assessments

The county assessments are out.  You can find yours at the county website.

Despite the dire warnings I have read on Internet and on blogs, my real estate assessment didn’t go up all THAT much.  At one quick glance I determined that if the $1.158 published tax rate goes through, then I might be paying about $13 [editorial correction from earlier amount] more dollars per month in real estate taxes.  That is not going to break the bank.

The hype and scare that some politicians are trying to work up in the Gainesville District  are simply that, hype and scare.  I heard about all the mock concern for the working class people (read:  those who don’t live in a McMansion)  That would be me.  I am not whining.  I live in a perfectly ordinary older home in a 40 plus year old neighborhood.  Lots of Prince William residents do.  I would say my assessment is pretty typical.  I did notice my house went up 9k more than my neighbor’s house that is the same model.  Maybe it was the bathroom upgrades and the new roof.

I am positive I live in one of the poor neighborhoods.  I know this because Wally Covington announced I did during a February board meeting.  I also know that I make  more than the median income for Prince William.  How do I know this?  I know from Forbes Magazine  that placed Prince William County in position #14  in the top 25 wealthiest counties in the United States.

Even if I had to pay $25 or $30 more per month, I would think that was pretty fair.  Our county employees are overworked and understaffed.  We are 270 cops short of what a community like ours should have for a population of 430,000.  Our teachers haven’t had a significant raise in over 5 years.  They put up with a lot of bull crap.  Our classrooms are jam-packed with kids.  Class size does count.  Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t.

Crime is rising.   I get the county incident reports and I can see it, despite what my supervisor tells me.  Perhaps I keep a more watchful eye. I am concerned scare tactics are being used to attempt to pit the teachers against the cops and the cops against the firefighters.  Who is doing this divisiveness?  From what I am told, the politicians.

My “in-laws” attended a political town hall type meeting the other night and the politicians and older residents were all wringing their hands over what to do about the “teachers’ unions who kept asking for more money.”  Listen up, dumb asses.  There are no teachers unions in Virginia.  The people you are trashing are teachers in their professional associations.  While you sit out in your gated, 55 and up communities, well-heeled, smug, and martini in hand, and moan and bitch about the teachers daring to ask to be compensated at a level commensurate with their education, professional standing and skill level,  remember that your children were educated and I am willing to bet most of you didn’t pay enough taxes per year to educate 1 of your children, much less your entire brood.

Think of it as an investment in the future.  Your reward is not having to go to any more PTA meetings.  Your duty is to open that stingy, mean little wallet that is keeping you in lawn care and a fancy house and help pay the way for the next generation of kids.  If nothing else, they are going to be paying into our social security in the next few years and we want them making plenty of money.  Shame on the politicians who were aiding and abetting this kind of talk also.   You all talk out of both sides of your mouth.

 

 

 

15 Thoughts to “Why the assessment hysteria?”

  1. Confused

    If the published rate goes through, I will pay about $40 more per month. No, I don’t live in a rich area – I live in a modest SFH. My point is that your results will vary based on where you live. If the BOCS is responsible with my money, I’m ok with the increase.

  2. Pat.Herve

    But that is they way things are now – politicians will stand up and say anything to get the crowd going. It does not matter if it is the truth or not – anything to get them going. It also does not matter to them to have a workable alternative.

  3. @Pat, I don’t disagree with you at all.

    @Confused, I wouldn’t mind paying $40 more a month. Your assessment must have really gone up. Mine went up a lot last year. I did pay more but nothing that broke the bank. Maybe $50 more per month.

    Actually, I lied. I will have to pay just under $13 more.

  4. Ray Beverage

    Over here in the CoM, for my 34yo split level of around 1400sq ft on 1/3rd acre, the assessment went up 11.3%. Total value puts me about where I was in 2006, and if the Council goes along with the City Manager’s proposed Tax Rate (RE Tax + Fire Levy + new Jail Levy to cover the $1.5million a year the City pays), I guestimate around an additional $25.00 a month.

    Manager’s proposed budget kept the Departments overall flat for increase over this year. Economic Development Department is fully funded, and nice to see since we need to get that seriously moving. We do have the CIP items, but the City’s credit rating went up and bonds go on sale this coming Tuesday. Buy Municipal Bonds!!! Buy ours!!! 🙂 A hint to those out there who are investing.

