Assessor To Get More Help

Wed., June 26, 1996

From Staff And Wire Reports

The Spokane County assessor will get four additional workers to help dig her department out from under a mountain of paperwork.

The new staff members will do nothing but work on segregations, as subdivisions and other land divisions are called.

About 3,000 segregations - some dating to 1989 - await processing, and the number grows every year, a consultant told county commissioners and Assessor Charlene Cooney earlier this month.

Until the documents are filed, the owners of those parcels are being undercharged - or in some cases, overcharged - property taxes.

Catching up would take four workers 27 months if they work faster than anyone in the assessor’s office has done in the past, consultant Rich Baird estimated.

Commissioners agreed Tuesday to hire the help, but only for a year. Their contracts won’t be extended if the pile of paper hasn’t shrunk dramatically, said Commissioner Phil Harris.

The positions will cost the county $50,600 this year, and more than $100,000 a year in 1997 and 1998, if the contracts are renewed.

, DataTimes

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