RENSSELAERVILLE — Kathryn Wank, an Independence Party member, is running for a second four-year term as assessor. As well as backing from her own party, she has the Republican and Conservative lines too.

After growing up in Troy and then living in Cairo for seven years, she moved to Rensselaerville so that her children, now in middle school and high school, would be in the Greenville School District, she said.

She has a background in human resources and bookkeeping, she said, and considered it a luxury to stay home and raise her children. As they got older, she worked in various part-time jobs for the town, including as highway clerk and two-and-a-half years as planning board clerk.

“I have a business background and am civic-minded,” Wank said, noting she is president of the fire company’s battalion. “I always encourage my kids to volunteer,” she said.

In her four years as assessor, she said, “I am most proud of maintaining fairness. We did an audit of exemptions,” she said, naming an example of farms that get an agricultural exemption. “We were able to correct a handful of mistakes,” she said.

The hardest part of the job is that the town has three assessors, all part-time, and “New York State is always handing down new regulations,” she said. “It would be nice if we could have bonafide part-time jobs.”

As it is now, certified assessors are paid $6,000 annually. Wank said she works two to five hours weekly in the summer and fall, and then 15 to 20 hours weekly from January through July.

Once someone is elected an assessor in New York State, he or she has three years to complete certification. Wank said she took a series of seven classes and passed the corresponding tests on subjects ranging from ethics to data collecting. “Once you’re certified, you can assess anywhere in the state,” she said.

Asked about her goals for another term, Wank said, “I would like to continue to make myself available to the public.” Formerly, she said, assessors were available only on Thursday nights. She started coming in to the town hall on Monday afternoons, to be accessible to “seniors who don’t drive at night.”

Wank believes the current assessments are fair and says she is “right down the middle” on the question of whether the town should revalue all of its properties.

On the one hand, she said, if the town revalued every property at 100 percent of market value, there would be no more arguments between neighbors about differing assessments. She said, “Rensselaerville is a very eclectic town. It’s hard to compare two pieces of property,” she noted when one 2,000-square foot house is newly built and another 2,000-square-foot house was built several hundred years ago.

“Their value isn’t equal,” she said.

On the other hand, she said, “Not to bash the state … but blanket rules don’t always apply.”

She also said revaluation would be costly for the town as an outside agency would have to be hired to do the work.

She concluded that “people are pretty satisfied” and she hears few complaints.

She said the assessors are flagged whenever the building inspector gives them copies of permits, triggering a reassessment of the improved properties.

“I have four years of experience,” said Wank, and went on, referencing her running mate, “Donna Kropp has 12 years. I’m very conscientious about the job. This is the community where I’m raising my children. I want the values to be fair so that someday my kids will be able to buy homes it Rensselaerville. If taxes are too high, they can’t afford it.”