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Landowners in sticker shock
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - Bath County property owners received notices from the reassessment office last week and while it may be an exaggeration to say everyone is upset, all the talk around the county reflects a general dissatisfaction with the high values placed on land, and in some cases much lower values, and with the reassessment process in general.
Commissioner of Revenue Leta Norfleet is on the front lines of the reassessment process. While the work is being done by contractor Blue Ride Mass Appraisal LLC, the employee handling calls to schedule appointments with appraisers is located in the back of the commissioner's office.
"There are 5,267 properties in the county," Norfleet said Wednesday. "We've pretty much gotten calls from everybody."
Mike Didiwick of BRMA is on the agenda for the supervisors' meeting next Tuesday to give another update on the reassessment. Board members are likely to far hear more about the reassessment from citizens than they will from Didiwick.
David Hickey, president of BRMA, told supervisors last week the average increase in property values was 33 percent. While people around the county seem to accept the increase in value placed on structures and improvements, the increase in land values has shocked many property owners.
Some, like retired college professor Jesse Thompson, have already met with the appraiser and are now planning to attend the supervisors' meeting. Thompson has notes all over his two assessment letters and another six pages of notes on the assessment and his experiences with the process.
Thompson, like many others, wants to know the formulas used by the assessors to assign values to property. Instead of the 33 percent mentioned by Hickey, Thompson's property increased more than 200 percent.
County Administrator Bonnie Johnson said, "People feel land is very high," according to comments she has heard. Johnson pointed out the appraisal process is still ongoing. Property owners have until March 14 to call and schedule a meeting with the appraisers.
In addition, anyone who cannot meet with the appraisers or is unhappy with the results of that meeting can appeal to the board of equalization beginning April 25. The members of the equalization board are appointed by the Circuit Court judge.
"The tax rate is a separate matter," Johnson said Wednesday, in reminding people an increase in property value does not necessarily mean an increase in taxes.
The board of supervisors will set a new tax rate in June, she said. The budget will be balanced and the tax rate will reflect the needs of the county and take into consideration the new appraisal.
"The land is what has really escalated," Norfleet said in agreement with property owners around the county. "Mine went up too," she said. She joked they had increased the value on everything except two horses and her old cat.
"People are believing values are higher than they should be because of the Homestead Preserve," Norfleet said. "People are upset."
Property owners are concerned not only with the high valuations of property, but also with the process itself. As Hickey told supervisors, the short time frame permitted for the entire task made the project difficult. Field work began Aug. 1, 2007 and had to be completed by mid-March.
Supervisor Carol Hardbarger said there is a general concern about how the reassessment was conducted. She noted individual assessments did not take very long. She and her husband have 35 acres, a log cabin and a garage. She wondered how the assessor could fairly evaluate it all in the 15 minutes he spent on the property.
"Assessment is not my occupation," Hardbarger said, therefore she is not ready to critique the assessors. But she and others do wonder if there was enough time to do the job adequately.
Hardbarger also said the timing of the reassessment turned out to be unfortunate in hindsight. "It could not have been fore known," she said. The downturn in the economy and the real estate market created issues now that were not known a year ago.
"I think this is probably not the best time," Hardbarger said. "The way the economy and labor market are going. It is a shock to people's sense that their property could be worth so much."
Instead of the 33 percent mentioned by Hickey, Hardbarger is also hearing that land values are up 300-400 percent. Those numbers don't mean a property owners taxes will triple, she said.
The board will be facing a real dilemma in June when it sets the new tax rate. All government services and agencies supported by the local government face the same increases in gasoline and heating oil and electricity as are borne by private citizens.
If the board reduces the tax rate, Hardbarger wonders how the county will meet all the stated needs. With an aging population and increased cost, supervisors may have no choice but to wear black hats and raise taxes.
Thompson has already taken the first step in appealing the new valuations on his property. But after meeting with the appraiser he has more questions than answers. He has a list of questions about the entire process he'd like the board of supervisors to answer.
Like many people, Thompson thinks the appraisers developed "categories" for properties instead of doing parcel by parcel appraisal. He'd like to know how those categories were developed and how properties were assigned to a specific category. "It is my belief that the assessors have accepted the sale prices of costly properties marketed by land developers and the best properties sold by locals who capitalized on the inflated prices and used both of those as the major basis for assessing property."
Many people share Thompson's beliefs and many are likely to ask similar questions Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the board of supervisors.
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