| M O N D A Y, J U L Y 10, 2 0 0 6
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| T H E R E A L E S T A T E C E N T E R
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 Victims of Drive-by Reappraisals, Unite!
When we saw that story in the LA Times about a new study calling Cincinnati the second most expensive city in which to do business (just in front of New York City), we noted the article didn't give nearly enough credit to our Disingenuous DemocRAT County Auditor for jacking up everybody's property values with his drive-by appraisals.
Which is why Beloved Whistleblower Publisher Charles Foster Kane's Landmark Hearing at the Hamilton County Auditor's Board of Revulsion is so important, not only for over-taxed payers like Kane himself, but also for all the other victims of the Auditor's Drive-By Reappraisals in the county.
Last year Kane received an undated computer-generated letter from the Hamilton County Auditor's Office advising him the value of his property had been arbitrarily jacked up 41% over the past three years. No details for such a large increase were given.
 On June 22, 2005, Kane spent more than an hour at Turpin High School meeting with a certified residential appraiser with the Auditor's Office, explaining why such an increase was unjustified. And although the certified residential appraiser couldn't explain his 41% increase, she must've agreed, because she gave him a form to fill out so he could request a real person visit his property to perform an actual appraisal, instead of using a computer to determine Kane property's value.
A few weeks later, a woman from the Hamilton County Auditor's Office called to schedule an appointment. She seemed a bit surprised when Kane said he wanted to be home when their appraiser showed up, but she seemed absolutely amazed when Kane also wanted their appraiser to come inside the house to attempt to determine the true value of his property.
 Weeks later on September 15, Jeff Nieman, another so-called certified appraiser from the Hamilton County Auditor's Office showed up. He also could not explain Kane's 41% increase. During his visit Nieman was shown many things that he agreed would adversely affect the value of Kane's property, and when Nieman left, he said after he completed his paperwork, he would gladly call Kane and explain how he'd arrived at his new value. That afternoon Kane even spoke with the County Auditor personally and told him everything that was said during Neiman's visit, and Kane assumed he would be getting a fair reappraisal.
Imagine Kane's surprise when many weeks later, the only official communication he received from the Hamilton County Auditor's Office was yet another undated computer generated letter advising him that the final valuation of his property was still the same original computer-generated 41%.
 Kane asked Resourceful Realtor Jason Gloyd to inspect the property and analyze the Auditor's report, which only became available ten working days prior to the Board of Revulsion Hearing originally scheduled for June 21 to see the Auditor's justification for that $41% increase, and like most real estate professionals who have given us their opinion (including a renowned expert on Anderson Township property values), Gloyd concluded the Auditor's report was merely a contrived bureaucratic attempt to justify the Auditor's original computer generated increase of 41%, and Kane is still waiting for a reasonable explanation to which any over-taxed payer would be entitled.
"Let's face it," Gloyd explained. "The Auditor's office can make up any value it wants for your property. They can choose any three pieces of property from here to Timbuktu, call them “comparable,” and “adjust” the numbers so the value of your property comes out to be anything number they want."
Maybe they called "How High Howie," the infamous appraiser who'd always asked the person who'd hired him, "How high do you want the appraisal?" even before he looked at the house.
 Family Friendly Fascist Chris Finney, lead counsel on the Whistleblower Legal Dream Team, then questioned the "curious timing" of the hearing notification letter from the Auditor's Board of Revulsion. Buried in the fine print, it said ALL of Kane's information had to be in ten working days before the hearing. That letter was dated ten working days before the scheduled hearing. Coincidence? We think not.
Many people have remarked about the Auditor's strange behavior regarding Kane's arbitrary 41% computer-generated increase. Remember when the Auditor disgraced himself at the annual Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) event? He was given five minutes to introduce Follically Challenged Steve Chabothead, but he spent the entire time telling lies about our Beloved Publisher, and whining about the unfairness of it all, just like he did when he spoke to the Anderson DemocRAT Club. Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.
 And why'd the Auditor go whining to his PR Flack KimBall Perry at the Fishwrap all about how the big bad Whistleblower was picking on him? In his “Dusty versus the Whistleblower” story, KimBall even reported how the Auditor had never complained when the Blower was blasting the Commissioners and all those other people on the Auditor's enemies list after the Auditor first supplied all the dirt.
If you're wondering why the Commissioners aren't trying to get even, maybe it's because they need all the money the Disingenuous DemocRAT Auditor can generate to cover their wasteful spending.
But that still doesn't explain why Temporary Hamilton County GOP Chairman George Vincent gave the Disingenuous DemocRAT a pass. In a year when so many people are outraged about the way the Auditor jacked up their property values, the GOP didn't even look for an opponent.
 Some people say the Auditor spends too much time baby-sitting his grandson, doing commercials, and playing oldies on the radio. We remember when Marge Schott said, "Just like Hitler," he was good in the beginning, but he just went too far."
Both the Hamilton County Prosecutor AND the Auditor told Kane the value of Kane's property was drastically reduced after Brayshaw’s Butchers from the Hamilton County Engineers Bush Brigade destroyed Kane's historic heirloom shrubbery on Birney Lane, but no adjustment for that loss ever appeared in the Auditor’s report.
What kind of a hearing do we expect from the Auditor's Board of Revulsion? We're not sure, the official Hamilton County Web site still shows all the designees with their terms expired.
Attorney Finney says, "If the panel considers all the evidence objectively, there's no doubt Kane's property values will be reduced. If the fix is in, they won't." Maybe that's why Finney's appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals in Columbus has already been written.
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