Taxing Jurisdiction Advisory Committee

1
Taxing Jurisdiction Advisory Committee

• April 30, 2008

2
Agenda

• Introductions, meeting purpose/objectives- Dave
  915am
• BCA - Addressing our Mission - Connie
• - Whats new- Connie
  925am
• - Dec. 11 meeting action items-
  Dave
• - 2008 Projects overview -Dave
  935am
• Check in opportunity- Revised Roll completion-all
  945am
• Coffee
  1000am
• Integrated Data Interchange Vision
• and Strategy -Brendan
  1015am
• Lunch
  1200pm
• Future Planning
• Assessment Notices- future look- Wendy N.
  100pm
• Risk to Roll reports- future look- Mark K.
• Electronic Building Plan exchange pilot- Mark K.
• Non Market Change reports - Dave
• Coffee
  200pm
• Issues from the committee -all
  215pm
• Planning for next meeting-Dave
  315pm
• Wrap up- Connie
  330-345pm

3
Purpose and Objectives

• Meeting purpose
• Endorse Integrated Data Interchange Delivery
  Service Vision and Strategy.
• Opportunity to shape and guide some of our key
  issues.
• Get feedback from you on Revised Roll completion
  and other issues you may have.
• Set stage for the 2009-2011 plan.

4
Addressing our Missionand Whats new.

• Connie Fair,
• Executive Director, Business and Customer Services

5
BCAs Mission

• Our mission To create uniform assessments
  which can be relied upon to build sustainable,
  flourishing communities ( local, regional and
  provincial)
• What measures are we taking to meet our mission?
• Overview of 2008 Assessment Roll
• Roll Quality Measures
• Appeals
• Data Cleansing Activities
• Service Commitments

6
Property Count by Year
7
Completed Roll Value by Year (000,000s)
8
Total Property Value (000,000s)
9
New Construction Value by Year (000,000s)
10
Roll Quality- Some examples

• Three primary statistical measures
• Assessment to Sales Ratio
• Target 97 Achieved 96.8
• Coefficient of Dispersion
• Target lt10 Achieved 7.2
• (lt10 for homogeneous areas, lt15 for
  heterogeneous areas)
• Price Related Differential
• Target 0.98 1.03 Achieved 1.012

11
Public Complaints to PARP
12
Examples- continued

• Value change through PARP

13
Some Examples- continued

• Administrative Data
• Mailing Address
• Cleansed for 2008 Roll 55,489
• Parcel/Legal Description
• Cleansed for 2008 Roll 36,037
• Civic Address
• Cleansed for 2008 Roll 105,240

14
Unprocessed Matched Sales
15
Unprocessed Subdivision Sales
16
BCA updates

• Farm Review status
• Customer surveys
• Property Owner survey in 2008
• Plans for local government survey in 2009
• Future Data Collection
• Video demo
• Partnership opportunities

17
2008 Projects Overview

• Dave Chater
• Manager, Local Government Services

18
2008 Projects

• Communications Project
• Standardized format and procedures, single point
  of distribution and customer alert system.
• Microfiche Replacement Project
• Enhanced Quality Assurance Program
• Initiate a customer technical working group to
  determine 2009 priorities ( and beyond)
• Assessment LinkBC Training
• New delivery model
• Mailing Address Project
• Internal process improvement project (short term)
• Potential joint project with LTSA ( longer term)
• Develop business case for submission to LTSA
• 2009 projects Data Advice format (pilot), QA
  continued, Mailing Address continued.

19
Feedback on Revised Roll completion.

• Dave Chater

20
Revised Roll Feedback

• We want your feedback please on the 2008 Revised
  Roll completion
• What worked?
• What didnt?
• How can we improve our service and satisfaction
  on this product with you?

