Roll right on back to 2005

In the weary business of beating the same drums along with clichés, there prevails the feeling among the proprietors of this space that in some cases a few thumps or a half-dozen is not quite enough. This is so on the subject of the Augusta County reassessment, which supervisors and a Staunton appraisal company doubtlessly and futilely hope will soon slip from memory. The former could make that happen to some extent by taking a necessary step which they have not yet determined to do: Roll back the reassessment to 2005.

That is the urging of attorney Francis Chester, who so far has acquired the backing of precisely one supervisor, Tracy Pyles of Pastures – the lone hombre among his kind in chafing at the reassessment – a growing number of petition signers and us. What sticks in the craws of Chester, his gathering cadre of reassessment rebels, Pyles and people possessed of slight semblances of logic is that appraisers increased residential property values by an average of 27.7 percent over four years. This qualifies not as mere accounting, but a remarkable feat, given the housing market’s abyss-ward tumble.

Their heads feeling like our battered drum, supervisors pledged Wednesday to keep tax revenues even next fiscal year with this year, a move most supervisors initially resisted. The assumption that this would solve the problem is false. The most convenient means of keeping taxes level is to lower the rate, something we have urged repeatedly. However, this carries an inherent flaw – some people, likely thousands of them, would pay significantly higher taxes while thousands of others would get a tax cut. So rises a question of fairness.

Recognizing that pleasing all is always a difficult endeavor and an impossible one in the case of reassessments, we ordinarily would shrug away concerns over disparities in tax bills. This case is different because of the size of the reassessment increase at a time when values elsewhere are declining or rising only marginally, as in Waynesboro, where the jump was 3.7 percent over two years.

Augusta, assuredly, did not ride the wave of inflated pricing from the crest of which towns in Northern Virginia and even neighboring Albemarle County have fallen with resounding splats and splashes. So a modest increase here, the sort of thing that occurs in the natural order of reassessments, should not have surprised. But the values compiled by Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal of Staunton soared by a third initially, then settled at an increase of more than a fourth after supervisors directed the company last fall to take a second look.

Property owners like Chester have the feeling that something is dreadfully wrong. So, too, do we. While Augusta avoided the dramatic ebbs and flows of the real estate market, it has not and cannot avoid housing’s continuing tumble. Home sales are freezing, prices are falling and real estate agents are fretting. Whether the reassessment is a matter of bad timing or bad numbers – we suspect both factors apply – supervisors need to slam the brakes and review the data.

Keeping revenues level for a year will not repair what could be broken in the reassessment. What of next year in the event the economy revives? Property owners should be expected to pay only on accurate values. If there are tinges of doubt, and here we see far-reaching shades, supervisors are duty-bound to their constituents to ensure that the numbers are correct.

It is the inclination of elected officials to look for quick, easy exits when temperatures in the room rise. Augusta supervisors, with Pyles as the enduring exception, are reaching for the corners of the rug in search of a place to sweep away what looks to be a large mess. The temporary fix of leveling revenues is insufficient.

Delaying state-mandated reassessments costs communities their share of Alcoholic Beverage Control profits, in Augusta’s case about $38,000 annually. That price would be well worth getting right the values on more than 38,000 properties. Supervisors can expect Chester, property owners and us to keep pounding the point until it finally reaches home.