Augusta County leaders are obviously feeling the heat from citizens over the 2024 property reasessments.
The Augusta County Board of Supervisors, late in the day on Monday, released a statement addressing the furor over the 2024 reassessments, which are pushing property values up significantly for many taxpayers.
Sorry that we can’t be more specific than that. We were promised, last week, a breakdown of how much reasessments are up across the county for residential and commercial property, but we’re still waiting for those numbers.
You know, not surprisingly.
“We recognize the anxiety that residents may feel as a result of the reassessment process. As stewards of our community, it is our responsibility to ensure that we strike a balance between fiscal responsibility and addressing the needs of our residents,” Board Chair Jeff Slaven was quoted in the statement.
The statement cited the avenues that taxpayers have to appeal their reassessment – involving the Augusta County Reassessment Office, the Board of Equalization, and the Augusta County Circuit Court.
You should probably assume going into this that the deck is stacked against you, if the county’s response to its loss in the Freedom of Information Act cases filed by AFP and Breaking Through Media to gain access to audio of an illegally-held closed meeting of the Board of Supervisors is any indication.
The county, through the end of September, had already spent in the area of $6,000 on outside attorneys in that case, which is still active five months, and presumably thousands of more taxpayer dollars, later.
If the county is willing to spend that much money on a cause that even the $150,000-a-year county attorney concedes is a lost cause, imagine what it will be willing to put to keeping the 2024 assessments where they are.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer here.
We had a story up last week detailing how you can go through the appeals process: you can get that information here.
Also here: contact info for your members of the Board of Supervisors, who probably should hear from you directly.
- Jeffrey A. Slaven, Chairman, North River Magisterial District
- Pam L. Carter, Vice-Chair, Pastures Magisterial District
- Carolyn Bragg, South River Magisterial District
- Gerald W. Garber, Middle River Magisterial District
- Scott Seaton, Wayne Magisterial District
- Michael L. Shull, , Riverheads Magisterial District
- Butch Wells, Beverley Manor Magisterial District
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Chris Graham