21
Integrated Data Interchange Vision Strategy
April 30, 2008

• Brendan Feary
• Yarra Consulting

22
Purpose of Session

• To seek your endorsement to explore an integrated
  data delivery/interchange vision in in more
  detail and to respond with a fully defined action
  plan

23
Overview

• Background
• Confirmation of need
• What we have heard
• What others are doing
• Integrated data interchange vision
• Scope of change
• Perceived benefits
• Your feedback

24
Background Data Advice 2 Recommendations

• Focus on Providing Consistent, Reliable, Accurate
  and Current Data (H)
• Develop a New Data Advice Format While Continuing
  To Support the Current Format (L)
• Communicate Business Practice Changes to Clients
  (H)
• Adapt the New Features in the ValueBC Property
  Database to be Compatible with Data Advice (H)
• Enhance AssessmentLink BC to Include Information
  Needed By Clients for Planning Purposes (M)
• Improve the Turnaround Time on Data Received from
  LTSA (H)
• Provide a Standardized Mechanism for Clients to
  Send Information to BC Assessment Electronically
  (L)

25
Background Project Ranking from Dec 11 TJAC
26
Background BC Assessment Vision Goals

• Vision To be the best choice for property
  information and assessment solutions for the
  benefit of British Columbians - real-time,
  anytime, anywhere
• Goals
• High-availability access to map-based property
  information.
• Customer-focused and business solution-oriented.
• Multiple media and channels - active and engaged
  dialogue with property owners and taxing
  jurisdictions.
• Widely-known and celebrated value proposition
  (for service, quality and cost).
• Innovative best practice, assessment model
  (sought-out)
• Relevant, accurate, helpful and trustworthy.
• Builds community - respected as a trusted and
  valuable partner to local governments and the
  Province.

27
Background Technology Advancements

• Web ubiquity and maturing of Web technology
• Large amount of published accessible content
• Maturing of formats for moving and exchanging
  data over the Web (i.e. XML)
• Greater expectation for sharing and exchanging
  information over the Web

28
The need Taxing Jurisdictions

• Timely, trustworthy property assessment
  information to support variety of processes (e.g.
  taxation, planning, budgeting, etc.)
• Easy flexible access (electronic and
  non-electronic delivery formats)
• Fitness for purpose

29
What we have heard Taxing Jurisdictions

• Feedback from Saanich, Lillooet, Richmond, East
  Kootenay
• Support from Area Assessment Office is highly
  valued
• AssessmentLink BC useful service but not easy
  to learn or use for infrequent users
• Data Advice format truncates some fields
• Relationships between legal parcels, properties
  and owners not consistently represented on Data
  Advice since ValueBC
• Data accuracy/consistency in ValueBC (e.g. street
  names, property owner names)
• Inconsistencies between electronic and hardcopy
  reports
• More standard self-serve reports from ALBC (e.g.
  Permissive Exemption Report)
• Give plenty of lead time if making changes to
  services and communicate!

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What we have heard IT Service Providers

• Feedback from Tempest Vadim
• Linking, matching and history problems with
  current Data Advice since transition to ValueBC
• Upgrading Data Advice format to more flexible XML
  representation would result in following
  benefits
• No more field truncation issues
• New fields can be added without breaking
  uploading software
• File easily read with standard browser or text
  editor
• Plenty of lead time if making changes

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What we have heard BC Assessment

• Feedback from BC Assessment
• 6 web sites 4 system/data hosting environments
  supporting existing delivery services
• Software licensing expensive to maintain for
  AssessmentLink BC
• Data Advice is stable and works, but is
  inflexible and cumbersome
• Data Advice was designed for CAPAS in 70s and
  retro-fitted to ValueBC
• Huge diversity in size, capability and need of
  external customers
• Significant manual effort to respond to requests
  from external customers for custom reports or
  data extracts
• Need to work with IT service providers if any
  changes are made
• Strong opportunities to consolidate and
  rationalize the way the services are delivered
  and managed

32
What others are doing City of Calgary
33
What others are doing Ontario
34
Current Data Delivery Services
External Clients
Taxing Jurisdictions
IT Service Providers
Commercial Clients
Property Owners
Paper PDF CD Microfiche
Electronic
Electronic
Electronic
Assessment Link BC
Data Advice
Standard Custom Reports
BC Online
Assessment By Address
Data Access
ALTOS
ValueBC
35
Integrated Data Interchange - Future Vision
External Clients
Taxing Jurisdictions
IT Service Providers
Commercial Clients
Property Owners
Building Plans Building Permits
PDF XLS HTML XML
PDF XLS HTML XML
XML
HTML
Integrated Service Delivery
Assessment Link BC
Data Advice
Self-Serve Reports
BC Online
Assessment By Address
ALTOS
Data Interface
ValueBC
36
Whats Changed from Current Delivery Model?

