Jackson County Exec LeVota Corrects 'Guessing' Kansas City Star

We should have featured this open letter sooner but it's not too late to share a newsworthy bit of public push back against the "paper-of-record" from a top government official. 

First . . . The offending report . .  .  

Kansas City Star: Jackson County tells business building owners to guess when paying their taxes

The theme was picked up by a couple of the local TV news stations as well with no paywall.  

And then . . .

Because other local news outlets had the response note from the Exec but didn't run it . . . We wanted to share the retort from the courthouse leader . . . Check-it:  

Jackson County Exec LeVota: Article about commercial tax bills

Your headline using the word "guess" and continued use of the word "guess" in the story is misleading and not true. I never told taxpayers to guess what their bills are.

The fact is that I am trying to fix the commercial tax relief VERY LATE in the game and bills with the old amount were already going out and I couldn't stop them.  So what I did do is send each commercial owner that met the criteria for a reduction, a letter from me showing what the old assessed value was and what the new assessed value was going to be to try to alleviate some confusion when they did get the larger bill. I then told them they could call the assessor's office or they could "estimate" what they lower tax was based on the old and new assessment and pay that before December 31 to avoid any penalties and interest. Without them doing that, they would need to pay the whole amount and the difference would be refunded to them when the assessment and collections records caught up. There was just no physical time to redo all of the commercial properties with the correct amount in time to get them a new bill by mid December. 

My quote from the legislative meeting in response to a question about the issue, that you got correct, was, "We want you to estimate what that tax bill is and pay that by December 31.”  I never used the word "guess." It is semantics but it is important. 

GUESS: to form an opinion or give an answer about something when you do not know much or anything about it
ESTIMATE: a rough calculation or judgment of a value, size, cost, or quantity, based on experience or observation rather than exact measurement.

Taxpayers have information about the assessment and the tax bill and there is clearly enough information to estimate what the new bill could be. It is not a guess.  

I understand that even that is not simple for many but it is the best option I could give them to pay a lower amount now and to avoid paying higher before December 31. Without them estimating, not guessing, the whole amount will be due and they will be refunded any overage. The rest of your story was right on but the continued use of the word "guess" is misleading to my statement and my policy. 

Anyway several media outlets have picked up your story and use of the word "guess" and to say I ever asked people to guess about a bill is not correct and sounds totally outlandish and is just not factually correct. Thank you. 
________________________
Phil LeVota

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Developing . . .