After pledging to lower property tax valuations for protesting Nebraska homeowners during her successful campaign for Douglas County Register of Deeds/Assessor, Diane Battiato is earning kudos from her constituents for making good on her promises — but some are questioning why the largest beneficiary of her work is one of her campaign donors.
Battiato defeated incumbent Roger F. Morrissey, who held the office since 1994, last November. During the election campaign, Battiato accused Morrissey of engaging in a pattern of unfair property valuations that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and pledged to investigate Morrissey’s valuation methods.
One county resident who was affected by Morrissey’s valuations was Thomas Hilt, who battled with Morrissey’s office for years and protested the valuations on seven different parcels he owned. When Battiato announced she would run against Morrissey, Hilt donated $9,500 to her election campaign, which comprised about 13 percent of her total campaign contributions.
After Battiato took office, Hilt’s private home in Omaha, which had been valued at nearly $2.7 million for years, was dropped to $1.4 million — representing the largest reduction made by Battiato’s office. With Hilt’s property taxes dropping from $58,000 to about $30,000, he more than recouped his campaign donation, an article on Omaha.com noted.
But many other property owners benefited from Battiato’s office hearing their protests, the news service added. About half of the 784 property owners who argued for lower valuations were successful after meeting with Battiato or one of the appraisers in her office, and she shaved more than $100 million in taxable value off 359 properties this year.
Hilt said he met with one of the office’s appraisers and denied receiving any favoritism from Battiato. The subject of his campaign donation never came up, he said.
Douglas County’s register of deeds and assessor’s offices merged in 2012 after a public vote. The assessor’s office establishes property values for tax purposes, while the register of deeds office records land titles, mortgages and other documents.
Battiato was elected to the deeds office in 2004 and campaigned on her track record of reducing the backlog of unprocessed title documents, investing in new technology and balancing a modest budget while absorbing pay contract increases.