• From end-user perspective
• No user-perceivable change to Assessment by
  Address
• could be enhanced with mapping interface
• AssessmentLink BC re-aligned to support more
  analytical users requiring drill-down
  functionality, comparison, etc.
• Some frequently used ALBC reports re-implemented
  for easier access within new self-serve report
  service
• New self-serve report service for
  standard/frequently used reports and custom
  reports, replaces existing processes for
  producing myriad standard or customized
  reports/formats
• New Data Advice format with easier uploading,
  linking and matching with data in local systems
• Services consolidated into single access
  environment, where appropriate, with consistent
  look and feel
• Services for uploading Taxing Jurisdiction data
  (e.g. building plans and permits) to support
  assessment processes
• Data interface supports receiving as well to
  providing data
• Scope of change is incremental, not drastic

37
Perceived Benefits

• Taxing Jurisdictions
• Services better aligned to user needs
• Services easier to use with more flexible
  delivery options
• IT Service Providers
• More efficient and flexible data interchange
  between BCA systems and local government systems
• BCA Assessment
• Easier to manage and support data delivery
  services
• Less manual effort required to support requests
  for custom reports

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Your Feedback

• Are we on the right track?
• What are the next steps we should take?
• Who should we involve?
• How should we communicate to other Taxing
  Jurisdictions?

39
Wrap-Up

• Are you comfortable with us proceeding to more
  detailed planning in the design and
  implementation of these changes?

40
Future Planning

• Dave Chater

41
Future Planning discussions-outline

• Assessment Rolls and Notices- future look and
  feel (Wendy)
• Risk Loss Reporting (Mark)
• Remote Access Agreement- pilot project ( Mark)
• Non Market Change- improvement program ( Dave)

42
The future of the BCA Rolls and Assessment
Notices- a discussion

• Wendy Norman,
• Manager, Customer Services

43
Outline

• Topic introduction and Background
• Current and future direction
• Your thoughts (a discussion)
• Next steps

44
Topic Introduction and Background

• Currently produce Annual Rolls Completed,
  Decision, Revised, SUPPs, etc.
• Distributed on paper, fiche and with stat
  reports, roll totals, info pages, etc
• A complex product suite multiple offerings,
  multiple media
• Assessment Notices labour intensive process to
  calculate, print and mail 1.9 million notices to
  property owners in BC

45
Topic Introduction and Background

• Three years of valueBC operation.
• Draft Vision is for more electronic, self-serve,
  on demand
• Transparency to ensure that the property owner
  feels their assessment is fair and equitable
• Keeping in mind that customer satisfaction is
  high for the notice, what improvements can be
  made?
• To the rolls and processing? Extensive product
  suite

46
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Current and Future Direction

• Need to update the format and function of the
  notice
• Extremely complex and labour intensive to produce
• Change will take lots of work
• Could marry tax and assessment info
• Notice could include
• More inventory
• More lot description info
• Photos
• Comparable Sales
• Integrated with phone services and valueBC
  operating system

49
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Gaston County North Carolina Online Info
51
Orange County Florida Online Info
52
Current Changes this year

• Can change the what and the how
• Need to do some streamlining within existing
  format
• Special messages
• Standardize roll number (AJR)
• Standard envelope
• Assess focus group feedback
• Assess existing LG report suite (e.g. DVC)
• Legislative Change
• First Nations

Project Manager Billie Tapp
53
Further out.

• Three year plan
• Taking input from Property Owners visioning
  project and potential TJAC sub-committee, plan
  more definitive changes over 2009 to 2011

Project Manager Billie Tapp
54
Your thoughts?

