8 Monday, September 18, 1978 University Dally Kansan Equal property assessment to take years By BILL HIGGINS Staff Reporter Large disparities that exist among the appraised values of comparable pieces of real estate in Douglas County will be corrected beginning January 1979, but the equalization process could take four or five years to complete, the Douglas County appraiser said last week. For several reasons, many old and new homes have widely differed assessed valuation, even though they have the same market prices. Property in Kansas is taxed on the basis of its assessed value. State law says the assessed value to be 30 percent of market value. Local governments tax property on KANSAN TV TIMES TONIGHT'S HIGHLIGHTS EVENING P.M. People 7:20, 18:13 Celebrity profiles and interviews key this TV Edition of People magazine, with Phyllis George (hostees), and Mark Shaw. The first issue peek at Greta Garbo strolling in Manhattan, as well as Suzanne Sommers modeling negleges at Bloomingdales. NFL Football 8:00; 2,9 The Baltimore Colts tangle with the New England Patriots at Foxboro. Mass. Frank Gifford report. Coroll and Don Merideth report. 5:30 ABC News 2,9 CBS News 5,13 NBC News 4,27 Rookies 41 6:00 News 2, 5, 9, 13, 27 Cross Wits 4 MacNeil/Lehrer Report 19 MOVIE…"Coffee Tea Or Me?" 11:40! This love movie comes to the air as a transatlantic stewardess tries to juggle two husbands at once. This movie features Karen Valentine, John Davidson, and Michael Anderson. 6:30 Nashville On the Road 2 Hollywood Squares 4 Wild Kingdom 5 Tattletale 5 Tattletale Strip 19 Mary Tyler Moore 27 Newtown Game 41 7:00 Welcome Back Kotter 2,9 Little House On the Prairie 4,27 WKRP In Cincinnati 15,13 A One A Medical 11,13 Tac Tough Dug 11 r30 Operation Peticou 2,9 People-Phyllis George 5,13 Joker's Wild 41 8:00 NFL Football 2,9 Movie—"Audrey Rose" 4,17 M*A*S*H 5,13 Onedin Line 11 Opera Theater 19 Movie—"Story of A Woman" 41 8;30 One Day At A Time 5 10:00 News 5, 13 Dick Cavett 19 Love Experts 41 10:05 News 4, 27 10:30 Streets Of San Francisco 5 ABC News 11, 19 Backford Files 13 Star Trek 41 10:40 Johnny Carson 4, 27 10:50 News 2, 9 MacNeill/Lehrer Report 19 10:30 Man From N.C.L.E. 5 Ironside 9 Flash Gordon 41 10:40 Movie "Coffee Tea Or Me??" 9:00 Lou Grant 5,13 Pallisers 11,19 A.M. 12:00 Wrestling 41 12:15 Tomorrow 4, 27 12:30 Movie---"Commandos Strike At Dawn" 5 High Hopes 9 1:00 Movie---"Story Of A Woman" 41 1:15 News 4 1:20 News 5 1:25 Movie---"Barnacle Bill" 41 3:00 Art Linkletter 5 4:30 Dick Van Dyke 41 5:00 Andy Griffith 41 STUDENT SENATE ELECTIONS Fall 1978 6 Freshman-Sophomore Seats in Nunemaker Center Freshman Class Officers (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer) 1 Journalism Seat 1 Business Seat 1 Engineering Seat 1 LA&S (Jr-Sr) Seat 1 Special Student Seat 3 Fine Arts Seats 7 Graduate Seats 7 Graduate Seats If you are running: 1) Pick up declaration of candidacy at Student Senate Office (Level 3, Suite 105B, Kansas Union) 2) Have the dean of your school or college certify your enrollment and year in that school or college. 3) Return your declaration NO LATER THAN 5 P.M. on Monday, October 2. All candidates are encouraged to attend a special meeting concerning the set-up of coalitions and general discussion on the election. TUESDAY, SEPT.19 7:30 pm, Big 8 Room in the Kansas Union the basis of mills, each mill being one dollar of tax per kb$1.00 of assessed valuation. FALL ELECTIONS OCTOBER 18 & 19 Paid for by Student Activity Fee HOWEVER, assessment rates in the county are running at less than half of the 30 percent and many homes' assessed valuations are not based on the actual market value of the home, according to a state taxation report. Thus, given a home worth $50,000, its assessed valuation should be $15,000 and tax on the house would equal 15 times the mill billvax rate. So, in addition to equalizing the taxation assessments in the county, the reassessment also is meant to prepare Douglas County for future equalization of the assessed valuations of property among the state's 105 counties. Most counties assess property at percentages far below the required 30 percent. Donald Gordon, who became Douglas County's appraiser on April 17, said his office will not begin the equalization process until January, the start of a new tax period. Gordon said the process would not be an