Give values closer look

It is fortuitous for Augusta County taxpayers that among noggins of granite, Tracy Pyles’ is made of thicker stuff than most. The Pastures District supervisor, who has carved an image of himself as a maverick (John McCain, comparatively, is piffle), for months has toted tirelessly the torch of property owners aggrieved by the reassessment. His half-dozen fellow supervisors have brandished stubborn befuddlement like a shield, warding off the whistling arrows of common sense. At last, Pyles and taxpaying fist-shakers may be getting through.

Before another packed house Wednesday at the government center in Verona, supervisors gave Pyles approval to review the methodology and work of Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal Company, the Staunton-based outfit that remarkably increased county residential property values by an average of 27.7 percent over four years. Staunton and Waynesboro values increased less than 5 percent over two years. Elsewhere, in Albemarle and Chesterfield counties, values declined.

Pyles also wants to review sales data used by Blue Ridge. We took a look at sales figures for a story last month. Here is what we found: Home sales peaked in Augusta County and Waynesboro in June 2007, when 174 units were sold and the median sales price was $206,450. By last September, the local market was chugging to a near-standstill. Volume dipped to 72 units and the median prices tumbled to $149,500, a drop of more than a fourth over the high in June 2007.

A bit of perspective: Blue Ridge conducted the reassessment starting in summer 2007, or roughly at the time sales and prices were spiking. The company finished its work slightly more than a year later, reporting that values had increased by a third. Supervisors in September – the same month the median price plunged to a three-year low – delayed the reassessment until the end of the year.

Suspecting Blue Ridge still did not have the numbers right, Pyles has pushed for another delay, throwing his support behind local lawyer and sheep farmer Francis Chester’s push to roll back values to 2005. At Pyles’ request, county Attorney Pat Morgan will review legal options for delaying the reassessment.

But a residue of recalcitrant thickness remains. County school board Chairman David Shiflett showed up at the meeting Wednesday to urge supervisors to proceed with the reassessment and to restore slashed money to the county school budget. Be reminded, Chairman Shiflett, there’s a recession on, which requires tightened spending. Let schools and government join the hard reality occupied by the rest of world.

Meanwhile, Riverheads Supervisor Nancy Sorrells took to rhetorical finger-wagging at the idea of reining in the runaway train that is the reassessment process. Supervisors, she said, have gone as far as they can legally in delaying the reassessment.

Well, yes. But what Sorrells neglected to mention is that the state penalty for failing to approve a reassessment in the mandated time is the equivalent of a flick to the nose. Augusta would lose its share of alcohol sales profits from the state, which would amount to less than $40,000 annually. Call us hopeless optimists, but we suspect a county that spent more than $170 million on schools and government last year can withstand the loss of $40,000.

This is particularly true given the fact that Pyles and others – including us – have raised questions about the accuracy of the assessment numbers. The sales figures indicate what an awareness of circumstances suggests, that the market’s health has taken a turn for the worse, which should be reflected in values.

Sorrells and Shiflett appear to say to taxpayers, questions be damned, the reassessment must ramble on, no matter its accuracy. We say to Sorrells and the rest of supervisors, ensuring that the values are correct is the first thing. And to Pyles and property owners, we say keep up the good fight. We stand firmly in your corner.