County commissioners, assessor complete valuation protest hearings

YORK – The York County Commissioners, sitting as the board of equalization, and York County Assessor Kurt Bulgrin have completed the 2025 valuation protest hearing season.

​Some who have had a change of valuation (through this process) will still have the ability to protest their new values (determined through the protest process) if they want, but the initial protest hearing period is completed.
The board heard 170 protest hearings this year, which is higher than historically seen in one year. However, it should be noted many counties have been experiencing the same thing, as valuations have increased throughout the state.
This past week, the commissioners went back through protests in which the hearings had already been held. They had postponed decisions for a variety of reasons, including to enable the assessor do an on-site visit or to allow the owners to gather information about comparable properties. They also asked for more information about department of revenue directives.
The pile of protest filings was a tall stack when they started and eventually ended up being different piles – some in which the commissioners ruled to uphold the assessor’s recommendation to leave valuations where his office originally set them, some in which they approved changes recommended by the assessor after further evaluation, some in which they disagreed with the assessor’s recommendation and made changes as they saw fit.
It should be noted commissioners abstained from voting on certain parcels if they were personally related to the owners or somehow involved with a specific property.
When it came to farmland valuations, Bulgrin said those were based on sales and parameters provided by the state. He also cited a recent land value study.
During this long process, the commissioners discovered a county-owned culvert needed to be fixed after the owner protested his valuation because of drainage problems. The commissioners didn’t lower the valuation but pressed for corrective work to be done by the roads department as soon as possible.
And sometimes the commissioners had split votes on whether or not to lower valuations. Some of these pertained to lot values in the smaller towns in York County.
When it came to environmental impacts, such as groundwater contamination, the commissioners agreed with the assessor to not lower the valuations of those properties because of the contamination, as the owners had purchased the properties after the contamination had already been found and its presence disclosed.
There was also conversation about placing real value on portable sheds, particularly those used for livestock production, like calving barns. Some owners protested the value on those sheds because they are on skids and can be moved from place to place. Bulgrin said the state was mandating value to be placed on these, as property, due to new directives. Commissioner Andy Bowman reviewed the state regulations and said they were “muddy, unclear and hold no clear directive.” In some cases, the value was lowered due to a split vote of the board of equalization. In others, the values remained the same, if the property had electricity or other aspects of permanency.
Some property valuations were lowered after further review by the assessor’s office after receiving new information about buildings being removed or corrections made regarding the age of structures. In some cases, it was simply a matter of the owners letting the assessor’s office know the information was incorrect or had changed.
Changes were made to seven properties’ valuations due to a state law regarding low income/rent restricted housing.
The value of one parcel was lowered after the owners protested, saying the creation of an electrical substation on what had been their property has devalued their parcel. A split vote allowed the valuation decrease.
There were conversations about valuations of properties with close proximity to pheasant farms as the pheasant production came after the other owners were already present. In two cases, the protesters saw their property valuations lowered due to this impact, through a split vote of the commissioners.
The commissioners, as the board of equalization, considered the valuation protests for four hours on Tuesday and met again on Friday to handle a few still remaining.
"It is good to have this piece done," Commissioner Randy Obermier said. "Hopefully this will have been the bad year and we don't see these valuation jumps in the upcoming years."