actual re-assessment because it would involve discarding the present evaluations and beginning from scratch. BUT THE an assessment of sorts, which he calls an equalization process, will take four to five years to bring property to the same percentage of assessed valuation. He said the percentage would be decided by the Douglas County Commission, although he said it probably would be set at 15 percent or less. Although a Kannas law requiring a 30 percent tax assessment went into effect on Jan. 1, 2004, state taxation reports show that the Kannas law required taxpayers praticed at least below 30 percent for years. The report, 'Real Estate Assessment Ratio Study, Sept. 1, 1977-May 30, 1978', analyzed the data from a county. County was assessed at an average of 12 percent of the property's market value. FOR BURAL land in the county, the average was 6 percent. But, Gordon said, his biggest responsibility was to provide equitable property assessments so that the property tax load in Douglas County was shared according to the value of each taxaveris land. UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN On Campus Events TODAY: SUA QUARTERBACK CLUB will meet at noon in the Big Eight Room of the Union. TONIGHT: WOMEN IN COMMUNICATIONS will meet at 7 i 298 Flint. W. Baker, former editor of the Kansas City Star will be speaker. FACULTY RECITAL by John Beoulton, flutist, and Mary Birkhoff, contralto, at 8 i 10 a.m. FRIENDSHIP WILMETS will meet at 7 in the Baptist Student Center, 10:29 W. 13th St. TOMORROW: GERONTOLOGY LOCUNCEH COLLOQUIMI will be at 11:30 a.m. in Alcove D of the Union, Cynthia Flynn and Bob Wiseman will speak on "The Age of Migration in America," KANSAS BANKERS CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in Pine Room of the Union. THE ENGINEERING STUDENT COUNCIL will meet at 7 p.m. in 2021 Learned ECOLOGY CLUB will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Union. MANAGER'S MEETING INTRAMURAL SOCCER 5:15 p.m., Thursday Sept.21, Rm 205 He said the disparities between property valuations have occurred mostly because of the steadily increasing values of old homes. He said new property was assessed based on its current market price and then divided by the current value back to what it would have been in 1944, when the county's property was first developed. If this process worked, all the property in county would be assessed fairly, Gordon said. However, old homes, instead of losing value, have increased in value because of the rise in rents. Because some property, such as utilities, business, machinery, mobile homes, airplanes, automobiles and industries are assessed at the full 30 percent, the state can impose a maximum equalizing annual tax, according to Hayman Waugh, state director of property valuation. THIS MEANS that owners of old homes worth the same market value as new homes paid only half as much money in taxes to the county as owners of new homes. Even when the assessment of property is equalized, real estate still will not be assessed at the required 30 percent of market value. Vaughn said last week that, at present, a successful lawsuit would make necessary a statewide property re-assessment by independent assessors. He said such a rappraisi could cost the state $40 to $50 million. However, Vaughan said, he thought the 30 percent figure would be changed once the counties equalized their respective property assessments. "I DON'T advocate that real estate be assessed at 30 percent, but that the assessments be equitable. Once we get the counties pretty much equalized, we could put it before the Legislature and let them monitor on a percentage for real estate," he said. A periodic statewide property reappraisal is required by the state's taxation law, but the reappraisal has been postponed three years. The high court said. The next reappraisal date is 1980. Filipinos defeat bill criticizing foreign press MANILA, Philippines (AP)—The Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly has killed a proposed resolution that would have banned making false reports on the Philippines. The Manila newspaper Bulletin Today committee felt the pressuation was too severe. The proposed resolution originally was a draft bill banning American reporters from the Philippines, but it was modified after President Ferdinand E. Marcos rejected it. Need Some Privacy?