Your Rights….
Many are asking us why we started this page and whether are we going to continue. Yes. We are here to stay.
This started with our purchase of the Sidney Fine Art Center in 2017 and our desire to fix a broken window. Then in 2018 along comes a new tax assessor who sends us a letter that if we do any remodeling for more than $2,500 we are subject to a new appraisal and higher taxes. There are 12 broken windows in the Art Center, each $500 to fix. NEVER in California or Pennsylvania have we ever received a letter like this.
We had a meeting with the tax assessor and asked about fixing windows and redoing the lawn and flowers. Same answer. Taxes go up. So if you try to fix a run-down building and clean it up, your taxes will go up. So we didn’t do anything for 1 year until we were contacted by the tax assessor Melody Keller again in 2021 who said our taxes are going up. She told us if we wanted lower taxes we need to allow her into our building to measure and photograph all the rooms in the building. WHAT?
That threat violates your 4th amendment rights in America. I know, I defended these rights for other people for 22 years. I informed her of this. She said yes, that is your right to deny but we will raise your taxes anyway if you don’t. She told us she has inspected 90% of the buildings downtown. This is amazing. I have never seen this in any city or township from California to Pennsylvania. I owned a large business in California for 20 years and never had anyone from the county or city government ask to see the inside of our buildings. Ever. Only the yearly fire inspection since we were open to the public.
Since our refusal, our taxes have gone up 282%. You just have to laugh because all this will be overturned in court when we get there, and we are going there. Takes 2 years though. Cheyenne County has lost each time they have been taken to the TERC Commission in the last 4 years. EVERY TIME! So we are excited to go there.
There is something really wrong here. The Tax Assessor we have now thinks she can just come into your home and photograph or measure anything she wants to do and if you refuse she will raise your taxes. No, this is AMERICA. Everyone has rights. It sometimes takes a little time for higher authorities to vacate the decisions like this that are violating your rights but we will get there. Change is coming, the first step is a vote in November!