JONESBORO, Ark. – A letter regarding assessments sent out to Jonesboro residents and others included phone numbers that are probably not the ones you want to call, if you need help.
That’s according to Craighead County Clerk Kade Holliday, who said last week, there was a letter sent out concerning personal property assessments with the number placed on those letters for the County Clerks office dealing with the Equalization Board. Problem was, it did not included the number for the Assessors Office to speak with them about the letters.
The county clerk said that’s led to a lot of folks calling the wrong office and having to go through the frustrating process of finding the right number.
If you would like to speak with them directly please contact them at 870-933-4570
“If they have questions about the letter, they need to call the Craighead County Assessor so that it can be explained, Holliday said. “They will also book Equalization Board appointments over there. If they just want to call and book and appointment with EQ Board, they can call us – but we have not had anyone who just wanted to book one. Mostly, everyone wants to understand why the values changed.”
Those calls are for Assessor Hannah Towell’s office.
“The phone number provided on the notice is the EQ Board number for taxpayers who want to make an appointment to appeal their value – just like the Real Estate Value notices,” Towell said. “If someone has a question about the value or wants to discuss it with us before making an appointment, the Assessor’s Office is 870-933-4570 and -4572.”
Fortunately, most of the values aren’t seeing major changes. Otherwise, property taxes might be a nightmare for some who own expensive property like you’d find at Precondo.
As far as the value changes themselves, even Towell was affected by the change.
“We were notified by the Assessment Coordination Dept in August that corrected car and truck values were being pushed out to all counties in Arkansas because the original values they provided to us were incorrect,” Towell said. “Unfortunately this affected nearly 39,000 taxpayer accounts in Craighead County (including my own). I want to clarify that this change does not affect the tax bill that is currently due to the Collector. This is the 2019 assessment that is payable in 2020. However the deadline to appeal these values is this week on September 20th.
“I am so sorry that this has happened. I’ll be honest: When I was informed of the change, I was very frustrated for our taxpayers particularly because of the timing. The EQ deadline was fast-approaching, but I am so grateful for our Board. They agreed to extend the deadline for these taxpayers so they can have a chance to make an appeal if they so choose.”
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