KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many homeowners have complained about the Jackson County property tax assessment process this year.
Now, the KSHB 41 I-Team found out that the county is withholding money to make sure the company doing the assessments meets its requirements.
Troy Schulte, Jackson County Administrator, confirmed to I-Team reporter Sarah Plake that the county is withholding $6 million from Tyler Technologies' contract, the firm hired to generate the property values.
Tyler Tech was granted an $18 million contract in total.
Mod Op, the company the county hired to handle assessment communications, takes issue with some county officials and legislators using the term 'withholding'.
Mod Op wanted to clarify that Tyler has not billed the county yet for the $6 million remaining on the contract, so the county hasn't issued any money.
Schulte said Tyler Tech has had several issues this year, including its phone system not working properly.
Schulte told us Thursday that the county has daily conversations with Tyler to make sure they're meeting their requirements. It's because of the ongoing issues that they haven't released the rest of the payments, Schulte said in a follow-up conversation with KSHB 41 Thursday.
KSHB 41 News has heard from homeowners who can't get through to anyone when they call to appeal, or they're disconnected while on hold.
This happened to Frank Hanis.
"I was number 31 in line. I waited a long time," Hanis said. "I was number two in line and that's when they hung up."
Schulte said Tyler Tech was supposed to turn in the property value data to the county by October 2022, but the county didn't receive the data until four months later in February.
The deadline to appeal property assessments was extended to July 31.
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