The unexpected death of former Cowley County Appraiser Greg Kent in January created a multitude of obstacles for county officials charged with meeting state deadlines for mailing out property valuations.
“We made the deadline,” said newly appointed appraiser Theresa Waite Monday. “We’ve had such support from other counties, and continue to have.”
A 30-day extension helped the department get the 20,550 valuations in the mail. The 3,900 personal property valuations were to be mailed Monday. The last of the notices of the appeals are still being sent out. Oil and gas valuations are expected to be in the mail May 18th.
“That’s mainly the deadlines for now. And then it rolls over to the next office” which plays a key role in determining the amount of the property owner’s tax bill.
Waite has been on the reappraisal staff since 1987, and has been serving as interim appraiser. She was one of only two candidates for the appraiser position and had the most experience, according to Cowley County Commissioner Carmelita Clarkson.
Kent was the only employee qualified to appraise commercial property. His death left the department without anyone to do commercial valuations.
“I was working on residential. The other field people were working on residential, trying to get it done,” Waite said.”We had to get it all done and in the mail by March 30.”
For this year’s commercial valuation, the county commission in February hired McCully and Associates at an estimated cost of $15,000. The county contracted with the Kansas Department of Revenue to help manage the department until Kent’s replacement could be found.
Waite said she’ll take some time now to do some long range planning before starting the annual review. A key decision will be whether to hire a commercial appraiser or contract the work out.
“We’ll have to see who is out there who has the qualifications and figure out the best way to approach it and move on,” Waite said. “There are so many things coming into play the next couple of years just with the appraiser’s office, like new computer software.”
State law requires property be reviewed every six years. Within a six-year period, the entire county will have been covered at least once, according to Waite. Field people will be out and about before long, she said.
Waite supervises a staff of 11 and a budget of approximately $550,000.
The second half of taxes for the previous year is due May 10. The deadline for filing personal property valuation appeals is May 15.
