Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Assessor Software topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Assessor presents software conversion costs, says new system will cut staffing burden
Summary
The assessor’s office outlined a one‑time conversion to a single property valuation system and ongoing software costs that raise the 2026 data‑processing budget; the office argued purchasing the software is cheaper than adding staff.
The assessor’s office told the Clay County commissioners that a planned migration to a single, cloud‑based property valuation and mapping system will raise the office’s 2026 data‑processing budget primarily in the first year for conversion fees.
According to the presentation, the county’s new vendor—referred to in the materials and discussion as “Catalyst”—carries a first‑year conversion cost the assessor’s staff estimated at about $101,000; ongoing annual costs were described at roughly $30,000 plus the cost of an up‑to‑date Marshall & Swift cost table, which staff estimated around $8,000 in the first full year. The assessor also flagged existing software costs: ProVal valuation software (roughly $12,000), and an increase in three Esri GIS user licenses from about $300 to $500 each, which the assessor said would raise that license line by roughly $600.
The assessor framed the larger software budget as a trade‑off against staffing: the office is “well under the standard” for staff relative to parcel count, the presenter said, and the new software should remove redundant double entry and reduce workload equivalent to about one to one‑and‑a‑half positions.
"We're getting what we pay for," the presenter said, summarizing the case for converting to a single integrated platform even though the county will carry conversion costs in 2026.
Questions from commissioners covered contract timing, whether data and valuation tables would migrate intact, and whether some licenses or fees will drop off in 2027 once conversion completes. The assessor’s staff said data ownership will transfer and that some duplicate fees should cease after full migration, but that the county will bear double fees in 2026 during the transition.
No formal action was taken on the assessor’s presentation; commissioners asked staff to include the updated software figures and the anticipated one‑time conversion costs in the county’s provisional 2026 budget.
