What does the Sandoval County Assessor’s Office do and why is it important for residents?

The Sandoval County Assessor’s Office in New Mexico plays a crucial role in determining property values for tax purposes, ensuring fairness and uniformity in assessments. The staff, led by Linda Gallegos, is committed to serving the citizens of Sandoval County.

Property owners are reminded to review the valuation figures on the Notice of Value, which is mailed by April 1 each year. This notice represents the final step in the review process and determines the taxes property owners will pay after local government agencies and school districts set their budgets and adopt tax rates.

County appraisers regularly review real estate data and add new properties to ensure the values of existing land and buildings are up to date. The taxable value of real and personal property is determined as one-third of the total appraised value, minus any allowable exemptions, such as head-of-household or veteran’s exemptions. The net taxable value is then multiplied by the tax rate to calculate the actual taxes property owners are billed.

As April 1 approaches, The Observer sat down with Gallegos, Chief Deputy Assessor Richard Shanks and Chief Assessment Officer Ed Olona to find out what the Assessor’s Office does and why it is important for Sandoval County residents.

What can property owners do if they disagree with the valuation figures on the Notice of Value?

“We mail out a Notice of Value. Every property owner gets the notice of value on April 1. You have 30 days from the time of the mailing of the notice of value to disagree with that value. If you feel that’s not correct, you can come in and see us in the office,” Gallegos said. “We start by talking it out and seeing if there’s anything; regardless whether we agree or disagree, every property owner has the right to protest during that 30-day period. So if we file a protest and take the first step is where we have a valuation board that’s through the state, and we can both sit across it and be heard by a third party, not from people from our office, somebody from the state that comes along and listens to it. Then we’ll present our valuation that was on the Notice of Value, and if the protest and if the property owner feels that the value is incorrect, they have to show proof that it should be a different valuation. If the property owner still wants to disagree with the value, it can be filed in district court.”

“The one thing I would add is before you go straight to the board, you meet with the appraiser of your area,” Shanks said.

Is it common for property owners to disagree with the valuation?

“We have almost 150,000 accounts, so we don’t get that many,” Gallegos said. “I wouldn’t call it common. But again, we talk about valuations all year round. It’s just that’s the first period of time you have to officially file. There’s that period in April, and because a lot of people get that Notice of Value and don’t pay attention to what it is, so really when they get their tax bill in November, that’s when they really find out.”

What is the importance of the valuations of a property?

“We’re committed to being fair and equitable and making sure everybody’s happy and the valuations are fair, and then the jurisdictions that get paid out,” Gallegos said. “It’s important to note that the money that’s collected for these are paid out to the jurisdictions. What we do directly correlates with how much you’re going to be paying in property taxes, but it is much more involved than that.”

“As your valuation increases, your levies decrease. Generally, in most cases, not all cases, it depends what else is added to the coffers for the budgets of each jurisdiction,” Olona said. “Consequently, based on each individual’s valuation, the tax levy that was determined by the state is then imposed on each property, and the treasurer collects based on that information, and then that is distributed to each jurisdiction.”

Do you have an example of a type of protest?

“In 2022 Rio Rancho Premiere Realty LP protested their property tax in April, which is timely for the year, and they consequently said that their value should be at $4.5 million,” Olona said. “We assessed the property at approximately $9.3 million. It went through the protest board, and the board ruled not necessarily in favor of the county or the property owner. They came to their own conclusion as to the appropriate value. We appealed the decision in order by the property valuation board to district court. Ultimately district court found error with that decision and re-instituted our approximate $9.3 million valuation. At the same time, a 2021 protest had passed the deadline of April 30. In that tax year, they filed for a claim for refund, and they filed that with the district court. We actually looked at our values; they looked at their values. And the ultimate decision on that was the property value withdrawal from $9.2 million to $6.8 million. After both court cases were heard, ultimately, we were able to bring back into the county approximately $60,000 in additional taxes.”

“That’s $60,000 additional dollars. If we would have just said OK, we didn’t fight the lower amount, but we said no, we can defend our value we, we know we have the right valuation,” Gallegos said. “So again, it’s about doing our job and making sure we’ve got the correct assessment and then be able to defend that. It’s an extra $60,000 for the people of Sandoval County.”

How many people work in the Assessor’s Office and what are some of the different positions?

“We have 40 positions with 26 people currently employed. We have customer service for people who have initial questions and want to apply for their exemptions — again, a really important part of what the assessor’s office does. Veterans, for instance, apply for their exemptions with us. We’ve got the head of household, which I wish everybody knew about that one, because almost truly everybody could apply for that exemption if it’s your primary residence. We’ve got our mapping department, we’ve got the appraisal staff, and we’ve got our quality control, also,” Gallegos said.

“The assessor is charged with three basic duties: to identify, locate and value properties within Sandoval County,” Olona said.

If someone doesn’t agree with a valuation, what should they have prepared?

“If it’s a new construction, if they’ve got an appraisal of any kind, that’s always a good place to start. Asking a realtor, I try to provide things that are free for people because I don’t want to say go out and get an appraisal. That’s easy to say, right? But that’s expensive. So again, if they’ve recently purchased their house, an appraisal was done, and if they could provide that to us. So knowing what their square footage is and knowing the details of their house, to make sure that’s the first step. Again, a good place to start is asking a realtor for a market analysis, which is a free thing to do,” Gallegos said.