assessor

Because most properties sell infrequently, their value in any given tax cycle must be estimated, a job that falls to the office of the local assessor.

The assessor assigns the homes an identical value, which turns out to be higher than the price the poorly maintained home could bring on the market, and lower than the true market value of the improved home.

The accuracy and fairness of the property tax depends fundamentally on the accuracy and fairness of the valuations estimated by assessors.

“Generally speaking, assessors are not allowed to enter homes to do inspections, nor do many have the labor power to do so,” Berry said via email.

In booming markets, those caps may result in assessors undervaluing homes, particularly at the high end of the market, where prices often rise most rapidly.

“There is a conceptual leap that the first assessor used,” Feldman said.

He served as county assessor of Walla Walla county before it was divided, occupying that position for three or four years.

Politically Mr. Sanford is a staunch democrat and for two years he acceptably served as assessor of Columbia county.

Mr. Cornwell is a republican in politics and served for several years as deputy assessor.

In the same case, his learned assessor, Justice Wilmot, felt the same sentiments.

The work was so complete and painstaking that it led to his being appointed to the position of "Assessor of Mines" at Berlin.