Um, excuse me?

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Real Estate Assessment came in the mail. Glad I was already feeling ill.

Last year $255k
This year $335k

I guess the water park needs shoes. 

[minx]

Holee Crap!

Ours was about 3 years ago (I think). House jumped in price, but I went on places like Zillow and also just googled recent house sales in my area, and the county was actually a little lower than what homes were selling for at the time. Still was a big jump.

And I find it hard to believe that the water park added that much - I think you're pre-paying for the settlement the school board is going to have to pay Taylor to break that shitty contract.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Not sure how that's going to work since his contract was deemed fraudulent.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

It was my understanding that assessments weren't based on market value. Did that change?

[minx]

I don't know about Spotsy, but in Stafford they are.

On the one hand it's fair - my house should be taxed at market value.
But on the other, it's not because it only gets assessed every 3 or 4 years. If the market values drop before then, my assessment should also.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Fluctuations, bubbles, etc are exactly the reason why it should not be based on the market value. It's also a fact that you'll never pay less tax as a result of decreased market value. They'll just raise the rate.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

And today the BOS has put out an advertised rate with an INCREASE. It's a small increase but with the hyper-inflated assessments, most residents will see a MAJOR increase in their real estate taxes. One of the lone Dems wanted to raise it 5 more cents than they put it at. Fucking animal.

I read one post on another page that said the increased assessment and the current rate would effectively make them lose their home. I'm sure the waterpark has priority over little inconveniences like people losing their homes because of tax increases but I digress.

There's a public meeting on the issue on March 28th. I'm about to order a pitchfork and torche'.

[minx]

Friend is refinancing her house. Original loan has a balloon payment, and even though that payment is far off, it's always been a worry to her.

She's taking $20K in equity to build a bathroom in her basement - she'd like to rent it out.

Appraisal came in yesterday - $420K!

For a 60 year old rambler in South Stafford that needs work. Just insane.

I looked at that number and thought that 420 was appropriate cause the appraiser must be high!

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Tell me again about the American Dream...... because as an oft-quoted late comedian put it...... "you have to be asleep to believe it".

[minx]

And in terms of taxes, it's kind of a dammed if you do dammed if you don't thing right now.

On the one hand, the counties need more revenue so they can pay public employees, maintain schools and fire/police stations.

But there is a significant portion of people who simply don't have money to pay. And another segment who can well afford to pay, but refuse to.

I'd like to see some changes to the funding formulas that the state uses.
First of all, the state should bear some more of the responsibility for funding schools and public services. It's simply not fair that places in Northern VA and even down here get better schools and services because people are more affluent. People in the poorer areas of the state need schools, police and firefighters as much as everyone else.

So set a new formula where the state contributes more per pupil for schools, and more for public services and the counties contribute less - the caveat being that a percentage of the tax money saved will be used for things like upkeep of buildings, roads and parks.
And have a new tax law that allows counties to provide property tax relief to people who make less than xx and have owned their home for yy years.


Not as simple as this, but there needs to be a better way of funding things. And 100% we shouldn't be using taxpayer money to build waterparks or new stadiums!
I would support a tax break each year if they showed a profit, kept prices reasonable (allowing for small increases due to inflation), and employed xx people full time.
And yes, I would support that for other businesses as well.

In fact, I'd say that businesses of less than 50 employees get one tax rate (let's say 5% for the sake of arguement)
Businesses of 50-200 get a rate of 15%, but if they can show that they offer their employees sick days and provide health insurance along with retirement accounts, their rate will be lower. UNLESS those employees need to use public benefits, such as SNAP. Cause that shows that that business isn't paying enough for their employees to actually survive.


We all know that there needs to be a full overhaul of the tax code at both a local, state and federal level. Will it ever happen? Hahahahahahaha!

[Dave's Not Here Man]

We (I say we but I mean ALL governments local state and federal) are stuck in a loop. A prime example I use with people when discussing taxes and taxing authorities, that is 100% fact, is how departments/agencies have to spend their budgets by the FY or not get it in the next FY. I've picked up several government contracts from purchasing agents and dept heads saying "we have to spend this NOW". One was the Fairfax County Schools........... need I say more?

If I'm on the Spotsy BOD and truly working for the taxpaying citizen, I'm adjusting the tax rate to compensate for the increased assessments so that the taxpayer (not discriminating by income) sees minimal increases in their tax liability. As for what is "needed", then just as the taxpayer is expected to spend within their earnings, the government should be required to do the same. Balanced budget is a dirty word in some circles.

[minx]

Oh the use-it-or-lose it philosophy pisses me off big-time.

This year, my car didn't need any repairs. Does that mean I HAVE to spend the money I put aside for that on anything car-related, whether I need it or not? Of course not!
I either let it roll into next year, or divert it to something out of budget (oops, that new roof was more than I expected - let's put the car money there for this year).

The budgets need to be a lot clearer for the general public as well.

So let's take fire/rescue as an example. Public budget for 2023
Salaries - 100,000
Equipment maintenance - $40,000
Uniforms - $20,000
Utilities - $35,000
Equipment replacement $10,000
Reserves - $5,000

At the end of 2023, they have $15,000 left - maintenance wasn't as high as expected, and they didn't need as many uniforms.
And $5,000 in reserves for a new building in 10 years.

Public budget for 2024
Salaries - $120,000 (They need to hire another peep)
Equipment maintenance $40,000
Uniforms - $15,000
Utilities $37,000 (fuel has gone up)
Equipment replacement $8,000
Reserves $5,000

At the end of 2024, they have $5000 left.
And now there is $10,000 in reserve for that building.

If you want all the deets, they are available, but for those who want the basics, they're out there an easy to read.