Warren County valued each new parking space at Ameristar at $37,000 — or $37 million for a new parking garage overall. That was just one objection heard during a tax protest hearing Wednesday for the largest casino company in Vicksburg and for the newest, Riverwalk.

Warren County supervisors make a decision Friday whether to uphold or modify the valuations. The casino companies can take an adverse ruling to court.

Both objections came after a July 31 deadline to file written grievances to land values, used to determine property taxes.

Values set on Riverwalk Casino are set “extremely high,” said Chris Rollins of Ridgeland-based Property Tax Associates, appearing on the firm’s behalf along with attorney David Sessums. The session resembled a court case at times, as Rollins answered Sessums’ questions on how closely state Tax Commission guidelines were followed.

Ameristar opened in 1994 and completed major additions and renovations, including the parking garage, in 2008. Riverwalk opened 11 months ago. “The bottom line is, for equity purposes, a building whether it’s a casino or a downtown building, must be worked up according to the state’s guidelines,” Rollins said, referring to construction cost variables higher in Warren County than in other gaming-legal counties that use baseline state Tax Commission formulas.

Later, Deputy Tax Assessor Jim Agent said those variables, or “indexes” in tax parlance, are “complicated,” but are based on costs at the time a property was built and how many construction units are involved. Tax Assessor Richard Holland said differences exist to achieve the highest value.

Riverwalk’s real and personal property, including the casino itself and the hotel, were valued by the county at about $21 million, Rollins said. The company is pushing for a value closer to $18 million.

Ameristar argued the now-unused cofferdam, in which the main casino structure floated before it was raised in 2007, should come off the rolls entirely and its 1,000-car parking garage needs to be revalued.

“No one will pay more for a parking space than what it’s worth to park the car on a given day,” said attorney Jerome Hafter, representing Ameristar along with Dominic Bardos, Ameristar’s vice president of finance and Bob Herman of investment management firm Duff & Phelps.

Hafter said the garage is “vastly overassessed.” Ameristar argued for a reduction in value for the casino, parking garage, and concrete-covered former floating area to somewhere between $66.5 million and $82.7 million from the current $119 million assessed for this year’s tax bills.

Taxes paid by Riverwalk on its casino and adjacent property equaled $90,126.51 this year. This year’s real and personal property tax bill totaled $749,828.70 for Ameristar.

Overall, property rolls grew by 5.9 percent this year, to $3,343,404,905, due largely to new commercial development including the new casino and three hotels that were completed in 2008. A fourth of all parcels are revalued in Warren County each year, often resulting in higher assessments.

In addition to property taxes, casinos pay taxes on gaming revenue totalling 12 percent and collect state and local sales, tourism and bed taxes. Vicksburg also collects a devices fee of $150 per gaming position. Casinos are exempt from the state corporate income tax.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com