The MLB Giants are asking the city of S.F. "for millions of dollars in property tax refunds, claiming that the value of AT&T Park has dropped well below" the $200M that the team "paid to build it 16 years ago," according to Matier & Ross of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The Giants in an appeal filed with the city have "asked that their property-tax bill be slashed in half" for the years '11-14, which would come to a reduction of about $8M total. The Giants will "have to make their case" to the S.F. Assessment Appeals Board, the "quasi-judicial panel charged with settling such disputes." The two sides "aren’t exactly close." City Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu set the '14 value of AT&T Park at almost $407M, while the Giants "peg it at more like" $158M and change. In addition to property taxes, the Giants "pay the city" more than $10M a year "in payroll, parking and other taxes and in lease payments." This "isn’t the first time the team has knocked heads with the city over its property taxes." The same issue "popped up more than a decade ago, when the Giants sought millions of dollars in refunds" for '01-03. The Assessment Appeals Board "eventually ruled that the ballpark’s correct value" was about $230M and awarded the Giants $3.6M in refunds (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/29).
