Yavapai Downs racetrack appeals property taxes

Yavapai Downs horse racetrack officials filed an appeal of the track's commercial status Thursday with the Yavapai County Assessor's Office.

The appeal says the Yavapai County Farm and Agriculture Association that operates the track would prefer to start with an administrative appeal versus a court appeal, so the two sides can meet to try to resolve their differences.

The Yavapai County Assessor's Office recently changed the track and related properties to commercial status, effectively raising the association's annual property tax payments from about $30,000 to $349,000, an amount that association President Jeff Wasowicz said the association can't afford.

Even if the two sides don't agree on whether the track is a nonprofit operation, Yavapai County Assessor Pam Pearsall previously said her office could substantially lower the $20 million value of the track properties if the association files an appeal.

That's because the association could ask the Assessor's Office to use an income approach instead of the previous cost approach to calculating the value, Pearsall said. Numerous businesses have requested a change to the income approach since the national economic downturn, she said. The cost approach looks at the cost to build facilities, while the income approach uses a formula related to the business income.

The track and related properties on the northeast edges of Prescott Valley should be valued at more like $8 million, Wasowicz said.

The value could be cut in half with the income approach, Pearsall said.

"I'm thinking it's going to be half that or a little less," she said.

The Farm and Ag Association is a federal nonprofit ag association, but the Assessor's Office has concluded the track is a for-profit operation.

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