The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "County Assessor" ...
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Depreciating Values
Our seven month investigation revealed how a long time property assessor manipulated property values for a handful of wealthy citizens and political supporters, so they would pay less in property taxes. We also showed how some large apartment complexes disappeared from the county tax rolls. Now the state is seeking to collect back taxes from nearly 200 property owners going back three years and the FBI and IRS are investigating.
Tags: property taxes; tax rolls; property
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Investigating Adams County corruption
Elected and appointed officials in Adams County, northeast of Denver, misused millions of tax dollars, benefiting from campaign contributors, their relatives and themselves. The elected assessor slashed millions of dollars from the taxable values of warehouses owned by his leading contributor then personally kept their taxable values unchanged through his first two terms of office.
Tags: corruption; tax; campaign; officials; Denver
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A Taxing Matter
The Skagit Co. Assessor's Office did not finish adding new construction to its tax rolls, meaning dozens of local districts did not receive at least $350,000 in tax revenue needed to help fund programs and services.
Tags: County Assessor; Tax Revenue
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"Washam's Law"
In this investigative report, reporter Sean Robinson took a hard look at the personal and political life of Dale Washam, elected to Pierce Country Assessor-Treasurer to the "surprise" of many in 2008. Serving as Pierce Country Assessor-Treasurer for two years, Washam has been called a "gadfly" and a "busybody." This series of stories "exposed Washam as a fraud" who was only interested in his own "crusade."
Tags: Pierce County; Dale Washam; Ken Madsen; gadfly
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In no time, valuations are reduced: Douglas County Board members, alone or in pairs, cut almost $60 million from tax rolls this summer in unreviewed decisions
"A World-Herald analysis shows that the seven Douglas County board members, working alone or in pairs, cut almost $60 million from county tax rolls in cases that the full board rubber-stamped -- but never reviewed. Individual board members made decisions on the spot, often with little evidence or little time to examine property owners' claims. Most property owners obtained at least some reduction. In one noteworthy example, a lone commissioner cut nearly $11 million from the valuations of a campaign contributor who owns numerous apartments and office buildings -- reductions that were opposed by the county assessor's office and not supported by the board's own professional advisor. Some of his decisions took as little as one minute, and the whole process lasted less than an hour."
Tags: property taxes; city government; corruption; political favors
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Stapley Manner
The New Times reports on Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley's suspicious real estate dealings. Stapley has been involved with property that was being investigated for illegal lot-splitting. He also appealed the $1.5 million assessment of a home he purchased for $900,000, after which real estate prices began sky-rocketing, and after his home had undergone major improvements as showcase home benefiting charity. The improvements, which are offered at a discount price by designers for the showcase, cost Stapley about $300,000. He's selling the home for $2.5 million, but asking the assessor to value it at $863,000.
Tags: developments; assessments
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Homes' Tax and Sale Values out of Synch
The News Tribune "acquired a database of more than 270,000 property records from the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer's office. The records included several fields of information about every property in the county." Sullivan found that although "property owners in Pierce County have known for the last few years that the sky-high home prices in Seattle/King County were trickling south, ... one thing we didn't know was how fast they could change and where they were changing the fastest."
Tags: CAR; property; homes; assessment
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No title (id: 9379)
Arizona Daily Star examines Pima County, Ariz., which is overwhelmed by the number of suits filed by landowners challenging the assessor's property valuations; finds that the number of suits has so clogged the system that the county is having a hard time defending its assessments, March 22, 1992.
Tags: AZ Nett Burchell
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No title (id: 8472)
Denver Post looks into the actions of a county assessor who was voted into office on a platform of lower business taxes, and finds that the assessor had been undervaluing business properties by hundreds of millions of dollars, forcing higher residential taxes; finds that he lowered his own taxes, but not those of his neighbors, August and October 1991.
Tags: CO
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No title (id: 5852)
Rock Island (Ill.) Argus discloses that an employee of the Illinois Secretary of State's office was receiving triple reimbursement for travel and other expenses; finds Rock Island County Republican chairman, who is also a township assessor, was turning in expenses to the state, the Republicans, and the township for the same trips, March 1988.