 You asked and now it's finally year. Appalachian Wireless now offers unlimited data on the best network in the region. See store for complete details, better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless and East Kentucky Network Company. When Pike County tax bills came out this month, more than a few residents were highly disappointed. This year, Pike County's property taxes raised a significant amount. In 2016, the total real estate assessment for the county equaled $2.2 billion. In 2017, it totaled $1.8 billion. That means Pike County taxpayers had to make up almost $370 million. The Department of Revenue had reassessed the unmind minerals and the natural gas and given those companies, those big companies, most of them rather large coal companies, a $400 million decrease. That's $400 million. They didn't have to pay taxes on any more. Today, residents attended the Pike County Fiscal Court meeting hoping for answers. Nobody would have said anything five, eight, seven percent. Nobody was saying anything. These coal companies have got more money than these four people have. And try to keep that reversed because 37% is a permanent. I think they always can find a solution, but they take the easy way, the path of least resistance. However, those on the court say they were just as surprised as everyone else. The Department of Revenue raised property taxes without warning in every coal producing county in the state. Essentially, what happened is the state changed the way it assesses oil and mineral rights and unmind coal. In Pike County, those assessments dropped 40% for oil and mineral rights and 70% for unmind coal. So while companies holding those assets saw their bills cut drastically, everyone else was left to make up the difference. In order to raise the money just to keep services going and the same money to keep the county going and the Pike County school board going, we had to take what we called a compensating rate that allowed both the board and the county to raise the same amount of money. And that came out that everybody's taxes went up. We had to make up. The small people out here had to make up for that 400 million. Pike County Deputy Judge Executive Herbie Deskin says he emailed the Department of Revenue and their response was, quote, we can't tell you why we did it, but we did it. He says the court will do everything in its power to get an answer. We're going to try to do something about it. I don't know how successful will be, but we'll sure raise a lot of heck with the people that did this. The meeting adjourned with no action taken on tax rates. In Pikeville, Shelby Porter, EKB News.