RR property reappraisals a boost to tax rolls

RIO RANCHO — Nearly halfway through a two-year countywide property re-evaluation project, the number of previously unrecorded homes, porches, patios and other structures discovered already represents an additional $9 million for the Sandoval County tax rolls.

Any new construction recorded will go on the tax rolls immediately, County Assessor Tom Garcia told county commissioners in a recent presentation on the project.

“This reappraisal will pay off in new valuation,” he said.

The downside is that the volume of new information that needs to be recorded has slowed the reappraisal effort. As a result, Garcia said he needed $79,631 to hire an additional eight temporary employees in order to complete the project by the March 31, 2014, budgeted deadline.

The original budget for the project was $1.5 million.

Garcia’s office started the appraisal project in April last year in an effort to bring data regarding land, homes and other property structures up to date. At the time, he estimated the last complete countywide appraisal was conducted more than 10 years before.

Data collectors have so far worked in Rio Rancho and Corrales and covered roughly 29 percent of the property in the county.

Visiting properties on the ground has revealed hundreds of discrepancies — such as new homes on sites that were recorded as vacant lots — where county records don’t match reality, Garcia told county commissioners.

“We thought we would do a visual inspection and verify information but we’re running into problems because a lot of data are missing. Our first encounter in Corrales was an eye-opener,” Garcia said.

Last year, when he proposed the reappraisal, Garcia said some data were lost when the county switched to a new computer system in 2008. When asked whether contractors were supposed to notify the assessor’s office about permits for new construction. Garcia acknowledged that sometimes “people forget to record.”