A county resident is asking the Warren County Commissioners to help her get the information she needs to challenge her proposed property reassessment.

The woman, who didn’t give her name during Wednesday’s county commissioners meeting, said she is having trouble finding information about properties that were compared to hers when coming up with the new assessment on her home.

“I should be home picking blueberries, but this is more important,” the woman said.

The woman said she’s gone through information available online but can’t find homes similar to hers both in the type of home and square footage. The woman said she’s willing to do her own research, but needs access to the comparable properties used by Vision Government Solutions that formed the basis of the property’s new assessed value. Commissioner Ken Klakamp said the county would reach out to help the woman get the information she needs.

“I’m formally asking for assistance to get the information that I need,” the woman said. “If I can’t do that they can just send me, I don’t want to see their whole database. That’s not what I’m after. I’m after what they used to compare my property.”

Formal assessment challenges will begin soon and last through sometime in October. New property values are expected to be certified around Nov. 15. Commissioners also agreed to hire the law firm of Sammartino, Stout and LoPresti to provide additional support to the county in analyzing assessment appeals.

Vision Government Solutions officials have said residential buildings’ new assessments began with a review of recent county sales transactions, consultations with local builders, consultations with local realtors, an examination of transactions where new properties were built and sold as well as the use of nationally recognized building cost manuals.From that beginning square foot price, the consultant looked at physical characteristics of a building to determine an adjusted cost per square foot. Then, the consultant factored in building depreciation before arriving at a building value. Land valuation was based on land units and factored in the unit price, land condition adjustment and location adjustment.

“The thing that occurred to me is now with this assessment, everyone assumed your assessment is going to go up,” the woman said. “That’s a reasonable expectation. What we didn’t expect was the amount was going to be 100% percent and not 50%. That wasn’t anticipated at all.”

County officials and Vision Government Services officials have been quick to say that the reassessment itself won’t increase county revenues. That amount is controlled by the county commissioners when they pass the county budget each year. But the woman who spoke Wednesday said it’s only natural to expect county spending to increase when it has more potential tax revenue at its disposal once the reassessment is complete.

“My big complaint about this is I’m closer to the end of my life than the beginning, obviously, and when my kids inherit the property they’re not going to sell if for what it’s been assessed at,” she said. “I can prove what I’m talking about. In the meantime I’m going to be stuck paying again, paying for my sweat equity and everything else that went into that. I want to know when is it ever going to end? It’s like every year we have to feed the government hog and he never gets full. So I’m objecting to the triple dipping that’s going on with this, but I respectfully request I get some help getting the info I need regarding what my property is compared to.”