NV: "Wayne assessments lower than average, but still draw ire of landowners"

The Waynesboro News Virginian concludes its week-long look at real estate assessments in Augusta County by visiting the Wayne District, the most urban area of Augusta County. And while talking to residents, reporter Jimmy LaRoue found support for those who have organized to question the county's assessments:

Though 80-year-old Marshall Davis lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s, he says the current recession is just as difficult and worries for the younger people living through it now.

Davis, who lives in Waynesboro but owns property in Augusta County’s Wayne District, says he’ll be able to get by even with reassessments on four pieces of his property that went up from 27 to 55 percent.

“I think it’s too high,” Davis said. “I’m with the Augusta County residents – we have some representatives that are pulling for us, the taxpayers, like Francis Chester and [Pastures Supervisor Tracy] Pyles.”

Chester, a Churchville attorney, has led a petition drive against the current reassessment, which went up by an average 27.7 percent over four years ago. The protests against the reassessment, according to the petition, are because the United States is in a deep recession and local landowners can’t afford the taxes on them, and because the properties wouldn’t sell for the appraised prices. The online petition currently includes more than 800 names.

“It hasn’t been good for me or for anyone,” Davis said. “Overall, people’s reassessments have gone way out of line.”

Another resident, who saw his assessment go up 40% on a house he has lived in since 1979, was more direct:

Robert Sheard, 60, who lives off Sunset Drive in the Grandview Heights subdivision near Ladd, said he wasn’t able to appeal his reassessment due to an illness in the family. He said he hopes the current Board of Supervisors is voted out of office.

“Houses are not worth that much, especially in this economy,” Sheard said. “I hope somebody can do something."
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“I’ve never seen it go up like this,” Sheard said. “I mean, it’s gone up some, and you expect it to go up some, but I’ve never seen it go up this high.”

Read the entire article here.