Paving the way for the introduction of an occupational assessment tax in 1994, Carbon County’s majority commissioners voted to reclassify nearly 40,000 county residents from 403 to five categories.

Commissioners Dean D.W. DeLong and Thomas C. Gerhard voted to reset the job assessments. Minority Commissioner John D. Mogilski opposed the move.

The reclassification puts the county residents into one of the following categories — non-unemployed, unskilled laborers, semi-skilled and skilled, professional 1 and professional 2.

The commissioners said a seven-mill assessment on each resident would be needed to offset a five-mill real estate tax that was imposed in 1988.