Miller contends he can better handle technical details

By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News

Steve Miller exudes the cool confidence of a candidate in command of his facts and a polished campaign to return him to the office term limits forced him from four years ago.

Miller references a detailed collection of charts and spreadsheets readily at hand on his laptop computer. He does not rise in reaction to incumbent opponent Larry Johnson's insistence that Miller is to blame for making a mess of the assessor's office that Johnson is just beginning to clean up.

Miller instead points to the statistics and calmly counters that he left the office in good shape and on good terms after more than 14 years as assessor. During that time, Miller said, he brought the office into the modern technological era that made it a model envied by other counties.

Neither does Miller accept Johnson's focus on the number of property assessment protests as the dominant issue in the campaign.

"Everybody likes to talk about the protest numbers, but that's not the important number," he said.

The important number, according to Miller, is the total number of property value appeals including tax abatements-another more protracted process giving property owners up to 32 months to challenge their biennial reassessments rather than the rigid one-month period permitted in the protest process.

Larimer County led the state in protests with 9,769 in 1999, 13,422 in 2001 and 17,275 in 2003. But when combined with tax abatement filings, Miller contends that Larimer "led the league" only in 2003 when Johnson was effectively in charge after winning the Republican primary and facing no opposition in the general election. In contrast, Miller noted, the county posted the second-highest total number of appeals in 2001, was in "the middle of the pack" in 1995 and 1999, and low in 1997 during his tenure.

Beyond the numbers, Miller insists the real issue in the assessor's race is Johnson's lack of competence that has led to a loss of confidence in the office. As evidence, he points to Johnson's failure to test the computer assessment model prior to the controversial 2003 reassessment and subsequently spending $156,000 hiring a consultant to develop and implement the model for the 2005 reassessment. Modeling is not "rocket science," according to Miller, who said he already has that capability as well as others on the assessor's staff.

"Larry is wasting money," Miller said. "The contractor is only part of it. He's been paying these guys hundred of thousands of dollars to do things he ought to do. The assessor is not a [chief executive officer], it's a technical position."

Miller is even harsher in criticizing Johnson for what he contends is his lack of accountability. When a citizens' group organized to protest the 2005 reassessment process, Johnson did not bother to attend their meetings, Miller noted.

"That's not what an elected official does," he said. "You simply can't do that. You are accountable to the people."

Miller, 55, was raised in Colorado Springs. He earned an undergraduate degree in English from Denver University and graduate degrees in accounting from Colorado State University, and he served as a Navy flight officer. Miller has been a certified public accountant since 1984. He was temporarily appointed assessor in 1984 and again in 1989 to complete the remaining term of deceased assessor Ken Krinhop. Miller was elected to a full term that year and served until being term-limited. He returned to his CPA practice after losing the Republican primary to seek the treasurer's seat in 2002.