Sometimes the Dog has to shake her little head and just revel in the abject stupidity that is the Jackson County, Missouri Assessment Department.
Last week, the county “found” roughly 8,600 unread emails in a mailbox connected to the county’s Board of Equalization.
If you filed an informal review of your 2019 Property Tax Assessment and never received a response from the county, your review is probably one of those 8,600 unprocessed and unanswered emails.
The “discovery” comes on the heels of a second lawsuit being filed against the county alleging that over 100,000 parcels had their property tax increased by 15 percent or better without the proper physical inspection.
As we’ve pointed out in previous and expertly researched editorials, the lion’s share of those egregious tax assessments lie in some of the county’s poorest zip codes.
This Newsdog’s late father had a saying for situations like this: “Aggressive stupidity is when a person has to work extremely hard to be that dumb” and that certainly seems to fit in this case.
How convenient.
After every single appeal and informal review deadline has passed, county officials “discover” an email box with 8,600 unread emails in it.
A press release sent from the county just before Christmas notes that additional Assessment Department staff will be assigned to review and process the backlog of emails and promises any properly filed appeals will be accepted and processed accordingly.
This sounds dubious at best to this news pooch given the callous attitude displayed by the county’s Director of Assessment, Gail McCann Beatty, who proclaimed with a wave of her royal scepter if citizens were unable to pay their taxes they should get a loan or move out of their homes.
Beatty continues to stand by the wildly inaccurate valuations, denying any semblance of a problem exists despite overwhelming factual evidence to the contrary.
Keep in mind the Captain of the Titanic thought his boat was unsinkable and we all know how that turned out.
Here’s the bottom line from this overtaxed and under-represented news hound: Frank White and Beatty should tender their resignations and leave the courthouse immediately.
The Dog would also suggest whoever was in charge of originally answering those 8,600 emails also be frog-walked out of the building, given the gross ineptitude they’ve shown in properly carrying out their job duties.
Lastly, in the interest of fairness and good will, the entire 2019 Property Tax Assessment needs to be thrown out and every parcel in the county should revert back to its 2018 valuation.
If this were a matter in the private sector, heads would have rolled a long time ago. It’s not the private sector and heads, sadly didn’t roll as they should have and fairness and good will are two completely foreign concepts to the bureaucrats at the courthouse.
The Dog thinks there’s a revolution comin’.
Cue the pitchforks and torches.