Lost amidst the firehose of news we are bombarded with is this little piece in today’s newspaper, focused on the plebeian but important function of local government – determining property assessments and setting property tax rates.
As this headline indicates, residential property assessments in James City County increased over the past two years since the last assessment in 2022. I had an interesting conversation about this yesterday at my precinct (with my coworkers, not voters). One woman started complaining about her increased assessment, seeming to imply that the increase in the value of her property was some kind of conspiracy to raise her taxes. We talked a little about how assessments are done – basically, looking at the sales price of comparable houses in the area – and, while she acknowledged that the sales prices of houses across our area have gone up, she didn’t think that this actually impacted the value of her house and that her increased taxes would be a rip-off.
When I said I was glad to see that my asset (my house) had increased in value, her response was “You’re the first person I’ve talked to who is happy to pay higher taxes.” Huh?
Then I said something about how higher property taxes meant more money for schools, and she said that the schools shouldn’t get more money because they were doing a (in her words) “terrible job.” Again, huh?
Then another election worker who was part of our discussion commented that he “didn’t care about the public schools because his child went to Walsingham” – a local private school. When I asked him if he cared whether children other than his own got a good education, he backed off a little, saying “Of course” he cared. But I don’t believe him.
I understand that increased taxes payable this year are a family budget hit when the value of the asset isn’t monetized – if they’re on the edge financially (as many families are), they might need to take out additional debt against the increased value of their home to pay their increased tax bill. Depending on their current credit situation, that might not be easy. Maybe my situation is different than theirs – I’m probably 10 years older than the woman I was talking to and 35 years older than the man who made the Walsingham comment. I’m much closer to the point in time when we (or our heirs) might decide to sell our house, so the increased value seems more real to us.
It was an interesting conversation. There was clearly more to be said, but we had voters to attend to. And even though they didn’t tell me what political party they identified with (because we don’t alk about such things in the precinct), I’m pretty sure I know – just like they know mine.
How did schools become such a target? People who know nothing about what's going on in schools, like education, have opinions?
I never worry about the taxes that I pay. Everything costs money, education, roads, water, oversight (on practically everything). If you don't like the taxes you pay then go someplace else.