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Tippecanoe County prepares for reassessment

The Tippecanoe County Council is buying a new car for the assessor’s office. The money comes from the reassessment fund and totals $16,000.

Assessor Linda Phillips says her current budget can cover the roughly $3,000 more that’s needed. She says buying a car instead of employees using their personal cars makes sense.

“Even though we slap magnetic signs on them, I had a very irate lady call me [saying] ‘Anybody can get a magnetic sign. How do I know this is real?’ Good question, so it’s a security issue,” she says. “More importantly though, it’s cheaper for us as a county to own and operate the car than it is to pay mileage.”

Some county council members say they’re not sure there will be much savings in the end. They voted six to one to buy the car and asked Phillips to come back to the council in three and six months with data supporting her claim. Council member John Basham voted against the purchase.

Phillips says an outside firm handled the reassessment process last time for $2.4 million. She estimates hiring employees and buying three cars could accomplish the same job for a little more than $1 million over four years.

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