Editor, Gazette-Journal:
Webster defines assessment as “A valuation of property or profits of business, for the purpose of taxation. An assessment is a valuation made by authorized persons according to their discretion, as opposed to a sum certain or determined by law. It may be a direct charge of the tax to be paid; or a valuation of the property of those who are to pay the tax, for the purpose of fixing the proportion which each man shall pay; on which valuation the law imposes a specific sum upon a given amount.”
The assessment time has come upon us by surprise, a mass appraisal a surprise to the populace since it covers a wide range of properties outside of their district. Unlike the cookie cutter subdivisions or those dwellings built by a contractor using the same pattern scattered over the county, the homeowner was given a financial surprise this time around.
The assessment has many factors built into the final product unknown to the average taxpayer. The state Department of Taxa...