Meeting With Supervisor Yields Answers– Sort of.

February 6, 2007 |

I mentioned earlier that I was having a sit-down with Charles Allbaugh. Allbaugh is a Rivanna District representative on the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors. I wanted to meet with him in order to get some type of feel for how the administration in the county is reacting to the recent assessments, and what, if anything, is planned for the future.

I met with Allbaugh last night for about a half-hour. He was very open to discussing the issue, and seemed very willing to help however he can. After having the meeting, however, it became very obvious that there is little he, or anyone else in county government can do at this point.

In case you haven’t been following along, allow me to briefly recap the situation– Fluvanna County conducted a real estate reassessment during 2006. The new assessments were mailed to property owners in January. To the dismay of many, assessments increase and average of 49%. In case you are wondering, Fluvanna’s last assessment was conducted two years ago. Since the assessments have been received, many homeowners have been scheduling appointments to challenge their assessment, with varying degrees of success. As a result of the assessment, Fluvanna has announced that the revenue neutral tax rate for the county is $.40/$100 (the current rate is $.59/$100). Essentially, after the county has conducted its budget meetings and settled on a tax rate, any rate higher than the 40 cents would be considered a tax increase.

My meeting with Allbaugh made one thing very clear: the assessment is over. Nothing will be done to change the assessments on a county-wide basis. At this point, only individuals will be able to challenge their assessments. Individuals will have an opportunity to have their assessment reviewed by the Board of Equalization if they think it is incorrect. At this point, the only concession that is being made is to waterfront property owners at Lake Monticello. It appears that Blue Ridge Appraisals (the company contracted to do the assessment) is going to review the value given to waterfront land and adjust it downward.  Despite any amount of evidence that supports the opinion that the assessments are too high (more on that later), the county is legally prohibited from having the assessments lowered “en masse.”  It is up to each individual citizen to challenge his or her assessment.

At this point, the county seems to be treating the assessment like spilled milk.  Unfortunately, or fortunately for Supervisors, we are heading into budget season.  This means that the adminstration’s time is going to be taken up by budget meetings and discussions.  Typically, this is their busiest time of the year.  This may serve to effectively quash any discussion of the accuracy of the assessment as people turn their focus to other things.  If you thought the public fervor was strong regarding the assessment, wait until the board starts is discussion on the tax rate.

On that note, if you have any concerns or comments on the assessment, the next Board Of Supervisors meeting is Wednesday, February 7th at 2:00pm and 7:00pm at the Board of Supervisors room in Palmyra.  There will be time for public comments at each meeting, so this is a great opportunity to make yourself heard.

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Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Fluvanna, News, Taxes 

Comments

One Response to “Meeting With Supervisor Yields Answers– Sort of.”

  1. on May 15th, 2007 12:22 am

    Hello:

    I am responding to this issue by campaigning against the incumbent Commissioner of the Revenue. My objectives are below:

    1. Change the Culture and Thinking in the Fluvanna leadership from “we have to have real property tax re-assessments” to “we can get accurate assessments with minimal appeals and improved revenues.”

    Of the 14 Virginia counties similar to Fluvanna, we have the 10th worst error rate on property assessments of the 14. No one in Fluvanna leadership appears to be looking at the more successful counties with a view toward adopting their techniques/contractor. Instead, they are analyzing whether our contractor did worse inside the Lake or worse outside the Lake. A more positive vision of real property assessments needs to be adopted within the leadership. I am currently working with more successful counties to find a solution for Fluvanna.

    Inaccurate assessments are a persistent problem in Fluvanna. The county should have known when it hired Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal Company for the second time that the company’s error rate in Fluvanna was about 33% for the 2004-5 re-assessment. They hired them again, nonetheless.

    Fluvanna regularly has a high error rate, which results in over-taxing some citizens and under taxing others. That public information comes to me through the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, UVA. They annually publish Virginia Local Tax Rates, which is derived, in part, from the Virginia Department of Taxation data. The tax data reconciles Fluvanna County’s assessment valuation with a property’s ultimate market price.

    2. Increase Efficiency of Fluvanna Tax Collections & Generate more Investment Revenue for County

    • The use of optical scanning devices improves efficiency of tax collection because employees of the county can process a larger volume of tax payments in less time than employees of other counties.

    • Another method that improves tax collection efficiency is the use of a “lock box” system. With this system, tax payments are mailed directly to a bank that processes the payments, makes daily deposits into the receiver’s bank account and notifies the receiver when funds are available. The bank also provides the tax payment information to the county in an electronic format that is compatible with county software. Because there are usually no fees associated with the use of a lock box service, the use of a lock box not only improves efficiency but also is highly cost effective. Other benefits derived from the use of a lockbox system include: increased security of tax collection, faster turnover of money to the County and, therefore, faster availability of funds for investment purposes.

    Both of these approaches could create efficiencies and increase revenues collections in Fluvanna.

    3. Adopt Better Web Technology & Content to help Fluvanna Taxpayers do Business with the County.

    Use smart web-technology to assist applicants for the land use valuation program in making their applications; provide inter-active, pre-determinations of eligibility for Elderly & Disabled Tax Relief Program; provide step-by-step information to taxpayers when filing a tax appeal – including an example of a successful appeal.

    4. Establish Performance Measures to Ensure the Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness of Fluvanna Tax Collection process.

    If we do adopt performance measures, Fluvanna will not be devoting resources to maintaining relatively inefficient tax collection operations.
    FOR MORE ON MY PLATFORM: SEE my campaign website:     http://www.jerrypatchen.com/

    Thanks for listening and I hope I have your support.

    Jerry

    [Reply]

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