• A discussion on the Advisory Committees thoughts
  on the proposal
• What do you think?
• What impact and to who?
• Other perspectives, other options?
• Potential participation with Rolls and Notices?
• Other people we should include?
• Timing?

55
Next steps

• Proposed small work group to initiate the project
• Planning phase for 2008
• Implementation in phases 2009- 2011.

56

• THANK YOU!

57
Risk Loss ReportingDoes the current
method/format meet the requirements of Taxing
Jurisdictions?

• Mark Katz,
• Assessor, South Fraser Area
• (For Reuben Danakody, Deputy Assessor, Market
  Properties Appeals, Head Office)

58
Outline

• Overview of risk loss reporting to taxing
  jurisdictions
• A sample of the current reporting format
• Does the current method/format meet the
  requirements of taxing jurisdictions?
• Alternative methods of delivering this
  information to taxing Jurisdictions?

59
Topic Introduction

• Risk Loss Reports
• Risk of loss to actual values for properties that
  have been appealed through PAAB
• Reporting provided to
• Municipalities
• Regional Districts
• Other taxing jurisdictions
• Surveyor of Taxes
• BC Assessment (Finance Department)
• Current reporting method/format (samples on
  following slides)
• Cover letter detailing areas of significant risk
  to the jurisdiction.
• Summary report - reflects the potential loss in
  Actual Value for each property class for each
  outstanding appeal roll year.
• Detailed report (preferred by some taxing
  jurisdictions) - reflect the potential loss in
  Actual Value by folio for each property class
• Reporting frequency
• Bi-annually January and June
• Other times as requested by taxing jurisdictions

60
Sample Risk Loss Cover Letter
61
Sample - Summary Risk Loss Report
Note Some information has been erased to
maintain confidentiality
62
Sample - Detailed Risk Loss Report
Note Some information has been erased to
maintain confidentiality
63
Does The Current Method/Format Meet Your
Requirements?

• In addition to property tax loss contingency
  planning purposes, for what other purposes are
  these reports used?
• Is data relevant / sufficient?
• Is frequency of reporting acceptable?
• Is there better timing for these reports?
• Are other additional information required?
• Should we provide a summary of potential large
  risk items in the Completed Roll totals?
• Suggestions for improvement?

64
Alternative Methods of Delivering This Information

• One option Assessment Link BC (ALBC)?
• Self-service 24-7-365
• Real-time data
• Secure access
• Timing When would you like to have this
  technology?
• Feedback/concerns?
• Other methods of delivery?
• Parties (other than BC Assessment) to be involved
  in concept development ?

65

• THANK YOU!

66
Remote Access to Data pilot projectA
discussion proposed remote access agreement for
building plans with City of Richmond

• Mark Katz,
• Assessor, South Fraser Area

67
Outline

• Introduction
• Current Process for obtaining Plan Information
• The Richmond pilot project
• Benefits
• Your thoughts ( a discussion)

68
Topic Introduction

• In order to produce accurate and timely
  assessments for all its clients BCAs obtains a
  wide variety of information from its Local
  Government Clients
• This includes
• Building Plans
• Building Permits
• Mapping Information
• Zoning
• Developments Permits

69
Topic Introduction

• To recognize efficiencies for BCA and its Local
  Government Clients, BCA would like to
  expand/improve its electronic exchange of
  information
• While the Richmond project is dealing
  specifically with Building Plan information, BCA
  would like to move forward to explore broader
  exchanges of electronic information in all areas.
• Local government information to support creation
  of the Assessment base
• BCA information and reporting to support local
  government

70
Processing Building Plans today?

• BCA sends appraisal staff to City hall to print
  plans
• Plans are retrieved from Richmond's digital plan
  database
• In other Jurisdictions plan information may be
  provided by microfilm copy which is then printed
  by BCA or by retrieving information directly from
  paper plans at City Hall
• Plan Information is input to valueBC to support
  valuations
• Sketch program is used to capture image of
  building for future reference

