Favoritism for Jake Zimmerman’s Dad?

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🕔 2 min read ∙ 290 words

The Post-Dispatch says the County Assessor should be a political operative, not an expert in real estate values like L. K. “Chip” Wood. I disagree, and this story explains why Charlie Dooley’s regime needs fewer political hacks and more competent professionals.

Troubling Questions for Zimmerman’s Assessor Campaign:

  * Why did the Zimmerman campaign take screen shots of Zimmerman’s dad’s real estate values on January 13, 2011, the day he was selected?
  * Why did the Zimmerman campaign try to deny Stu Zimmerman’s property tax cut by forwarding those old shots?
  * Why did someone update property tax records on March 25, the day after questions about favoritism first appeared?

On March 24,  24th State blog broke the story:  Stu Zimmerman received a significant reduction in his home’s assessed value in 2011.

I’ve learned since that the Zimmerman campaign produced documents from January 13—the day Jake Zimmerman was selected by the county Democrat Central Committee as their nominee for assessor.  These document show that the 2011 assessment wasn’t out yet.

That might have been true on January 13.  The question is, did Stu Zimmerman receive a significantly larger property tax break than his neighbors? Well, Zimmerman’s response didn’t answer that question, but seems to have been an attempt discredit 24th State’s story.

In reality, Stu got 16.6 percent off his assessment while his neighbors in comparable homes ranged from 2-4 percent reductions to 2 to 4 percent increases in assessed values.

Here’s the screen shots provided by the Zimmerman campaign on Friday, March 25:

Jake and Stuart Zimmerman Appraised Value-1.doc - Powered by Google Docs

Here’s a screen shot taken March 25 about 7:30 p.m.

Real Estate Information

And here’s a screenshot taken on March 24:

Clearly, the Zimmerman campaign is trying to hide the dropped assessment for candidate Jake’s dad. The question is “why?”