We hope that the current and future Warren County commissioners have been taking notes as the county’s property reassessment process drags on.

Making the decision to finally undertake a property reassessment was necessary and correct. But postponing the decision for decades has created so much uncertainty among Warren County property owners that the process is far more difficult for taxpayers than it should be. No one is familiar with a process that should be at the very root of governance – making sure properties are assessed fairly so that taxpayers are paying a fair amount of taxes for the public services they use.

Commissioners have spent the past few months preaching patience to county residents, doing their best to walk them through the process and asking county residents to keep an open mind as they receive partial information about future assessments and, more importantly, future tax bills that naturally lead taxpayers to question the entire process.

This is what happens when reassessments aren’t done regularly. Property valuation adjustments, if done regularly, are fairly simple calculations. But when you go more than 35 years without a property reassessment, the process becomes infinitely more complex.

County commissioners find themselves in an uncomfortable position. Bringing property values into the 21st century has long been needed. Making sure all property owners are paying their fair share of county, school and municipal taxes has long been needed. But the process is foreign to taxpayers. And, because assessments are so far out of date the partial information they’re receiving seems to run counter to what commissioners are saying about the reassessment being neutral when it comes to tax revenue. Having been through this process a time or two, we know the county’s millage will go down once the process ends. It’s hard to expect the same level of faith from taxpayers who have owned property for three decades and never been through a reassessment.

Our advice is that anyone who thinks they may want to run for office in Warren County take copious notes now. Remember the pain in the tuckus that waiting 35 years to do a property reassessment is for both those in office and for those who own homes and businesses in Warren County – and don’t allow ourselves to end up in this place again.