Portmann an easy choice

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, October 18, 2003

The importance of accuracy in property-tax assessments makes experience a premium in the race for Snohomish County assessor.

On that score alone, Cindy Portmann is the obvious choice.

Portmann has been the county’s chief deputy assessor for nine years, serving under current Assessor Gail Rauch, who is stepping down because of term limits. She is well qualified to continue running the office effectively and efficiently, and is intimately familiar with the technological and procedural changes facing it.

Portmann’s experience puts her in the best position to choose options for further improvement, and to make the best use of limited staff and other resources.

Her opponent, Stuart Stavig, has no experience in the assessor’s office, and would face a daunting learning curve. Working to reform the state’s property tax structure is a platform of Stavig’s campaign, but that’s not what this job is about. Rather, it’s a job for an experienced leader with a firm grounding in the assessor’s role and the office’s complex tasks.

Portmann fills that bill. Voters should elect her.