Greensboro Birds

Someone’s always trying to grab a piece of your pile. This month for us, it’s the Rockingham County tax department with their fantastical property revaluations. According to the county, for instance, the market value of our new house—with no effort or improvements on our part—actually bucked the national trend of falling values and increased 15 percent since the tax board’s own initial valuation in late 2007. How about them apples! We’re appealing, of course, because that’s absurd. Ours is a common story, and many others’ are even more outrageous, some with increases upwards of 100 percent for landlocked, unimproved land.

If you live in Rockingham County and have been adversely affected by the revaluation, save February 9 at 6:30 p.m. for a big cranky town meeting with the tax folks. Location tbd, but be assured I’ll tell you as soon as I hear. Star News has been a great resource for local residents on the topic. Tune in during Mark Childrey’s nightly call-in show and you’ll surely hear all about it (usually 5 to 7 p.m., channel 5 if you have Time Warner digital cable, or watch online).

Don’t be complacent. Delaying this revaluation is possible. Mecklenburg County, home of Charlotte, NC, wisely postponed revaluation until 2011—and they have more to lose with the delay, having a larger, wealthier population and more valuable property. Person County has done likewise, and Stanly County followed suit, rescinding its revaluation on January 20 “due to current economic conditions.” At an earlier meeting, the Stanly County manager said a delay would require undoing lots of work but they could make it happen (love that can-do spirit!). NC Dept. of Revenue rep Micheal Brown, on the other hand, opined that it was too late considering the time and money spent on the project. (Note that he didn’t say it couldn’t be delayed, only that the NCDOR preferred that it wouldn’t be.) Ultimately, Stanly County commission chairman Tony Dennis was the voice of reason:

“We’re not in a recession, we’re in a depression and I don’t see it getting any better any time soon. It’s like we’re sitting in an ivory tower looking for money from people that don’t have any,” Dennis said.

“Furthermore, there may be people sitting here tonight that might not have a job in 90 days. We’re in times we’ve never seen before with the collapse of our entire economy.”

Speaking to their job at hand, Dennis said: “We’ve got to try and look into the future and try and help the people we’re elected to serve.”

Here’s hoping the ivory tower sitters in Rockingham County can be convinced of the long-term damage they will inflict on our county if they move forward with this poorly timed revaluation. The quadruple whammy of the recession, 1,000-plus lost local jobs, high in-town taxes rivaling Greensboro’s, and these unrealistic revaluations will make recovery from this recession and future growth even harder for an already struggling county.