Dinwiddie to consider changing reassessment process

DINWIDDIE -- In response to 2008 property reassessments that showed a significant increase in property values, the Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors is considering several options to improve the reassessment process.

The 2008 reassessment, the first in four years, showed that residential property values went up an average of 47.4 percent, and some residents complained about increases of as much as 300 percent. The results created public outrage and led to several county actions, including a 19-cent reduction to the real estate tax rate and the approval of a new reassessment this year.

County Administrator W. Kevin Massengill last week presented the board with four options that he said address ways to improve the process and that could eventually lead to much significant changes, including the creation of an Office of the Assessor.

The options the board will discuss at a special meeting this afternoon are:

• Hiring someone to oversee the reassessment process who would make sure the data collected are being correctly evaluated. This person would report regularly to the board.

• Establishing a board of assessors. The board would appoint one resident from each district to oversee the reassessment process. This board will also report to the supervisors.

• Establishing a sales-ratio process. The county would hire an appraiser who would conduct a study of the sales ratio to determine how accurate the last three assessments were.

• Staying with the current process.

Massengill said he hopes the board will take action soon on these choices, especially because the county is preparing to conduct the special reassessment this year.

The board in February authorized another reassessment, which would cost the county about $350,000, and does not replace the 2008 assessment.

Dinwiddie assesses property values every four years, unlike most area localities, which do so every one or two years. Going four years between assessments is a factor in the values rising significantly, officials said.

Eventually, the supervisors will have to make a decision on whether to continue doing the assessments every four years or moving to every two years. In the long term, the county is also studying whether to create an office of the assessor, give the commissioner of the revenue the responsibility to conduct the assessment or continue to hire a company to do it.

Resident John Wamsley, whose property assessment rose to $301,000 from $160,000 last year, praised the county's work into improving the process and studying last year's reassessment, which he said were not properly conducted.

Wamsley said he wouldn't mind paying more if it meant that his property would be correctly assessed.

Commissioner of the Revenue Lori K. Stevens will be at tomorrow's meeting to offer her observations of the process. The county may assign her office a more direct role in overseeing the upcoming reassessment, county officials said.

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or .