Tax assessor asking for help for property reappraisals

VICKSBURG — Warren County Tax Assessor Angela Brown wants to bring in some outside help to work on property reappraisal.

The Vicksburg Post reports Brown, who was elected in November, told supervisors that she needed the help to reappraise a quarter of Warren County’s real property the next four years.

Brown asked supervisors to hire Louisville-based appraiser Wes Kight and Associates, LLC to do state-mandated land roll updates for $135,000 a year through fiscal 2015.

She also proposed hiring Florence-based Statewide Appraisal Services Inc. to review the personal property roll. That contract would be worth $64,000 over two years.

Supervisors have not acted on the requests.

By law, 25 percent of a county’s parcels must be reappraised to achieve an updated roll in four years. Last year’s review took place mainly in central Vicksburg.

Property appraisals are contracted out by 53 of the state’s 82 counties, according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue.

Brown hired three employees last week to coordinate homestead filings and process property appraisal figures after all office staff except for Brown retired, quit or were fired since her Nov. 8 election.

A third proposal before the board is to reimburse Humphreys County Tax Assessor Margaret Parks and three others from her office $1,600 for tutoring Brown’s first three new employees.

Appraising real property is contracted out by 53 of the state’s 82 counties, according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue.