Bartholomew County Assessor Ginny Whipple, a Republican, has announced her intention to seek a second consecutive term in office.
With 37-years experience in the assessment field, Whipple first sought and won her current office in 2018. That was the same year that former county assessor Lew Wilson waged an unsuccessful bid for the Indiana House of Representatives.
In her first effort at running for public office, Whipple had no opponents in either the primary or general election.
During much of her career, Whipple has worked for large appraisal companies. In one position, she had her contracted out to 22 different counties in both Indiana and Ohio at the same time.
But the long road trips ended in 2006 after she founded her own company, Gna Assessment Professionals, near the Decatur-Bartholomew County line.
Whipple began doing contract work for the Bartholomew County Assessor’s office in 2013, leading Wilson to endorse her candidacy five years later as his successor.
Certified on several different skill levels pertaining to her responsibilities, Whipple said fairness and equity in property tax values has been her main concern over the past three years.
“I want everyone to pay their fair share, so that no one pays their neighbors’ portion,” Whipple said.
Even though property values have increased drastically in some areas, Whipple said she believes the number of appeals filed by taxpayers show Bartholomew County residents are more acceptable of the higher tax bills.
For example, Whipple said her first three years in office brought an average of 261 appeals annually. That is in contrast to the last two assessor terms, which produced an average of 371 and 546 appeals filed each year respectively, Whipple said.
In addition, Whipple said her insistence in training staff members to handle multiple responsibilities, include the ability to answer tough assessment questions from the public, has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside vendor fees.
