Anchorage Daily News

Didn't federal agents check Anchorage's real property records before they indicted Ted Stevens?

Real estate values are easily known by looking at the municipality's tax assessments. With thirty years of experience in Alaska mortgage banking and real estate, I've seen residential assessments vary from actual sales by thousands of dollars but never hundreds of thousands, even in unique properties. Some renovations, like a new stove, don't add much value and might not be reflected in the assessment.

So, when I read the federal indictment, I was curious to find the $230,000 VECO allegedly added to the value of Ted's cabin.

Look up 138 Northland Rd on property.muni.org/cics/cwba/gsweb to join the hunt. The Municipality of Anchorage even helpfully provides five comparable sales to prove and document their current assessed value. Assessments, by Alaska statutes, must be at full market value and Mayor Mark Begich has done a good job at making certain that properties are at full value. Municipal tax revenue depends upon it.

According to the municipality, in FY2001, Ted's land and cabin in Girdwood were valued at $142,600. In FY2003, land and cabin were valued at $271,300. Netting out the $5,000 increase in land value, the building's value went up $123,700.

The municipality issued construction permits documenting the addition of a new first floor at 1,139 square foot, a 440-square-foot garage and a 364-square-foot deck. Inspectors had to check the improvements upon completion.

Stevens has stated that he wrote checks for $130,000 to the contractor. It appears that Stevens paid the contractor $130,000 for what the municipality valued at $123,700.

If you were the homeowner and paid what professional assessors documented as the full increase in value, would you think you were square? I would.

If VECO put $230,000 into the property, in addition to the preconstruction value of $142,600 and Stevens' $130,000, wouldn't the value be $502,600 instead of the assessment of $271,300? An extra quarter million dollars would be like trying to hide an elephant in a caribou herd. They do kind of stand out.

In real estate, value equates to square footage and not much else. Did Bill Allen secretly lay the bathroom floor in diamond and ruby encrusted gold bullion?

The feds should have visited the assessor's office instead of photographing Stevens' bathroom. Their investigation would have lasted a day, not a year.

Ted Stevens was a federal prosecutor prior to his long public service to Alaskans. The odds of Ted knowingly violating criminal law are slim and none. Federal attorneys have been manipulated into a partisan political attack on Stevens. Shows you why you just can't trust those Washington boys.

Alaskans, rich carpetbaggers from Florida aside, know Ted Stevens' honor and should not buy this terrorist attack. Mayor Begich should put campaign politics aside and at Ted's trial, swear to the integrity of his administration's assessment of Ted's cabin in Girdwood.

At trial, Ted Stevens will be exonerated just as the municipality's true valuation of his cabin demonstrates.

Jim Crawford is an Anchorage real estate broker, mortgage banker and former chair of the Alaska Republican Party. He can be reached at C21jcrawford@aol.com.

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