To the editor:

This is in reference to the Aug. 18 article on the Journal-World business page titled “System regulating real-estate appraisers ‘completely broken.'” The article pointed out that many times private real-estate appraisers are pressured into inflating house values. Reviewing my property tax valuation for the seven years I have lived at my current address, it would appear that our county appraisers feel this same pressure from somewhere – county administration, city commission, building contractors or the real-estate sales companies, who knows?

My 2002-03 value was up $3,700; 2003-04 was up $9,700. I protested partly because my house description included a fireplace I did not have. The 2004-05 value stayed at the 2003 level. In 2006, it jumped up $13,400, more than making up for the two-year reduction. Never mind the fact that since the house was constructed in 1998, it already had been overvalued for four years – for a fireplace that was not there.

In 2007, there was another $5,760 rise in value; 2008 was $680. This is an awful lot of variation in just a few years for a system that is supposed to be equal and fair.

Bruce Muzzy,
Lawrence