Large turnout expected in Dinwiddie tonight over property tax assessments
A big turnout of Dinwiddie County residents is expected at a public hearing tonight on the proposed real estate tax rate.
The Board of Supervisors has proposed a real estate tax rate of 77 cents per $100 of assessed value, 10 cents less than the current rate. The proposed reduction has not pleased residents whose property assessments rose dramatically this year.
The hearing will be at 7 p.m. in the Dinwiddie High School auditorium, 11501 Boisseau Road.
The 2008 reassessment, the first in four years, showed residential property values went up an average 47.4 percent. The reassessment notices sent in December spurred public outrage, with some residents complaining about increases of as much as 300 percent.
At the proposed rate, local revenues from real estate taxes in the next fiscal year are projected at $16.5 million, or $1.7 million more than the real estate tax revenues in the current budget.
The real estate tax rate would need to be slashed to 61.5 cents to offset the impact of the reassessment, county officials said. Two of five supervisors have said they would favor approving a lower rate than the one proposed.
Residents have complained about the increase in land value, saying it was unreasonable considering a struggling U.S. housing market and the economic crisis.
John Wamsley, whose property assessment rose from $160,000 to $301,000, said the board can expect a big turnout tonight. He said residents who have organized to protest the 2008 reassessment — the United Voices of Taxpayers in Dinwiddie— are organizing to attend the hearing and dozens of concerned residents are expected.
“It is going to be a busy night,” said Wamsley.
Frank Moore, another resident, said he and others he knows are unhappy with the reassessments and think the board’s option to lower the rate is not the acceptable solution.
“What they have come up with is not going to be satisfactory for the voter,” he said. “People are very disgusted.”
(Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or )
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Reader Reactions
qhgirl… resetting property values only when the home is sold won’t work. What if a home stays in a family for four generations? You’re paying taxes on property 80 years undervalued. Even staying in a home for 10 years would badly skew tax revenues between properties. When it was found out the home one person bought is taxed three times higher than the same exact home that’s had the same owner for 30 years, most folks would go bonkers.
The answer is to do reassessments more than once every four years. We’ve just gone through three years of the highest property value gains in history. Even if the economy hadn’t tanked the assessments provided would have everyone up in arms. Used to be governments would revalue once every seven years, when property only increased 3-5 percent per year in value. These last few years, though, with property value going through the roof, Dinwiddie made a big mistake in not ordering a reassessment in 2006.
The only way to fix this immediately is to go to $.65 and order a reassessment. Doing that, though, will delay revenue coming into government and will affect services.
They have pulled this same shell game in other counties. When I was in Powhatan, values were assessed dramatically.. pretty much doubled. The pain for the citizen is that we don’t “realize” any gain on our properties until we sell.. so while our homes may become worth more over time (or not as the current economic downturn has dictated), we don’t necessarily get any in pocket value for that increase. Yet, we are asked to pay higher taxes on this unrealized gain. The shell game is played when the counties then start monkeying around with the tax rate.
It would seem more fair to only increase the property values when a home changes hands. That way, the market value is set by the market.. not some appraiser from northern virginia with an inflated sense of property worth! If additional increases in property values needed to be incorporated, a limit of no more than X% per year would be reasonable. That way, people with semi fixed or limited incomes wouldn’t see their cash flow reduced unnecessarily. It isn’t enough to have relief for the elderly.. there are a lot of people who aren’t getting pay raises from both the govt and private sectors. The government is essentially voting themselves an increase in revenue with these property assessment games.
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