By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — County Assessor Deb Dunning is waiting on the State Legislature.
Reassessment in Marshall County is scheduled to start July 1, but a bill winding its way through the legislature currently would not only set that back one year, but completely change all of the particulars of assessment.
Just two weeks ago, Dunning accepted bids from outside contractors to do much of Marshall County’s assessment work. After working her way through some extremely complicated bid specifications, she now finds herself in the quandary of whether to go ahead and choose a bidder, or wait for the legislature to act, something that could happen in just two weeks.

She came before the Marshall County Commissioners Monday for their approval to wait.
“I would like to wait two weeks to see what happens,” she said. “Rather than negotiate a contract where the whole scope of the work could change.”
Under the bill currently being considered by the legislature, the assessment date would change to a five year “rolling” assessment. Each year 20 percent of the county would be reassessed. Commissioner Jack Roose asked if that would be something that could be undertaken “in house” rather than choosing an outside contractor.
“That’s something that we have to look at,” said Dunning. “When it comes to the field work on residential, we could do that.”
There are still deadlines in place that must be met if the bill doesn’t pass, but Dunning told the Commissioners that she is confident enough groundwork has been laid to meet the deadlines. Earlier in the previous week, Dunning had met with County Attorney Jim Clevenger and Commissioner Tom Chamberlin to go over the bid specifications received in detail to determine who would receive the contract.
If the current bill passes the legislature, the assessor would only be required to file a plan with the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) of how the five-year rolling assessment would be done.
“Right now they just want communication that things are proceeding,” she said. “There are a lot of things on my desk that I could be working on rather than negotiating a contract.”