The Manatron Blog

Memorial Weekend ended with a ‘whoosh’ for the Dallas County Clerk and Recorder.  While families cleaned up after the barbecues and family gatherings, a broken water pipe was quietly flooding the Dallas County Records Building basement with 6 feet of water.  As is often the case, the basement housed components of the county computer systems and many of the Clerk/Recorder’s property records that needed to be stored in a ‘safe’ place.

New Haven, CT Tax Collector Hit By Car

Fox 61 WTIC-TV (New Haven, CT) was doing a story on people who owe property tax. While investigating a car with outstanding taxes, the tax collector gets run over by a driver of the car.

A pretty nightmarish situation - but maybe a reason not to confront people face-to-face in order to collect property taxes - just a thought. I'm sure that was not in the plan on this day and they were just going to tow this lady's car, but ultimately, it got out of hand.

Good luck to the rest of you! Don't let this happen to you...

 Watch the video.

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Los Angeles Assessor Warns of Property Tax Reassessment Fraud

Check out this news story out of LA County regarding reassessment fraud. I've got to believe this is not the only place these companies are preying on unknowing taxpayers. Is this happening in your jurisdiction?

 Watch the video.

I was eating breakfast this morning, watching the Today Show and what did I see?  Our eGov product in Martin County, FL was used to demonstrate how a bank executive sold his $13M estate to his wife for $100.   Thought you might find it interesting…it was very quick snippet of eGov, but it caught my eye nonetheless.

Watch the video at MSNBC.com 

An entire line of products/publications for every day people on how to purchase Government Foreclosure Property

I really enjoy teaching classes to assessors.  My math teacher background comes in very handy when teaching classes involving statistics or analysis. One of my favorite “ice breakers” to begin a class is the following problem.  I have all the

com•mu•ni•ty (\kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē\ ):  noun
1: a unified body of individuals: as a: STATE, COMMONWEALTH b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society 2: society at large3 a: joint ownership or participation b: common character : LIKENESS c: social activity : FELLOWSHIP d: a social state or condition

My dad is always the first person to point out when something is “as good as gold.”  I always think of him saying that phrase this time of year.  Some might suggest that it has something to do with the

As a college student, I studied mathematics and having a background in mathematics brings a special meaning to the word solution.  Like so many fields of study, mathematics provides opportunities to solve problems and typically there are many ways in

It seems that I’ve always been a Jack of All Trades (sometimes called a JOAT) and a master of few if any.  Just ask my wife, she’ll tell you horror stories about some of the things I’ve “fixed” around the house.  But, several years ago when I stumbled into GIS as a career (as everyone did back in the day), I had no idea how much of a demand the GIS industry would place on my JOAT skills.

In the valuation of property for mass appraisal, there are many different opinions on which process is the best.  The desired approach is based on the preferences of the assessor or lead appraiser for the jurisdiction.  Some will argue that the cost approach is most appropriate because it can be uniformly applied to the entire population.  Others will argue that the sales comparison approach is best, because values are based on the interaction of buyers and sellers in the market place.  In some circumstances, the income approach may be thought of as the best process.

It has been ten years since we at Manatron decided to shed a number of our products to focus solely on being the industry leader of property assessment and taxation software solutions. At the time, it seemed a no brainer.