Jul 25, 2002 4 min read

Fayette County’s chief assessor Jim Hercik offers the best perspective for property owners deciding whether the new value they recently received in the mail should be accepted or appealed. Hercik said the answer to just one question should settle the matter: “Could I sell my property for that amount?”

If yes, then accept it and forget it. If no, then file an appeal.

Property owners, despite movements to stir up a debate on high taxes, must be clear that the only thing under consideration in judging the fairness of the county’s reassessment effort is whether their homes, farms, businesses are assigned a fair price that an able, willing buyer would offer today. That is the sole issue.

Without a doubt there are errors. No system, regardless of how well it is designed, would be able to assign market values to all 78,000 parcels in Fayette without flaws.

The county set up an informal process in an attempt to correct mistakes but some people still won’t be satisfied with those results or they failed to take advantage of that opportunity. Again, that is to be expected.

The county expects that as many as 3,000 property owners will appeal and has made provisions by appointing additional appeals boards to handle the flow.

So far, the commissioners have done everything right in explaining the process and hosting meetings so the public has more than enough information to decide on the fairness of the appeals process. Despite some opposition, the commissioners insisted that every bit of information be posted on a Web site so that anyone can easily scour the records, check their neighbors’ properties for comparison and recent sales to determine accuracy.

With all this in mind, it is difficult to understand where state Rep. Larry Roberts is coming from. Roberts claims that his office is deluged with calls from irate taxpayers who don’t understand the appeal process and who are failing to get information from the county.

We would give Roberts’ posturing more credibility if we had witnessed similar activity, but frankly we have been quite surprised by the silence since the first preliminary numbers were mailed in the spring. We had expected to hear from a number of alarmed readers calling in or writing Letters to the Editor. This just didn’t happen.

Nor have crowds swarmed commissioners meetings demanding answers. This we attribute to the fact that the county has provided answers in advance and has armed property owners with the necessary tools to challenge legitimate unfair values.

Roberts claims the commissioners are shoving the reassessment down the throats of people and that he would have set up a booth to help people with appeals. There isn’t anything difficult about filing an appeal. A name, address and phone number listed on a form will do.

We would hope that Roberts sincerely is concerned about the county having the fairest system possible and isn’t attempting to sabotage the process. Roberts some years ago through his own assessment appeal pointed out inequities in the current system, and he has filed litigation against Hercik that points out further deficiencies. So he, of all people, should want to do as much as possible to make sure this reassessment goes through.

Roberts thinks that he might need to host a workshop and bring in experts to help people with the appeals process. If all he wants to do is help walk people through what they might find an intimidating process, then fine. But, if that’s the case, why not enter into a joint venture with the county in hosting this workshop as the county has demonstrated a willingness to assist property owners.

This has not been a contentious process. We would hope Roberts does not turn it into one.