Eunice Blake of Liberty is seeking her third term as Amite County tax assessor/collector and faces Sue Whittington in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
A winner will be determined on Tuesday since there are no other candidates in the race. Tuesday’s winner will take office in January.
Eunice Blake
Blake, 62, believes her experience makes her the most qualified for the position, noting that she spent 31 years in the tax office before she ever ran for assessor/collector.
“I love the job, I love what I do and I love working with the people,” she said.
Blake is a certified appraiser and has completed two levels of certifications in collective revenue.
“Working with previous assessors and others in the tax office has taught me a lot,” she said.
Blake she would like to make paying taxes and fees to the office easier and noted that the office started taking credit card payments in 2016.
Blake went to Liberty Attendance Center and graduated from Meadows Draughn Business College, where she became certified in appraisal.
She considers her communication skills an asset, noting she makes customers feel comfortable and cared for. Additionally, Blake said she is a hard worker and is dedicated to fulfilling the mandate of the office for the people of Amite County.
Blake attends St. Davis Missionary Baptist Church and is a member of the Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce and the Amite County Medical Board.
She said she’s running for the position because of the love she has for her job. She noted that she particularly enjoys meeting and serving the citizens of Amite County.
“I’m very passionate about what I do and how I do my job,” she said.
Blake said she works to treat everybody equally and is an easygoing person who doesn’t change her outward personality when election season comes around.
“I haven’t changed since I started working here in 1980,” she said. “I’ll greet you with a warm handshake and a smile.”
Sue Whittington
Whittington, 64, of Gloster, is self-employed and a former real estate appraiser who has worked in administrative positions for the county. She is married to District 3 Supervisor Jackie Whittington.
Whittington was born in Franklin, La., and moved to Amite County at age 17. She has lived there ever since and raised a family of three children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Whittington has worked as a real estate appraiser for more than 25 years and is familiar with assessments of land and home value.
She said working in nearly every county courthouse south of Interstate 20 as a residential appraiser has given her the experience and working knowledge of the office to sufficiently perform its duties.
Whittington has worked in the sheriff’s office as well.
She is a certified bookkeeper and stays current with that skill every two years through continuing education.
Whittington said she would like to improve the ease of access to the tax office by introducing online payments and hopes to reduce the amount of time people have to stand in line.
She would like to see a skeleton crew in place to run the tax office on Saturday mornings during tax season to allow people who aren’t able to make it in throughout the work week to come to the tax office in person.
She plans to streamline operations when it comes to tax season in an effort to improve efficiency.
“It’s kind of chaotic during tax season,” she said.
Whittington mentioned that she intends to take a look at a number of commercial properties in Amite County that have made commercial additions in order to accurately assess their taxes.
She said that the biggest challenges facing Amite County are a lack of industry to keep taxes within the county and a lack of work outside of agriculture. However, she noted that Amite County is the only one in Mississippi not in debt.
Whittington attends Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where she works with the youth in Sunday school and also teaches young adults.
More than anything, Whittington cares about the community in Amite County and wants to use her skill set to help her neighbors.
“At any time that they have a problem, they can come to me and I will try my best to get that problem solved. If not, we will take it where we need to go to solve the problem,” she said.
