CLARKSON VALLEY, Mo. — Lewis Douglas flips through one of the stacks of paperwork on his kitchen table point out every document he's compiled: "emails, letters to Zimmerman, and here's a copy of the Missouri statute."
All of them have been collected in his fight for a lower home assessment value.
"You can ask my wife, I get angry when I think about this, and I have to do this every two years," Douglas said of the appeal process.
Douglas has appealed the property assessment three times since he bought his home in 2000.
This year's evaluation put his property around $667,000, about $100k higher than he expected.
Douglas hired a licensed appraiser who took a long look inside the home, pointing out all the issues that would need to be repaired before the next evaluation.
"This is something I'm going to have to have fixed," Douglas said pointing to a stone retaining wall along the edge of the property.
Douglas took that information to an informal meeting with the county, asking for an evaluation closer to $540,000, but his first attempt to lower his assessment failed.
Like so many other people, Douglas will now need to go to the appeal board.
"It doesn't surprise me," Douglas said of the outrage over higher assessment values. "It really doesn't surprise me that this is happening. I guess it should make me feel better [that there are others], but it really doesn't because I know how frustrating it is for everybody involved."
Assessor Jake Zimmerman said about 5,000 property owners have already filed appeals, and he expects that number to rise as the county's July 8 deadline draws closer.
"The person who knows your home the best is you," Zimmerman said.
One of Zimmerman's appeal-board members, Keith Kramer, quit the position this week, citing high caseload caused by faulty computer programs that incorrectly pushed property values higher.
Zimmerman disputes there is anything wrong with the computer models they use, saying instead the state's laws were designed for smaller populations than the one he serves.
"I don't want anybody crying any tears for the bureaucrats of St. Louis County," Zimmerman said. 'We have extra work to do. No question about it. I get that he didn't want to work 60 or 80 hours a week. I don't blame him. I don't either, neither do lots of people on our staff, but you know what. We have a job to do."
Douglas is scheduled for his appearance July 25th, and he'll be there with his piles of paperwork in hand.
"And you have to do this every two years," Douglas. "It's crazy."
Missouri state law requires appeals to be heard in an eight-week timeframe every year.
The deadline to file an appeal is July 8.
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