Agenda Packets - 1983/03/28 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMO TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Clerk -Administrator DATE: March 30, 1983 SUBJECT: SMITH TERMINALS CORPORATION TAX ABATEMENT As you will recall, Smith Terminals Corporation appealed the assessed valuation of their property in the Mounds View Industrial Park for 1980, 1981, and 1982 to Ramsey County. This office received a notification from the State of Minnesota indicating that Ramsey County had reviewed the valuation of the properties and agreed that a reduction was necessary. After discussing it with you during the January 17, 1983 Agenda Session, staff contacted the Department of Revenue indicating that the City wished to arrange a meeting with representatives of the Department of Revenue and Ramsey County to review the information relating to abatement of taxes on the property in question and the acceptability of their conclusions. On March 28, 1983 Finance Director Brager and I met with Ms. Lucy Mitchell, of the Minnesota Department of Revenue, as well as Mr. John Lewen and Mr. Mark Genther, of Ramsey County Department of Property Taxation, to review the information contained in their files regarding this matter and the methods followed to determine the appropriateness of an abatement of taxes on Smith Terminals' property in Mounds View. The following information was gleaned from this meeting: 1. on August 16, 1982 the International Appraisal Company, on behalf of Smith Terminals Corporation, submitted a letter to the Ramsey County Department of Property Taxation appealing the assessed valuations of their property on Mustang Road for years 1980, 1981, and 1982. 2. In response to this appeal, Mr. Mark Genther of the Ramsey County Department of Property Taxation reviewed the property in question on November 12, 1982 and recommended that reductions in the .assessed valuations hr made. These reductions were made on the basis that the trucking industry, on a nation-wide basis, is in an extremely depressed state and that the property owned by trucking companies is both poorly maintained due to their financial constraints and highly restricted as to its marketability for purchase by other industrial users. It has been the past practice of Ramsey County to reduce assessed valuations for trucking terminals and the County is at this time undertaking a County -wide abatement of all future assessed valuations for these types of properties. 1.