Opinion ID: 2585327
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A deferential standard of review is appropriate.

Text: Golden Heart argues that because the legislature prescribes the method of valuation, applying a deferential standard of review to the valuation method chosen by the Board of Equalization is inappropriate. We disagree. The Alaska Constitution empowered the legislature to prescribe valuation standards. [15] The legislature chose to define those standards broadly, requiring that property be assessed at its full and true value. [16] Accordingly, the precise method for determining the full and true value of property is within the assessor's discretion. We recognized that discretion when we applied the reasonable basis standard of review in North Star Alaska Housing [17] and again in Cool Homes, Inc. v. Fairbanks North Star Borough. [18] Although Golden Heart correctly points out that some of the authority cited in North Star Alaska Housing is based on the pre-statehood tax scheme, that fact does not diminish the precedential value of our prior application of the deferential standard in light of the legislature's broad direction that property be assessed at its full and true value. [19]