Posted on 03/04/2009 12:42:18 PM PST by MitchellC
Lawyers dispute it can't be undone
HILLSBOROUGH -- More than 200 taxpayers packed the Central Orange Senior Center, and sheriff's deputies turned away dozens more who came to protest the recent countywide revaluation.
Hillsborough lawyer Cynthia Shriner countered County Attorney Geoff Gledhill's claim that the county can't rescind the revaluation because Jan. 1 has come and gone. She said all the commissioners have to do is overturn a decades-old decision to revalue Orange County's properties every four years and take advantage of the state law that requires it only every eight years.
At least three other counties scheduled to implement revaluations this year have decided to delay them because of the state of the economy.
Local real-estate broker Tom Whisnant started to read a letter from Thomas Harrington, a Rockingham County lawyer. Commissioners Chairwoman Valerie Foushee cut him off. "Mr. Whisnant, your time has expired," she said.
"He can have my time!" two women yelled from the crowd, one after the other. The audience erupted in applause, and Foushee allowed Whisnant to continue.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
vote them out
More people who ‘get it’.
More people who read Atlas Shrugged and have found their spines??
Yet at that Orange county meeting if you asked for a show of hands for those who voted a straight Democrat party ticket, most of the hands would go up. People keep voting for more spending and then seemed shocked when their taxes go up. All those ‘for the children’ educaton bills that get passed and never work carry a price tag.
More than 200 taxpayers packed the Central Orange Senior Center, and sheriff's deputies turned away dozens more who came to protest the recent countywide revaluation.It appears that many Orange county residents are getting exactly what they asked for and voted for. The liberal elite in Carrboro and Chapel Hill have passed restrictive land use policies including an urban growth boundary causing housing prices to skyrocket over the last four years since the last revaluation.
Clementine Self, who lives in the Carrboro end of the Northside neighborhood, north of Franklin and Main streets, said newcomers to Chapel Hill and Carrboro were driving up home values, driving up property taxes, and driving out lifelong residents.
"We cannot afford the taxes that you are asking us to pay," she said. "We will be in tax closure instead of foreclosure."
Updates this morning.
http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/story/1429061.html
Published: Mar 04, 2009 07:06 PM
Modified: Mar 04, 2009 07:12 PM
Revaluation revolution
Comment on this story
The lousy economy and a nationwide collapse in housing values have hit home in Orange County on the heels of a property revaluation carried out near the peak of the boom. Hundreds of taxpayers have turned out at protests in Hillsborough, and because many other counties are in a similar fix, the incipient tax revolt may spread.
Nothing that county commissioners can do will erase hard-pressed property owners’ fear that they won’t be able to pay their taxes. Adjustments can and should be made, however, to correct imbalances in the new valuations.
Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, happens to have been a hotbed of tax protest activity just before the Revolution. British colonial authorities prevailed, hanging several rebellious Regulators. It’s ironic that in recent years, Orange’s revenue growth has been the fastest of Triangle-area counties. Property taxes are particularly high in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Property tax rates are separate from the property values they’re applied to, and that’s true even after a revaluation. Overall, a revaluation, even to an unrealistically high level – as may be the case right now, with prices down and few properties selling – doesn’t have to equal a tax increase, provided the tax rate drops.
For individual owners, however, the situation may be more complex and distressing. In any revaluation, some will see their property valued more than the average increase, bearing a greater share of the overall tax burden. In this group, some will have just cause for complaint (perhaps the appraiser goofed), and others won’t (their property value really did increase at an above-average rate). Tax revolters need to be clear about these distinctions.
There is, after all, an avenue of appeal for people who feel their property has been valued incorrectly, and they should take It. Meanwhile, county officials, and those in the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, should, consistent with providing essential services, prepare to cinch their revenue belts.
http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1112914.cfm
Revaluation legal questions remain
By Lisa A. Young : The Herald-Sun
lyoung@heraldsun.com
Mar 5, 2009
HILLSBOROUGH — Plenty of questions still remain over whether Orange County can legally rescind its latest property tax revaluation after a heated public comment session at the Board of County Commissioners meeting earlier this week.
County Attorney Geoff Gledhill told commissioners that they could have stopped the revaluation process at any time before the beginning of the year, but the county is now “legally committed” to the revaluations and can’t throw them out.
Tom Whisnant, a real estate agent who spoke on behalf of the protest group Orange County Tax Revolt, pointed out that at least two other counties — Rockingham and Stanly — have decided to delay their revaluations until the economy improves.
Whisnant read a letter from Rockingham County attorney Thomas Harrington, who said that counties are complying with state law as long as they revaluate properties every eight years. Orange County does revaluations every four years — the last one was in 2005 — but Harrington wrote that the county is not obligated to do another revaluation until 2013.
County commissioners will soon set the tax rate and begin drafting next year’s budget. They have pledged to keep the tax rate “revenue neutral,” but the promise means little to those whose property values have shot up higher than the average. Commissioner Barry Jacobs has said that his own property value rose above average, and will cost more in taxes.
More than 200 people crowded into the Central Orange Senior Center on Tuesday night to plead with commissioners to reconsider the revaluations, which could increase property taxes for the vast majority or residents.
The meeting, which took place after The Chapel Hill Herald’s news deadline, was not intended to be a “tax meeting,” but commissioners listened to residents’ concerns for about an hour. Many residents called for a redo of the revaluations, while others simply told the commissioners how the revaluation affected them personally and pleaded that they “do something.”
“It’s not a coincidence that thousands of people are showing up for these meetings,” Whisnant said, alluding to a meeting last week that drew 1,400 concerned citizens. “People are not happy about the situation. This is an opportunity for you to stand up and make a tough decision.”
Commissioners Chairwoman Valerie Foushee said the board would carefully consider everyone’s comments. As county officials mull their next step, protesters have vowed to flood the tax office with appeals.
Resident P.H. Craig, a real estate appraiser, reminded commissioners that the revaluations are generally based on estimates, not actual appraisals, and many of the property values were calculated before the bottom fell out from under the housing market.
“[This] may be the most expensive revaluation you’ve ever had,” Craig said. “If all these people appeal, you’ll have to go out and get real appraisals. If they fill out these forms, it’s going to jam the system — and frankly, that’s what I’ve been urging them to do.”
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