It appears that Albemarle has increased tax assessments pretty sharply, if cvillenews.com submissions are any sort of a metric. Writes mmike87: “It seems that Albemarle’s money troubles are over. With little fanfare, Albemarle County raises real estate assesments 20-30% for everyone I talked to. For many , this amounts to a tax increase of over $200 a year. Not bad – a 20+% tax increase with no press, no fuss, and no arguments from the general public.” And Big_Al writes: “We received our “Notice of Reassessment” yesterday, which introduced us to a whopping 26-1/2% increase over the 2001 assessment, and an equally startling 17% increase over our mid-2001 purchase price. I find it hard to believe that our property has experienced that much of a value increase in such a short time, and we’re not looking forward to the tax increase. Apparently, we’re not alone, as co-workers (and other posters on cvillenews.com) have related similar experiences. Am I wrong in thinking that this is an obscene attempt to raise revenues on the taxpayers’ backs without actually raising taxes? Surely, if the Board of Supervisors had attempted to raise ANY tax by 27% they’d be shouted down and possibly face difficult reelection prospects. This way, they can mask the increase by proclaiming Albemarle County is a great place to live with alarmingly rising property values.” Has anybody else had similar experiences? Aren’t Albemarle’s property values, like Charlottesville’s, simply based on market value, and not subject to forces of government whim? Or is there room for a sneaky tax hike?
Sideblog
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