Letter to the Editor

File protests

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

A few days ago I received a notice of valuation change from the Red Willow County Assessor. Needless to say, I was less than overjoyed to find that there was an increase of $7,874 for 2004. There have been no additions to this property. Valuation change from 2000 to 2003 was $5,437.

Valuation change from 1997 to 2000 was $13,220.

Valuation change 1997 was $3,195.

Valuation change from 1996 was $1,125.

The only improvements to this property was air conditioning.

This is excessive, and we the taxpayers cannot afford any more taxes. Don't be fooled; this does result in higher taxes. We need answers to the following questions:

What are the qualifications of the persons doing the assessment?

What type of formal training is required?

What formula is used to reach the dollar amount?

We are being overtaxed and not being well served by our politicians. We cannot afford any more taxes. If we continue this way, we will lose more people from this area. Loss of people means loss of our tax base.

We need a tough aggressive leader to get us out of this mess.

We cannot tax our way out of the water problem and other misguided monetary ventures.

The cure to these problems is to control spending -- no unnecessary purchases -- freeze payroll -- no increases in services -- take a common-sense approach to future water supply.

How to get it done: We need a tough aggressive leader who is capable of putting a team together that can work together.

Someone who will listen to others and is not afraid to make a decision that may be unpopular. If we can get this done over the next two years, we should be OK.

Now, to the increase in tax valuation, pick up a "protest form" at the County Clerk's office. Read the instructions. Complete by filling in the form and return it to them by the end of the month.

If you do not file a protest, they will assume that you agree with their assessment and you will be taxed at that value.

We may be able to stop this if a large number of property owners protest these increases.