INDIANAPOLIS | Lake County Assessor Paul Karras is mulling a run for a fifth term next year -- even if it means going back to school.

Karras, first elected in 1994, is the only one of Indiana's 92 county assessors without state certification. Under a 2008 state law, he must take two, four-day state certification courses and pass a pair of open-book exams before he is eligible to run for re-election.

"I am seriously considering it," Karras said of a re-election bid. "I am a college graduate. I've got all this experience. And all the sudden they came out with this (law) that you have to have a Level 2 (certification), which is what, equivalent of a GED? That irks me."

John Dull, an attorney for the county, said he and Karras discussed what it would take to exempt Karras from the new training requirements, but they never brought the idea to lawmakers. Several region legislators said such a grandfather clause wouldn't fly at the Statehouse.

Dull and Karras were in Indianapolis this week representing the county before the Indiana Board of Tax Review in a 2005 dispute with U.S. Steel. Dull said similar long-running tax appeals involving BP and ArcelorMittal are set for hearings later this year.

Karras said he would like to complete the big-industry tax bouts before leaving office. The certification courses he must pass are being offered this spring and summer in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute and Seymour.