The Assessment GAME!!!

As we plunge headlong into the pain of another assessment/budget cycle, the question to pose is not what has my assessment done? The question to pose to our City Council, that is the only body that controls the final result in what we pay in real estate taxes is: What are you going to do yet again this year, to hold the line on my taxes???

State code requires that if the aggregate or total assessed values of the City exceeds the last year by over one percent, the associated mil-rate (or tax rate on real estate) must decline by the same percentage that assessments went up. Have you ever heard of this statutory requirement from our Council? Probably not and for good reason… All they want you to hear is that "they are holding a "Public Hearing" because the assessments went up by over one percent". This small and deceptive turn of the English language has deceived most for years and it is time to understand the real purpose of the "Public Hearing". If the assessments go up five percent, then our past year’s mil-rate must go down by five percent, or from ninety four cents to an even ninety cents, or the "new-rate". If the City Council decides that they want to raise this rate back to the "old-rate" of ninety-four cents (and claim they did not raise the rate!!!???), they must hold a "Public Hearing" and let you complain, yet summarily ignore your situation and raise your taxes yet again this year...

The old slight of hand from our council, by using this deceptive language must be addressed this year. We all must demand that the "new-rate" that the statutory code of Virginia defines, be maintained, without change. In this painful and falling market where most of us can’t even sell our homes if we wanted to, must directly state that it is unconscionable for the City Council to deceptively raise the rate of tax on our homes and farms.

How do you insure that this is what happens? In the short term, you must go to the council meetings that will be called in the next few weeks concerning the new FY09 budget and where the new tax rate on real estate is set, to voice your opinion. You must also call, write, and contact your Council Member to voice your demand that the "new-rate" (offset by the rise in assessments) not be deceptively increased this year, as they have done for the past seven years straight. In the longer term, you must do as some of us that are fed-up with this unconscionable scheme are doing. Run for one of the council seats, or at least go out to vote for only those who represent your interests, rather than continue to pad the level of public spending that our Mayor and Council seem addicted to…

I am calling on council not to raise the "new-rate" and as a result not allow an increase in taxes on our homes. Leave the "mil-rate" at the "new-rate" in recognition of only a phantom or unrealized gain on our homes that is not money in our pockets. Ninety cents per one-hundred of assessed value is more than enough. Revenue from taxes for the city is not the problem; the real issue that must be addressed is excessive spending by Council… What is your story???

Roger A. Leonard, MPA