SANDPOINT — First District Court Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer took under advisement arguments that Bonner County is unfairly hiking taxes on purchasers of Priest Lake lease lots formerly owned by the Idaho Department of Lands.

Meyer took in two days of testimony on Oct. 9-10 in Sandpoint. A written ruling in the case is pending.

Nearly 30 landowners who purchased their waterfront lots at auction by IDL argued the county ascribed large land values to their property which did not reflect fair market value because different methods were used to assess waterfront frontage than other lake properties, which created inequities in how lake properties are taxed.

The plaintiffs, who were represented by attorneys Ford and Katie Elsaesser during the two-day bench trial, contended that IDL appraisers used meandering lines rather than survey pin-to-survey pin calculations used to assess other lots on Priest Lake.

“Most of the data in the marketplace is pin-to-pin,” the plaintiff’s expert appraiser, Ed Morse, said during the trial.

The plaintiffs further argued that the county did not utilize comparable sales data to arrive at its valuations for the former lease lots. Assessed value increases averaged 48 percent and as high as 77 percent, according to court documents.

The county, represented by Special Prosecutor Patrick Braden, argued that auction prices did not accurately reflect market value as evidenced by the number of properties that were purchased at public auction and flipped for considerably higher prices on the private market. A Cavanaugh Bay parcel, for instance sold at auction for $625,000, was assessed at $1.3 million and sold for $1.6 million.

The defense’s expert witness, appraiser Bonnie Berscheid, said the sales data served as credible proof that the properties weren’t being over-assessed.

“We’re confident we’re not over-assessing that property by any means,” Berscheid testified.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.