And so it begins ... folks lined up at the Augusta County Government Center to protest real estate reassessments mailed to residents last week. The Waynesboro News Virginian talked with some who waited for their chance to have an adjustment in their assessment (video link).Pastures Supervisor Tracy Pyles (D) is open to looking at equalizing the rate with a drop in the real estate tax. Riverheads Supervisor Nancy Sorrells (I) hedged by saying the county still has bills to pay including parks and recreation and libraries.
Now Middle River Supervisor Gerald Garber (R) has spoken in today's News Virginian:
The value on Les Curry’s 2,400-square-foot Weyers Cave home and property shot up by almost 50 percent to $144,500.Chesterfield County assessments actually went down, according to today's Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“I can see an increase, but not double. It’s outrageous,” said Curry, whose home was built in 1919.
Augusta County Supervisor Gerald Garber said most of the complaints he heard over the weekend and Monday were about the increase in land prices.
“No one has complained to me about houses,” Garber said.
Supervisors need to look at all the reassessment data before making any decisions about tax rates, Garber said.
For the first time since the early 1990s, home values in Chesterfield County are down this year.
Reassessment notices for most of the county went out Saturday and reflect a 1.5 percent decline in the average home's value since last year. The median assessed value of a home in Chesterfield is $216,000.
Values in 2008 went up 10.9 percent from the year before, and in 2007, they were up 16.2 percent from 2006.
Commercial assessments increased by nearly 1 percent, leaving overall assessed property values close to flat. DJ McGuire at Right-Wing Liberal had comments yesterday, and previous posts on SWAC Girl have addressed this issue:
- Augusta reassessments: a tale of two supervisors
- Augusta reassessments arrive
3 comments:
I remember that Doc Thompson on WRVA suggested that the entire homeowning population of Chesterfield request a re-assessment since their 2008 bills were on 2006 assessments. Their home values had dropped...but their taxes went up.
I'm scheduled for my appeal on Thursday and I'll be going to the meeting Wednesday (hopefully the weather will get better). I've been a Republican for life, but this behavior is unacceptable and I can't believe I'm here supporting Tracy Pyles, a Democrat, but right is right - no matter what side of the aisle it comes from. I just hope people don't forget this by the next election - I know I won't and I won't let people around me forget.
On another note, I found out yesterday that I'll be part of the layoff from one of the companies that you mentioned a few posts ago. By the end of next week I won't have a job anymore and half of the people that I know have been laid off. All this and they are trying to tell me that my property is worth 52.5% more then it was in 2005 when everything was fine. From what people are telling me, they aren't doing adjustments to the assessments, so it looks like this is losing fight for the time being. We'll just have to wait till the election and then kick them out. If that means putting a Democrat in their place, so be it, at least I'll know what to expect from them, unlike the Republicans from this area that scream about taxes during the election and then screw us over when tax time comes.
Richard, I'm sorry for your layoff. The community is reeling ... hundreds of jobs lost in the Central Shenandoah Valley.
Watch tomorrow's newspapers for a story about Attorney Francis Chester of Churchville who had a property, from what I understand, reassesed at a 255% increase. He is planning to take action.
If people care, they need to become involved, attend the meetings, and let their voices be heard.
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