    Personally, I view government – especially local government – as business. And sometimes you have to spend money now, to make money later…i.e. Economic Development Department. But there will be those yelling for reductions; can’t wait to see that happening as I have been through the budget and it is not exciting. Plus, even with the new Jail Levy, tax rate will be 1cent lower than this year.

  5. @Ray,

    You all have your fair share of squawkers with tea party mentality over there also. I suspect they would be the first people to howl and moan if some service wasn’t available to them.

    I think most of us in this area want to live in a community with culture, good response time for public first responders, schools, and government services. No one wants their garbage collection to be willy nilly. I am willing to pay more for these services, even though I don’t use the school system. (I do have gkids though)

    I am just tired of listening to all the cheap skates.

  6. Ray Beverage

    Moon, couldn’t agree more.

  7. Confused

    Interestingly, the loudest complainers/squawkers seem to be most concerned about the tax RATE being the highest in Virginia, not with the actual amount of tax they pay. This leads me to believe that Moon is right – they are “cheap”. I wonder if the same people would complain if their tax bills went up $40/month as a result of a combination of higher property assessment, but lower tax rate. (In other words, $100k more house, but $0.10 lower rate — as an example.) I would suspect the issue would then be that the assessments were unfair or that the master plan was unreasonable because it didn’t build enough. I fear they will never be happy.

  8. Censored bybvbl

    I fear they will never be happy.

    That’s exactly right. And some politicians will continue to see that they stay in that negative state.

  9. So we pay our tax bi annually, it is not escrowed into our mortgage. I can easily assess my taxes for the last 11 years. Guess what, this year, comparatively speaking, is one of the lowest. Our highest was 2010, in fact, that year, it was thousands more, not hundreds. I don’t believe, generally, that people really know how their taxes fluctuate, ying and yang, in the last decade.

  10. And yes, my taxes did go up, by about 187 bucks. Boo hoo. Cost of living isn’t stagnant and neither are your taxes.

  11. George S. Harris

    How can it be that people want their property value to go up but they don’t want commensurate increases in their taxes? They want better response times from first responders but they don’t wan’t to pay for it. They want their children to have a good education, pass the SOLs, SAT or ACT and go on to college but they don’t want to pay the teachers or invest in the system that makes all of that possible. They have forgotten that they would not be where they are if it wasn’t for some teachers along the way–teachers that taught them how to read, write, understand math and science, history and our own language. Somehow success seems to wash all of that out of their minds. Today, some 75 years after I started the first grade, I still remember my first grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, and Dick and Jane and their dog Spot and how proud I was when I could read the comics to my brother who is two years younger than I. I remember Mrs. Hetherington who taught us multiplication and fractions–what a struggle. And my typing teacher, Mrs. Wheeler–thank you Mrs. Wheeler, learning to type on that old Royal typewriter has stood me in good stead all these years. ASDFGHJKL; Thank you teachers of so long ago, thank you for helping to make me a success.

    1. Amen,George. You hit the nail on the head. Everyone wants better but doesn’t want to pay for it. Shame. I think those people should move to Shenandoah or Stanley to get their tax break. Of course, their homes won’t be worth nearly as much. They won’t have the course offerings for their kids and there probably won’t even be a police dept. But they will be paying lower taxes.

      Making my way around the blogosphere I hear how some people are expecting the teachers to stop asking for raises. I guess if you go into teaching you do it for free rather than as a career. You know, just like doctors who aren’t making a buck off of sick people. HA!!!

      Good for you for thanking those teachers who helped make you what you are today. (I bet you challenged a few tough old birds!!!)

  12. I wouldn’t mind the taxes if my value went up.

    But the amount stayed high while the value dropped. It did NOT drop back to the same taxes as years ago when that value was the same as the current value.

    Ain’t inflation a bitch?

  13. George S. Harris

    @Cargosquid
    Did the advertised rate go up in Richmond? And yes, inflation is a bitch!

  14. George S. Harris

    Assessment up $17K, Monthly mortgage payment went up $3 a month mostly due to escrow shortfall. Looks like tea estate tax for 2014 is going to go down, not counting all the fees.

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