Korean contingent visits Lee County property appraiser
Lee County property appraiser Ken Wilkinson has been at his job for 35 years, and has probably forgotten more about his job than most will ever learn in a lifetime.
On Thursday, he welcomed a contingent of 10 people from the Korean province of Jeju to give them the wealth of his knowledge to teach their fellow appraisers from half a world away to be more efficient and transparent.
It was also an opportunity to welcome the group to our country, which featured a proclamation and a formal signing of an agreement between Wilkinson and Jung Tae-sung, Jeju’s director of tax administration.
Wilkinson said he is part of the International Association of Assessing Offices, an organization of government employees who assess property for tax purposes. He said they are trying to broaden things to being more commonality to the job.
Wilkinson, who has also visited China, Japan, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, visited Korea last year, which initiated Korea in returning the favor.
“Korea is really coming forward and establishing a relationship. I’ve gone over there and now they’re coming here,” Wilkinson said. “This is a memorandum of understanding between our two governments. The intent is to learn from each other.”
Jung, who spoke through Tommy Seo, an interpreter, said he wanted to compare and contrast what his office and Wilkinson’s office do in property appraisal.
“We just want to compare the systems and how we work so we can find a way to improve with the county,” Jung said, whose group will leave for Washington D.C. Friday and New York on Saturday and spend about a week in the United States. “We hope we could get people to come to Jeju for a formal seminar.”
Seo added the Jeju province, which is a popular tourist destination, wants to increase its tax revenue through a tourist tax to take advantage of all the visitors coming. Real estate prices are booming, but the infrastructure is having trouble accommodating everything.
Wilkinson said he hopes to help them recover from their own housing bubble, similar to what the U.S. had a decade ago, which had a negative impact on taxes.
Wilkinson, who was instrumental in drafting the constitutional amendment Save Our Homes, which limits what municipalities can tax, was asked to explain that further.
Wilkinson was also trying to get them to become more transparent by opening their records so the assessors and the public can have access to sales, which would make their job easier and allow the public to see what like properties are worth or selling for.
Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann came to give a formal proclamation for the group’s arrival and there was also an exchanging of gifts before the official signing of the agreement.
Wilkinson then taught the appraisers, though a translator, how he does his wor.
Mann said there are few people who can teach them better than Wilkinson.
“It’s information sharing. Ken has won awards for being a very efficient operation in the whole country and people have come from around the world to see what he’s doing,” Mann said.