Storms takes over equalization reins

Scott Storms is a problem solver.
Storms, the newest person to sit in the hot seat that is the director of the Custer County Office of Equalization, comes into the job with eyes wide open, having worked in the office as an appraiser since last May and seeing the good and bad that comes with running the office.
“I like to fix things. I think I can fix this,” Storms said. “That’s my goal. I saw the taxpayers as being misrepresented from this office. I saw a lot of things I didn’t like. I saw a lot of things I learned from.”
Storms worked in the office under former director Leah Vissia, who resigned in June after around five years in the position. Vissia replaced Patty Caster, who  resigned after just under two years on the job.
The job is largely acknowledged as a stressful one, with many people unhappy with skyrocketing property valuations and taxes.
Storms said as someone who ran businesses for four decades he knew he could make a difference, and knows exactly where taxpayers are coming from, as he fought his own valuation while working for the department. It was a six-month battle for him to get his valuation lowered.
“That was one of the things that got me more interested in getting to the bottom of things and helping out taxpayers,” he said. “If it would have kept going I would have lived in a million dollar house and it’s nowhere near that.”
Storms and his wife, Brenda, had been coming to Custer for years before making the move here. Storms was retired from the Holiday Corporation (the gas station chain) where he was in charge of four stores in the area.
He retired to take care of his aunt, mother and mother-in-law, but when they all passed he and his wife decided it was time to leave Minnesota.
In Arizona they lived in Eloy, situated between Tucson and Phoenix. Eventually, the summers got too hot for them, and they decided it was time to move once again. They put their house on the market and it sold in under 24 hours.
That led them to jump in their vehicle and head for this region, first looking in Cody, Wyo., where they couldn’t find anything to their liking.
They were about to head to Idaho to continue their search when their realtor in Custer called them and said she may have something. They put in an offer, and became Custer County residents.
Everytime his wife would go to the courthouse to pay their property taxes, she would remark how expensive they were.
At the same time Storms had decided to reeneter the work force. He originally got a job managing Yesway, but quickly decided it wasn’t a good fit. He had applied with the equalization office previously, and called Vissia to see if the job was still available. It was.
He wanted to know more about how the taxes worked, so he joined the equalization staff, saying it took around six months on the job before he realized his own home was being overtaxed.
“I welcome taxpayers to come to the office and find out how they are being assessed,” he said. “I was never afforded that opportunity. I was basically told there is a formula, and that’s it. That’s not how it works. There is much more behind the scenes that I would like to show the taxpayers.”
Storms said the equalization office is already working to change some things on assessments. For instance, central air is already calculated into property values, but was also added again on a grading sheet for a home, something Storms said can add as much as $80,000 in value to a home.
“I told the commissioners if you don’t want a director who wants to work with the taxpayer and err on the side of the taxpayer, I’m probably not your guy,” Storms said. “Leah would give you the shirt off her back, but when Leah believed in something she dug her heels in. This is an office where you have to talk to people, and it’s better if you get along with people. If you tend to blow off the customer, the taxpayer, that’s not fair.”
Storms said the way things were assessed five to 10 years ago is different from how things are done now, and the office will work hard to get back to the “fair and equal” part of equalization. He said he did not like the way barndominiums were being assessed, and he also wants to revisit some land valuations.
The countywide assessment is still ongoing, Storms said, the work for which is complete for the year. He has also already been spending a lot of time talking to taxpayers, something he plans to make a habit.
“We welcome them to come in and ask questions. I encourage it,” he said. “Hopefully they see a lot of changes. We aren’t here to hurt them. We’re here to try to help them. Taxpayers pay enough. I’m going to try over time things that can reduce their taxation. That might be somewhere in the gray area with the state.”
Storms said taxpayers should learn how they are being assessed, saying he doesn’t want people to be blindsided by the process.
“It’s great when they come in and I show them ‘this is what we are doing,’” he said. “They have a right to know.”

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