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Bath cancels reassessment
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - Bath county property owners can throw away the reappraisal notices received in the mail three weeks ago. Tuesday, the board of supervisors voted to terminate the contract with Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal for the current reassessment, barely two weeks before it was scheduled to be completed.
The board met in emergency session at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning in room 115 of the courthouse. Monday at the budget work session of the supervisors and school board, supervisors Richard Byrd and Stuart Hall joined in calling for the emergency meeting to "discuss contractual matters."
Board members said Monday and again before the meeting Tuesday they planned to hold a closed session to discuss the performance of BRMA prior to acting in open session.
The Recorder objected to the legality of the closed session to discuss an existing contract. After phone consultation with county attorney Mike Collins, the board convened the emergency session and remained in open session for about 30 minutes. On a motion by Byrd to terminate the contract for "the convenience of the county," supervisors voted 5-0 in favor, making the decision effective noon, Tuesday.
A follow up motion directed county administrator Bonnie Johnson to contact BRMA immediately and inform the company of the decision. Late Tuesday, Johnson did not know if BRMA had packed up and left the courthouse where they had been holding hearings with property owners. Those hearings were scheduled to end Tuesday.
Terminating the contract means the end of the reassessment, Johnson. Property values will remain as set by the last reassessment in 2005 and taxes for the upcoming fiscal year will be based on those 2005 values.
Johnson did not know when another assessment would be undertaken. State law requires every locality reassess at least every six years. As pointed out by supervisor Percy Nowlin Tuesday, the county must reassess by 2011 under state law.
Before making the motion to terminate, Byrd summarized the options facing the county. He said continuing with the assessment and later adjusting the tax rate was "inconceivable and will not work."
He pointed out land values increased as much as 1,000 percent. "You cannot offset by lowering the tax rate," when the increase is so high, he said.
Under the contract BRMA was required to complete the reassessment and sign off on the new books by March 31. If that had been done, Byrd noted, "The board has no control."
While the specific reason for termination was "convenience," the supervisors agreed BRMA had simply run out of time to complete the job properly. Byrd noted a reassessment of this size would normally take 16 months. Bath County gave BRMA eight months, which included a threemonth, court-approved extension.
In addition, Byrd said the 17 land sales used to value property were in adequate given the more than 5,000 parcels of property in the county.
The reassessment has been unpopular since landowners received notices at the end of February. Over 100 people attended the supervisors' meeting last week and nearly half of them spoke to complain about the assessment.
Last month, David Hickey of BRMA told the board the average property increase among properties outside of the Homestead Preserve was 43 percent. Landowners complained of increases in the value of raw land, including steep mountain land, of 300-400 percent up to 700 percent. On Tuesday, supervisors noted a landowner with a 1,000 percent increase.
Supervisor Carol Hardbarger said her property increased by 300 percent. Like many landowners, she questioned whether BRMA field staff had sufficient time to adequately examine her property. She said she was concerned about the budget, the reassessment, and balancing the needs of county government "against how much money we have."
Terminating the contract, Hardbarger said, "seems to be the right and fair thing to do rather than the easy thing to do."
The 14 citizens in attendance agreed with the board, cheering and applauding the decision to cancel the contract.
Nowlin said the board was not putting the blame on BRMA. Like the other supervisors, he noted BRMA did not have enough current sales or enough time.
Nowlin did say the county will to need to raise the tax rate, adding the county would continue to lose tax money from Dominion and other public corporations.
Under the contract, the county must pay BRMA for work completed if the contract is cancelled. Johnson said she did not know exactly how much that would be until the county received a bill from BRMA. The contract was for $90,000 and most of the work has been completed.
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