BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Assessor’s office is inviting any county resident to come in for help in determining how their tax bill may be affected by the upcoming Board of Education bond levy election.

Upshur County Assessor Dusty Zickefoose attended the Dec. 2 Upshur County Commission meeting to let the commissioners know his office is willing to assist anyone calculate the estimated annual cost of the new bond if it is approved in a special election that is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022.

“I just want to let people know we’re able to help them determine the cost if they want to call or stop by,” Zickefoose said. “We can use the Board of Education calculator – the bond calculator they developed – and insert the person’s values and give them a more accurate, individualized cost. Keep in mind if you do that, the values are based on the 2021 property values. The 2022 values aren’t set yet, so if you make a change – for instance, if you trade vehicles or make any changes to the property you own – that could have a negative or positive impact, and the change could affect how much you’re going to pay.”

Upshur County Schools has provided a calculator to assist local residents in calculating their individual tax cost; however, not everyone knows their property values, which must first be plugged into the calculator to arrive at an accurate estimate, Zickefoose said.

“You can use the calculator on their website, but if you need your exact values, that’s where we come in,” he said. “We can help you find the values of your property; that’s what we do every day.”

He said anyone interested simply needs to call 304-472-4650 or stop in the assessor’s office in the Upshur County Courthouse Annex and provide their full name and address.

“You take your assessed value and put it in the calculator the board developed, and it’ll tell you what it will cost you per year,” Zickefoose said. “If I read it correctly, the bond is proposed for 15 years.”

Assessed real estate property values amount to 60 percent of a property’s fair market value, or what a given property would likely sell for in the current market.

Zickefoose said visiting the assessor’s office for this purpose is likely to take just a short amount of time, depending on the number of properties the assessor’s office must look up.

“It just depends on how much stuff you have,” Zickefoose said. “If you have multiple properties, we ask that you to give us your number, and we’ll give you a call back. If you pop in and you have a house and a couple of cars, it will take about five minutes, so it’s pretty simple.”

More information on the bond levy can be found here or here as well as on Upshur County Schools’ website.