71
The City of Richmond Pilot Project

• Richmond has developed a web based access system
  to their digital plan database for BC Assessment
• BC Assessment staff used secured access to
  retrieve building plans directly from our office
• Plans can be attached to value BC for
• Preparing values
• Client Inquiry Valuation defence
• Alternate treatment could involve reference in
  valueBC to link to Richmond's Plan database
• Data Access agreement sets out terms of use of
  Plan information (Still being finalized)

72
Benefits- BC Assessment

• More accurate valuation
• Better support for inquiry
• Better support for defence of values at PARP/PAAB
• Better customer service
• More efficient/ Reduces Environmental footprint
• No printing of plans required
• Travel to/from city
• Eliminates need for sketch

73
Benefits City of Richmond

• More accurate valuations
• Eliminates need for City Staff intervention
• Frees up city counter space
• More efficient/ Reduces Environmental footprint
• No printing of plans required
• Many Taxing Jurisdictions are moving away from
  microfilm media and paper plans. This initiative
  supports Local Government and BCA direction in
  this regard.

74
Your thoughts?

• Advisory Committees thoughts on the pilot
  project
• Are we on the right track?
• Any concerns?
• What other areas of data exchange should BCA
  focus on?
• Would others be interested in participating in
  this type of initiative?

75

• THANK YOU!

76
Non Market Change ReportsA discussion- future
report improvements

• Dave Chater,
• Manager, Local Government Services

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Outline

• Topic introduction
• What are we hearing from our customers.
• Some options for consideration.
• Criteria for us to consider
• How important is it for local governments?
• What is the best timing for reports?
• Types of reports?
• How precise do we need to be?
• Your thoughts ( a discussion)
• Next steps.

78
Topic Introduction

• Non Market Change Reports-
• The change in taxable value caused by non market
  stuff.
• Whats included
• Boundary extension
• Property class change
• Exemption status change
• Additions or Deletions
• Inventory Change
• Zoning Change

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The business cycle in the field office
80
NMC Report Distribution

• NMC distributed to customers via Assessment
  LinkBC
• Timing
• dynamic live reports available year round
• Static reports
• October ( Preview roll)
• December ( after roll closure)
• March ( after PARP)

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What we are hearing from customers

• Concern about very volatile NMC numbers from
  October to December.
• Would like more accurate NMC information earlier
  in year.
• Not sure what is included and what not included
  in NMC.
• Specific requests for information
• Calculate property class shifts
• NMC vs. MC comparisons in cubes
• Run NMC for electoral areas ( done)

82
Potential taxing jurisdiction considerations

• How critical is NMC in relation to other
  assessment information?
• What is the best timing for access to more
  accurate information ?
• How precise do we need to be?
• Can this precision number change over time?
• Do we have all of the right inclusion criteria?
• Can we drop any of the criteria (eg. zoning
  changes)?
• Other?

83
Some options

• Option 1 Status Quo- preview rolls as required,
  NMC 100 completion by Roll completion (
  December)
• Option 2 Preview roll as required, NMC
  completed
• Minimum 90 completion by mid November
• NMC 100 by Completed Roll (December)
• Option 3 No preview roll
• NMC 90 complete by mid November
• NMC 100 by Completed Roll ( December)
• Other stuff
• New report types ( MC vs. NMC)
• Internal business process and system enhancements

84
Your thoughts on how to tackle this issue?

• Your thoughts on our suggestions for improvement
• What do you think?
• are we off base?
• Other perspectives?
• If we wanted to tackle, what other people we
  should include?
• Timing?
• What should we tackle first?

85
Next steps

• Based on the discussion
• Proceed as per our thoughts,
• Alternate suggestions,
• Status Quo.

86

• THANK YOU!

87
Other Issues for discussion?

• All Committee

88
Planning for Next Meeting

• Dave Chater

89
Next Meeting

• Timing?
• Location?
• Possible Agenda topics
• 2009-2011 Plan- endorsement and priorization
• Demos ( eg. BC Assessments GIS system and
  integration with local govt. mapping)?
• Other?

90
Wrap Up

• Connie Fair

91
Thank you

• From BC Assessment!