It is a constant reassessment process which is just absolutely relentless.

County officials started the reassessment process two years ago in hopes of eliminating a widening disparity between tax bills and actual market values.

Ben Nadola, a spokesman for Cole, said the multistep reassessment process was thorough and ultimately "the marketplace dictates what the assessments are."

Those who believe their homes or businesses were overvalued in the reassessment process can appeal to the Assessment Review Commission, a nine-member county panel charged with evaluating grievance claims.

Nonetheless, some residents view the reassessment process cynically, as a way to slip in tax increases under the guise of re-evaluation, or critically, as a process doomed by constantly fluctuating markets.

The time lag in the reassessment process is a source of confusion for homeowners, Mr. Nagel said.

Mr. O'Shea, an elected official, defended the 30-month-long reassessment process, which his office oversaw and which was carried out by a consultant, the Cole Layer Trumble Company of Dayton, Ohio.

As proposed, the budget would jeopardize the countywide reassessment process now nearing completion and the annual updates required under a court order for the next six years, he said.

Yet you still believe in putting people through a massively flawed and expensive reassessment process.

Harvey Levinson, the Democrat who in November won a close race to unseat Mr. O'Shea, a Republican, said that many people were confused by the entire reassessment process.