The position is created by state statutes and is filled by appointment of the Board of County Commissioners in each county. The term of the appointment is four years. Two basic duties must be performed by each County Appraiser and his or her staff. First, all property within the county must be inventoried. The types of properties most commonly handled at the county level are real property and personal property.
Real property is the land and all improvements permanently affixed to the land.
Personal property consists of material assets that are notpermanently affixed to land such as machinery and equipment, vehicles, boats, etc. In Kansas, gas and oil properties are treated as personal property for tax purposes. All real property is inventoried by the county mapping department and a permanent unique parcel identification number is assigned to each parcel. To assist with the inventory process, the County Appraiser's department also develops a property description for each parcel that is solely used for tax appraisal purposes. It is sometimes different from the legal description recorded in the Register of Deeds' office.