Dinwiddie reduces tax rate on real estate

DINWIDDIE -- Pressured by outraged taxpayers, the Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors last night approved a 19-cent reduction in the real estate tax rate -- still not satisfying the public's demand.

The board voted 4-1 to set a rate of 68 cents per $100 assessed value, slashing it from the current 87 cents.

The decision came after an emotional public hearing at which about two dozen residents denounced the significant rise in recent property reassessments and demanded a big-enough reduction in the rate to offset the increase.

"If you say you have been thinking hard about this tax rate, you are lying to us again," resident Joe Hoggood told the board. "You people are not listening to the taxpayers. You are doing what you want to do."

The board had proposed a real estate tax rate of 77 cents per $100 of assessed value, 10 cents less than the current rate. But the proposed reduction didn't please residents whose property assessments rose dramatically this year.

The 2008 reassessment, the first in four years, showed that residential property values went up an average of 47.4 percent. Some residents complained about increases of as much as 300 percent.

The real estate tax rate would have to be slashed to 61.5 cents to offset the impact of the reassessment, county officials said.

Outraged residents have complained that the increase in land value is unreasonable, considering a struggling U.S. housing market and the economic crisis.

Supervisor Michael W. Stone, who voted against setting the rate at 68 cents, told the public before the vote that reducing the rate would mean the county will have to increase its tax rate next year in order to afford funding the school system.

Vice Chairman Harrison A. Moody, who made the motion to set the rate at 68 cents, said dropping the rate lower was not possible because the county's other sources of revenue, such as personal-property taxes, have dropped and the county's budget is already conservative.

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