Assessors Elect Chairman and Secretary for 2012 Digest Year

The Board of Tax Assessors elected its chairman and secretary for the 2012 Digest Year this week at its January 9th meeting. The Board unanimously re-elected Joe Fore as Board Chairman and Stephanie Gooch as Board Secretary. The move was one of the proverbial bells ringing in the New Year. As such, Roy Dobbs gave a brief overview and the tasks ahead of the Board as the year begins.

In addition to its commitment to working through property tax appeals—the County is down to 614 from approximately 1100—Dobbs said that the Board is working on sending over the pre-bill digest information to the Tax Commissioner. He also said at this time of year, the Board sends out “letters to the expired conservation use covenant holders” as reminders and return forms to personal property accounts. Following Dobbs overview, the members signed off on the Tax Dispositions and 30-Day assessment notice list.

During the reading of the minutes from the last meeting, Gooch reiterated that “Norman Pope and Phillip Landrum called for permission to pursue an intergovernmental agreement with the Assessors office to look at the viability of sharing information.” On December 2nd, Commissioner Robert Jones’s office and The Board of Tax Assessors met to discuss the matter of developing a means of data sharing between the two offices, particularly in the way of software accessibility. FYN previously reported that the software accessibility came about following an incident when the Chief Tax Assessor went into the computer system and changed the land use classification in the field without notifying homeowners. When FYN asked what the status is of the arrangement, Dobbs said that the two offices are still working on the issue.