The risk of doing nothing

If the reassessment goes forward it will have severe financial impacts on Augusta County.

As background you should know that the largest revenue source for Augusta County is the state’s “Direct Aid to Public Education.” For Augusta County, this is about $5,955 per student, or $64 million. This compares to the $30 million that the county receives from real estate taxes.

The $5,955 is not the result of simple math where total state aid is divided by the number of students. That average is just $4,900 per student which would translate to a revenue loss of $12,000,000 annually. What gives us above average funding is the composite index which is used to determine a locality’s ability to pay. The more you are worth the less you get. For contrast, affluent Fairfax County receives $2,849 per pupil while rural Lee County receives $8,902. 

I am not trying to find a way to avoid losing what we fairly ought to lose. Rather, I am trying to prevent us from being unfairly penalized. I believe, and can substantiate, that the proposed reassessment is overstated. The primary problem is the use of aged information to determine present values. This overstatement will have large and sure consequences on our state funding.

The largest factor in determining a county’s wealth is its property values. Increasing our values by 30 percent increases our composite index by 15 percent, taking it from .3299 to .3794. Powhatan County has a .3790 composite index rating and it receives $5,279 per student. If we were to be funded at that level, the school board would lose $7.2 million in future annual direct aid.

If my board believes this county is 30 percent richer than 4 years ago and that we are able to forgo significant future funding to help some other localities, then the reassessment should go through.

If the board believes that this county is experiencing the same decline of values that are being seen across Virginia and the nation, and that its school children should not be penalized for a flawed process, then it should join me in stopping the reassessment before it does significant damage to our financial well-being.

The board can throw up its hands and say we are helpless or it can assert itself to take measures that will put off the reassessment for two years. The risk of doing nothing is much more than the risk of doing something.

Tracy Pyles
Augusta County supervisor
Patures District