KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the July 31 deadline to submit a tax assessment appeal counted down, KSHB 41 spoke with people who got the last in-person appointments before time ran out.
“If my car would have quit on the highway, I would have been hitchhiking because I would have made it here no matter what,” said Carol Wilson.
This was not a vacation trip, concert or anything else you anticipate with pleasure.
Carol Wilson and her granddaughter, Alyssia Hickle, made sure they would not miss their property assessment appeal appointments.
“Oh my god, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world," Wilson said. "We’ve been preparing for this for two months now. We had to get the paperwork, the pictures,” Wilson said.
Hickle and Wilson told KSHB they made their appointment a priority.
“A major relief. I didn’t think it was going to work,” Hickle said. “I told her to expect the worst, but it definitely made it work, The work was worth it.”
Wilson said Hickle was her oldest granddaughter and they had always been there for each other.
“Right now, I’m crying because I’m relieved," Hickle said. "Before I was crying because I was stressed. My grandma is on a fixed income. I can only help her so much and afford my own mortgage and taxes. It was a lot of work to get everything in order, but it was worth it.”
A process Jackson County legislators hope to improve.
“We the legislature are trying to find ways to help people, but it’s just obstruction after obstruction,” said Manny Abarca, Jackson County Legislator. "Appeals are going to continue for months. If the Board of Equalization has to hear from all people, it’s not homeowners, it’s commercial property owners, its agriculture property owners. The idea that this is over, it is absolutely not over, today is just the deadline people have to appeal.”
