It now looks like the new BOS wants to take control of the reassessment process and wants to take over the whole process and make it "in-house" and use county staff to do some of it...
Do we really want this done in-house and by a staff that is directly influenced by the BOS?...
Will it be that much easier for members of the BOS to manipulate the numbers that they do not like or agree with?...
Unlike before, what happens if you go to challenge the assessment of your property and you are then sitting across from the table of the person appointed by and influenced by the BOS?...
The Newsvirginian has some coverage of the first meeting bring this up last night....
"The supervisors' reassessment committee will confer with Rockingham County government on how its in-house assessment program has worked. At the same time, the board directed Finance Director Jennifer Whetzel to draft a request for proposals from vendors about performing a contracted reassessment."
"Wayne District Supervisor Jeff Moore said voters he talked to last fall were unhappy with the 2009 reassessment. He supports the idea of an in-house assessment, and believes the county would receive a more accurate measurement of residential property values."
"Middle River Supervisor Larry Wills said the in-house annual costs of $550,000 and the climate of the current economic situation would not allow him to support adding staff to the county payroll. He said he could not support an in-house reassessment when it could be done more cheaply by a contractor."
South River Supervisor David Beyeler said using in-house asessors will cost the county taxpayers twice the amount of a contracted reassessment.
"There is no free ride in this,'' Beyeler said. He estimated that the cost to taxpayers in-house would be one additional cent on the tax rate.
"Board of Supervisors Chairman Tracy Pyles said he thinks an in-house assessment would provide more long-term quality to the county, and he also said if the work was done in-house, some staff from the county's commissioner of the revenue office would likely be shifted to work on an in-house team."
The gang may have actually backed itself into a corners on this... Who will they blame this time (assessments always arouse anger)? Actually to judge by the numbers of appeals from last time, there were less issues this time as compared to 05. There was also an article in the Newsleader this past spring showing the assessment #s were right on track two years afterwards. To hear the gang though, you would never know it. Now they want us to spend $ to hire more staff and increase the budget so they can get their way. Will Pyles show up for the assessment meetings this time?
ReplyDeleteI was at the last meeting when TP assigned the supervisors to committee’s. Interestingly, he assigned Supers Karrafa and Wills to the reassessment committee. I thought it was odd since TP had been on that committee for years and years and professed to be the assessment process guru. After thinking about it I came to one conclusion. He assigned those two, so that when the new assessments come out and the uproar starts he can throw supers Karrafa and Wills under the bus, pass blame to them and he can collect the political points.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11:08
ReplyDeleteMight not be as easy for the gang to assemble that legion of mad voters next time now that they understand the process and that before it was nothing but a play on their fears and political tool for the gang.
Anonymous 1:18
TP rode the reassessment issue to re-election with the support of M&M and now will distance himself.
Will the coalition of the gang hold together now that they are in office? If they see people are "watching" them and not giving them a pass will they throw each other under the bus?
ReplyDeleteJust found this site so Iam going to add my 2 cents on the reassessment. My assessment did go up and yes I was more than upset over it, however when the tax rate was lowered I actually ended up paying less each year then my old assessment.
ReplyDeleteDo I want the Board of Supervisors dealing with the reassessment themselves? No I dont and here is why.
I attended the last meeting regarding the verona park and then the new assessment was discussed and the topic of how the last reassessment was delayed came up. Supervisor Byler pointed out it was delayed because of the economy and that home prices were declining. Supervisor Pyles shot back that it was delayed because of the, then, upcoming election and the minutes reflected that. I went back to those minutes (October 22, 2008) on the county website and no where during the discussion was the 08 Election mentioned as the reason for the delay. If it was I certainly didn’t see it in those minutes. The discussion focused on the economy and home prices beginning to decline and delaying the process for 90 days was the only course allowed by law and for the assessment company to reevaluate within that extra time period. Which they did and the 33% was reduced to 27% during that time period.
If we have Supervisors such as Supervisor Pyles willing to flat out misstate the facts of an actual board meeting, I sure as heck don’t trust him having direct manipulation of the assessment process by having it done in-house. We all know too well that politicians will say what they have to, to appease and please even it is misstating the facts.
I hope this site keeps an update on the assessment process this year. I know there are a good many citizens that simply do not trust this new board.
Welcome to the site and feel free to contribute. Numerous people have stepped forward saying that they want to keep an eye on this BOS and keep the issues out there in view. Unfortunately the local newspapers can only report so much and at times only what they are told. If the reporters are only getting the "Packaged" info from the select Supervisors and their followers that is what they will report. It's up to the citizens to come out and state the truth and facts for all to see.....
ReplyDeleteThanks
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