by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor 
  After 30 years as Buchanan County's commissioner of revenue, Victor Breeding has announced he will retire effective December 31, 2007.
  Breeding, a native of Buchanan County, has served as Buchanan County's chief tax assessment officer since he was first elected in 1977 to fill the unexpired term of Dr. Tommy Street. At that time, Breeding had worked in the commissioner's office for six years as a deputy commissioner for Russell V. Presley and Street.
  "It's time to step aside and let somebody else take over," Breeding said in making the formal announcement Monday.
  Breeding, a resident of the Davenport area, ran unopposed for three of the eight terms he was elected to serve. Despite the lack of opposition, however, he said he still worked as hard in seeking re-election as if he had been opposed out of a desire for the voters to understand he really wanted their vote of confidence.
  "I wanted the job and I was willing to work for it," Breeding said.
  Other than 11 years working in Ohio for Ford Motor Company, where he served as shipping foreman supervising a group of 40 employees on two rail loading docks, Breeding has lived and worked in Buchanan County.
  He said the office of commissioner is an administrative office, as opposed to a policy making office and he noted his guiding principals in serving the people of Buchanan County have been "to provide Buchanan County residents with the best service possible and to treat people with respect."
  "Most people don't have problems with paying their fair share of taxes, but they want to understand what you are taxing them on," Breeding said. "We wanted the taxpayers to understand, and hopefully over the years, we have been able to help them."
  Since Breeding became commissioner, the office has gone from one operated chiefly with typewriters, pens and paper, to one in which computer record keeping is the norm.
  In his tenure as commissioner, Breeding has overseen the implementation of computerized records management, including state of the art real estate and mineral depletion software and improved access to state agencies such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Taxation and Technology, the State Compensation Board and the State Corporation Commission.
  The challenge was always there for meeting record processing deadlines, such as the deadlines for having state taxes deposited and processed timely, as well as to properly report estimated taxes to the tax department on time and in a timely manner, he said. He credited his staff and colleagues for their work in meeting those challenges.
  Breeding noted he always strived to stay abreast of changing tax issues, adding he had gone through continuing education sessions throughout his career for that reason.
  Breeding is married to Carol and they have two sons, Gregory and David; and four grandchildren.