Jackson County property tax assessment woes continue into March

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KCTV) - Jackson County property taxpayers continue working to get their documentation handled, but it’s still taking hours to complete.

Lines wrapped around the Historic Truman Courthouse in Independence once again Tuesday. People lined up as early as 5 a.m.

Joe Riley, an Independence resident, said he was standing outside at 6:15 a.m. He didn’t get all of his paperwork settled until almost 10 a.m. He said there were around 30 people in front of him when he arrived.

“Pretty rough in there. It snakes for a long time. You don’t see people out here right now because they probably turned them away,” he said. “They do a pretty good job at turning people away before they sit too long so that’s helpful and the ladies in there are awesome. But, you better prepare to hold your bladder and hang out for a while.”

A significant reason for the delays -- and frustrations from Jackson Co. taxpayers -- is that they are being faced with coming to just the Independence location to get their taxes handled.

Tasha Overmiller moved to Jackson County from Colorado recently and is navigating not only her way around the metro but also the tax filing and processing systems.

“I got here at 8:30, been here 1.5 hours, and I think they said the line is still six hours out,” she said as she left the courthouse around 10 a.m. “Luckily, there’s an email that you can go to, but it’s 2-4 weeks so depends on how much time you have.”

We’ve reached out to the city of Independence to see what they are doing about staffing – and overall handling the influx of people. We are waiting for a response.

“The ladies are real nice, like I said, they’ll direct you and answer your questions and if you don’t need to be there they’ll get you out of there quick. So, they are doing what they can do,” said Riley.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Hundreds turned away as deadline passes to change personal property tax forms in Jackson County

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