Owners of the Lincoln Race Course in southwest Lincoln may owe more than $65,000 in back taxes because the assessor’s office didn't raise the assessed valuation when its building was constructed five years ago.Ìý
The Lancaster County Board of Equalization recently raised the value of the property, at 7055 S. First St., from about $477,000 to almost $1.3 million, beginning with the 2014 tax year.
That means the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the owner of the property, will owe about $65,335 in back taxes for four years on the increase in value.
Assuming the new valuation goes forward, the county treasurer’s office would give the owners several weeks to pay the back taxes without incurring the 14 percent interest normally applied for late tax payments, according to Candace Meredith, chief deputy county treasurer.
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The new restaurant and 500-seat simulcast wagering complex opened in late 2013, but the assessor’s office maintained an old assessed valuation of $476,900 that was based on the land value only.
The assessor’s office discovered the disparity several months ago when a private citizen called with a question about the property, said Rob Ogden, chief field deputy for the assessor’s office.
Because the assessor’s office did not receive the building permit filed for the new building several years ago, the assessor can go back to the date it was constructed and adjust the valuation, Ogden said.
A building permit was filed in 2012, but it apparently never found its way from the city’s building division to the county assessor’s office.
“We just recently discovered it was omitted," Ogden said. "We had not received a notice of a permit or anything.â€
Ogden notified county commissioners at a meeting on the value change in early July.
Plans for a new building for simulcast wagering in Lincoln garnered considerable news coverage at the time as State Fair Park wrapped up its final season of horse races in 2012.
A 2013 story on a single, last race at State Fair Park mentioned specifically "a simulcast building that still is at the dirt-moving-and-foundation phase" on Lincoln's southwestern outskirts.
The Lincoln Race Course's building permit was taken out before the city had its current computer system, which now automatically sends building permit notice reports to the assessor, said Chad Blahak, director of Building and Safety for the city.
In 2012, the reports of building permits were manually delivered to the county, sometimes through photocopies of the permits, Blahak said.
“It was dependent on people to do it, to keep track of the hundreds of permits,†he said. “It is conceivable that a particular permit didn’t get over" to the assessor’s office, he said.
“This doesn’t happen very open,†said County Assessor Norm Agena.
It appears the property owner is responsible for the back taxes, in spite of the bureaucratic breakdown.
Property owners should not rely on valuations they know to be very low, Agena said, adding that assessed values can be raised when a discrepancy is detected.
“So if a property owner gets a tax statement for a $10 value instead of $1,000 value, don’t just say, 'That’s great,'†he said.
Ogden told county commissioners, who sit as the Board of Equalization, he expects the Horsemen's group to file a protest on the increased value notice within the required 30 days of the July 10 decision.
Barry Lake, president of the HBPA, didn't confirm that a protest was imminent, but said he would be looking into the appeal process. As of late last week, he said he had not seen any notice of the valuation change and was unaware of the increase in value of the building.Ìý
The county assessor's office said all valuation notices are mailed to the First Street address. However, the county treasurer sends the tax statement to an Omaha address.
The same Horsemen's group owns and operates Horsemen's Park in Omaha.