Monday, February 23, 2009

Augusta: assessments hit hard in Pastures District

The Waynesboro News Virginian begins its week-long investigation into each of the seven magisterial districts of Augusta County. Today they begin with Pastures District, home of Tracy Pyles, the lone supervisor who has called for rolling back assessments to 2005 values. Pastures District is also home of Churchville attorney Francis Chester who has vowed to bring suit against the Board of Supervisors if they do not roll back to 2005 assessments, and home of SWAC Girl.

In Ground Swell: Pastures property owners question values, reporter Bob Stuart talks with residents who saw their rural land increase dramatically even at a time of instable financial times and hundreds of lost jobs in the SWAC area.

Check out the News Virginian's online "Database Center" to track property values.

2 comments:

richard said...

From my blog at valley true gritt


Tuesday, February 24, 2009
TAX STRIKE: CALLING ON ALL AUGUSTA COUNTY CITIZENS TO FIGHT BACK THE ONLY WAY THE COUNTY OFFICIALS WILL UNDERSTAND----A TAX STRIKE. THIS IS LEGAL....ALL PROPERTY OWNERS SHALL WITHHOLD THEIR TAX PAYMENTS BY PLACING IT IN AN ESCROW ACCOUNT DURING THE LEGAL ACTION TO OBTAIN A PROPER TAX ASSESSMENT. THIS WILL FORCE THE COUNTY NOT TO ACCEPT THE ASSESSMENTS AS PROVIDED BY BLUE RIDGE MASS AND ALLOW THE COURTS TO TAKE ACTION FORCING A RE-EVALUATION. UNTIL IT IS RESOLVED TO OUR SATISFACTION THE COUNTY DOESN'T GET THEIR MONEY. JUST MAYBE IF THEY CAN NO LONGER PAY THEIR BILLS LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO FORCE US INTO THEY MIGHT GET THE MESSAGE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE THIS LAYING DOWN, YOUR REPRESENTATIVES THAT YOU HIRED ARE NOT DOING THEIR DUTY. THEY WORK FOR US AND CAN BE FIRED BY US. WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WRONG AND THEY ARE TRYING TO BAMBOOZLE YOU INTO THINKING THE LAW PREVENTS THEM FROM DOING RIGHT BY US. THE ANSWER IS NO MORE TAXES WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH, FIGHT BACK.
Posted by richard at 12:15 PM 0 comments
Monday, February 23, 2009
RED LINING - ASSESSMENTS? The assessments are complicated on purpose to hoodwink the public into believing that what is being done is fair and justifies the money we taxpayers pay for them to do a fair and balanced assessment. WRONG! They have stated that they have concentrated on JUST the land value. Okay I will go along with that BUT when you look at all the data (smoke screen) what is being done is ILLEGAL. What I am saying is that RED LINING is ILLEGAL. Insurance companies have tried that in the past and have been stopped by the courts. Let me explain what RED LINING is: If you live in a certain area of a city, county or state and you have a certain car and let's say Joe lives in a different part of town but owns the exact same car you do. Now the insurance company comes along and charges you more money for the same coverage as Joe has BECAUSE you live in an area that shows by statistics that it is higher in crime than where Joe lives. THAT IS DISCRIMINATION AND IS ILLEGAL. Having said that, the way that Blue Ridge Mass has done THE APPRAISALS is exactly the same thing except they are evaluating your property in the same manner. If you live in the poor side of town your property taxes are lower and if you live in the high class neighborhood your taxes are higher. That should be true except that the land value is EQUAL across the board only the homes on the property are are of greater value. So if they have increased the taxes based upon the LAND value then why are they increasing the value of the LAND by a higher percentage in one neighborhood over another? This is typical SOCIALISM to attack the rich unequally, but then why are the "PRIVILEGED" politicians property evaluated so much lower? WHEN ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING TO WISE UP AS TO THE CROOKED POLITICIANS IN THIS AREA AND STOP THEM IN THEIR TRACKS? WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

Lynn R. Mitchell said...

Richard, thanks for sharing your thoughts about this. Emotions are running high ... I've seen it from all sides.

Can't say that I agree with you about withholding taxes but that's something each individual will have to decide.

As to red lining ... you educated me with that one.

What I did hear from an appraiser from out of state was that it sounds as if "indexing" was used in Augusta County. "Indexing," from how I understood it, is when a set price is determined for every parcel of land in a neighborhood. Then, no matter whether your lot is .25 acre, .35 acre, or .5 acre -- no matter whether the lot has a mountain view, is a corner lot, is behind trees, or what -- all lots are accessed at the same value.

That, in my opinion, is not the way to access properties.