Clarion, IA- An area courtroom is filled as folks protest recent tax assessments.
We told you a week ago about property owners in Wright County. Their tax assessment is skyrocketing by as much as 12 times over last year.
More than 100 people packed the second floor courtroom in Clarion Iowa to ask questions about their taxes. The person responsible for hiking their property values as much as 1,200 percent wasn't there.
The chairman of the Wright County Board of Supervisors started the hearing by reading Wright County Assessor Kathy Waddell’s resignation letter.
"To the honorable Conference Board of Wright County, with much resignation, I hereby submit my resignation as Wright County Assessor, I have served Wright County for almost 35 years in an honorable fashion, the latest conflicts have made me reconsider my life in general," Wright County Supervisor Stan Watne read.
Waddell goes on to say in her letter that she disconnected her home phone and feared going to the grocery store because of constant questioning from the public.
People jostled in the hallways to get within an earshot of the Wright County Conference Board, a group including Supervisors, School Board Leaders, and Mayors, on Wednesday night. They want to know why their property taxes are skyrocketing.
With the county's now former assessor absent, the answer is difficult.
"We're working with Vanguard appraisals right now and the department trying to sort all this out and figure it out because we're just as baffled as you are," said Denise Baker.
Baker was Wright County's deputy assessor, now she has the head job until a new assessor is appointed. Both she and the head of the state property tax division say they're dealing with a first.
"There clearly is a problem here, across the state this year I don't see it happening anywhere else," Iowa Property Tax Division Head Dale Heiman said.
More than 500 people in Wright County filed protests. Most of them are from the city of Goldfield. The county's review board is charged with hearing all of their complaints and in cases like those in Goldfield adjusting the assessment to a fair market value.
Some property owners are taking the outrageous assessment with a grain of salt.
"One of my properties was up 1,233 percent, so I did harvest a couple of morel mushrooms off that property, but it's not worth that much," one man said garnering a big laugh from the crowd.
Now county supervisors are offering an apology.
"What's in the past is in the past, we're turning over a new leaf now, we know we screwed up and we want to make it right," said County Supervisor Myron Amdahl.
The county is now working to replace Kathy Waddell with a new county assessor. They're appointing a three person examining board to search for her replacement. The County’s Supervisors, Mayors, and School Board Leaders will each chose one person to serve on the board.
The deadline to file a protest has passed. The review board only has until the end of the month to hear more than 500 assessment challenges. They're expecting to file for an extension.
Several property owners suggested a freeze on all assessments until county’s issues are solved. Supervisor Stan Watne says the county’s attorney says freezing the rates isn’t legal by Iowa law.
