The Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors yesterday authorized the county administrator to conduct a property reassessment this year. Supervisors also said they would like to hire their own assessor in the future and change the assessment cycle from every four years to every two. The reassessment was approved in response to the 2008 process, which spurred public outrage and showed an average 50 percent jump in land values despite a struggling U.S. housing market.

The assessments that help determine Richmond real estate tax bills will be barely changed, on average, this year. Although much of the nation has seen home prices tumble, a preliminary review in the city shows the taxable value of existing real estate rose 0.86 percent to $20.16 billion, City Assessor James D. Hester said yesterday. The slight increase means that unless the City Council changes the current tax rate, real estate tax bills won’t change much. Property owners’ assessment notices should be in the mail shortly.