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Voters want to keep electing their county tax assessor By Vickie Aldous Updated: Nov 02, 2021 08:31 PM A A Jackson County Tax Assessor Dave Arrasmith Early results show voters against county charter change A majority of Jackson County voters want to keep electing the county tax assessor rather than making the assessor a hired county staff person, according to early election returns Tuesday night. The early numbers showed 54% of voters, or 18,865 people, voted against changing the county charter. They favored keeping the assessor as an elected official. Meanwhile, 46%, or 16,117, voted in favor of a county charter change that would make the assessor a hired staff person. As a staff person, the tax assessor would have been under the supervision of the county administrator, a staff person who answers to elected Jackson County Commissioners. Years ago, voters rejected a change that would have made the county assessor, clerk and surveyor hired employees rather than elected officials. The issue of whether the assessor should be elected reared its head again after the Jackson County Assessor’s Office made a series of errors in the past few years under the management of Tax Assessor Dave Arrasmith. He was reelected by voters for another four-year term that started in January of this year. The errors affected tens of thousands of property tax accounts, creating massive headaches for county employees who had to fix the mistakes, plus frustration for taxpayers. A review by the county’s audit and human resources department found the tax assessor’s office lacked proper safeguards to prevent errors, and Arrasmith needed to do a better job communicating with his staff. Jackson County Commissioners decided to put the issue of whether the tax assessor should be elected or hired before voters in a November special election. Even if voters had approved the county charter change, Arrasmith would still have been able to serve out the remainder of his current four-year term, unless he resigned or was recalled by voters.