Fayette County assessor Eddie Young is running again because he feels like he still has more work to do.
When Young started in 1989 he says he took this job as a holdover until he could find something better because you don’t make much money working for the county. But he found he liked the work and was always good in math.
“This kind of work just came naturally to me and I went from an appraiser to I was promoted to be the re-appraisal supervisor,” Young said. “From that position — I was made chief deputy, until 2004 when my boss died and then that’s when I became assessor. And I’ve been assessor for 20 years.”
The county assessor is responsible for putting values on real estate and personal property for taxation purposes.
According to Young, the law says they have to value your property at market value. It goes through a process of 60 percent of that value, then multiplied by a tax rate, which determines how much your taxes are.
“It’s a very important position because the tax money that comes in gives the school board money to operate the schools with and the county government offices money to operate such as sheriff’s deputies and court systems,” said the assessor.
Young has worked in the tax assessor’s office for 35 years and while he’s kicked around the idea of retiring, the condition West Virginia and Fayette County are in right now — he feels like he needs to stick around and address some things, including a new statewide computer system they went on before it was ready. 2023 was the first year the system was used to produce tax tickets.
“We still have issues to clean up there and in the last two years I’ve lost about 125 years’ worth of experience (people retiring),” he said. “I’ve replaced most of those folks but I still have one position that I need to get filled and get someone trained and so when I do decide to retire that it will go on seamless.”
The assessor is a four-year term. Young says he fully expects this will be his last time to run.
“I’m gonna try one more time; I just feel like I have unfinished business to take care of,” said the assessor.
And what does retirement look like when Young eventually does…
“I would like to spend more time with my family and I love to fish,” he said.