviewed is notified by radio to unlock the building.
According to Rodger Oroke, director of Facilities Operations, most campus buildings are open in the evenings before the night watchmen begin duty at 10 p.m. if the building is locked, the police will notify a security officer who can open the building, he said.
KU police have keys only to those buildings that are considered high security
Mike Hill, captain of the KU police in Lawrence, said KU police officers did not have all the keys because there were too many buildings.
"Our officers can't carry all these keys around," Hill said. "Getting into buildings is hard."
Hill said the police and Facilities Operations departments were considering alternate ways to get into buildings at night but not definite plans to change the system.
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SHOWCASE WEDNESDAY Direct from Jeff. City, Mo.
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The baskets, sold in all parts of the country, may contain an insect known as powder-post beetles, said Gar Ingraham, vice president of Sears retail sales.
It's Time you've became a Weds. Rock & Roller FRL—POTT COUNTY RETURNS
CHICAGO (AP)—Up to 100,000 Easter baskets were recalled by Sears, Roebuck and Co. yesterday because they may contain beetles.
There is believed to be no health hazard, Sears said, but the wrapped baskets should be handled with care.
Peterson said 92 tickets were available for the trip, but added that arrangements could be made.
The deadline to sign up for the trip is April 7.
Beetles found in baskets
Mike Peterson, SUA Travel chairman, said yesterday that Dick Wright, lecturer in music history and jazz historian, would be back at the KANU trip to the third day of the festival.
Tickets are on sale at the SUA office in the Kansas Union for a $3 bus trip. April 25 to May 1 is free.
Tickets on sale for Wichita trip to jazz festival
Several popular jazz artists will perform in a 12-hour show on April 23. Beginning at 1 p.m. at the concert, they will conventionally perform the performances for Anderson, the Louis Bellson Band and Combo, Matrix IX, Joe Williams, Clark Terry, the Dan Hele Trei with Arnie Crawford and Buddy
Tickets for the trip, which is sponsored by TUCA and KANU, are $22 each. The price paid for an $8$ reserved seat at the festival has transportation from the Kansas Union.
Concerts and clinics are scheduled for the second day of the festival.
Featured will be a battle of the bands and drummers.
The first day of the festival will feature college jazz band and conbo competitions
The festival, Friday, April 21 through
April 23 will feature annual jazz
festival to be held in Wiesbaden.
mushroom sauce tomato sauce garlic sauce meat sauce meatballs
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