City Council has proposed a $0.02 real estate tax rate cut, simultaneous with the announcement that property values in Charlottesville have increased, on average, 12.8%. Said Mayor Cox, “The council has grown increasingly concerned about those who struggle with the unfortunate side effect of high assessments – high taxes. We understand that most people in Charlottesville have not seen a comparable increase in their earnings.” This approach will presumably prevent a reaction like the anger in Albemarle over their assessment increases earlier this month. To afford the rate reduction, Council intends to cut operating costs by 5%. The last time that real estate taxes were cut was in 1990, when they went from $1.13 to $1.11. Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Just checking. Did you really mean for those to be dollar signs, or am I unbelievably right in reading that I now get a 2 cent tax break?
Understand that I’ve yet to pay property taxes, as a renter, and am unfamiliar with city property tax rates.
The tax rate is going to be reduced from $1.11 for each $100.00 of value by two cents to $1.09 for each $100.00 of value. If the city tax assessor says a house is worth $100,000.00 at a rate of $1.11 the tax paid would be $1110.00. Adopting a lower rate of $1.09 will reduce the actual amount of tax to $1090.00 for a grand reduction of $20.00.
It will be interesting to see how many more property owners become eligible for tax relief after the city changes the criteria for relief from a maximum income of $25,000.00/year to $50,000.00 and increases the allowed assets from $75,000 to $100,000 and how much impact this will have on ineligible property owners. Apparently, they feel comfortable with reducing the rate without knowing how many more people are going to be granted tax relief.
BTW, You do pay real estate taxes indirectly through your rent payments to your landlord.
Kevin Cox
Incidentally, the Progress numbers are wrong. The taxes paid on a $180,000 house would be about $2000 a year, not $4000.
It looks like the Progress doubled the actual rates when they calculated the taxes.
Kevin Cox
Explain to me how a .02% tax break combined with a 12.8% value increase is going to lower the taxes people pay.
If I own a house previously valued at $100,000 I’d have paid $1110 at the old rate; if the value of my house is now $112,800 (based on the average increase) I’ll pay $1229.52 based on the new rate.
Am I missing something? Why will operating costs need to be cut when tax revenues will be increasing?
what is this tax relief that you speak of? (not that I’m in the eligible category…) is it a city program? just throw a link at me if you don’t want to explain the whole thing.
thanks!
From The Progress article, "To ease the burden of the elderly and disabled, the council proposed raising the allowed income level of those applying for real estate and rent relief.
Residents over 64 and the disabled can qualify for rental or real estate tax assistance or for real estate tax exemption if their income is under $25,000.
A new proposal would raise that threshold to $50,000, the maximum allowed by the Virginia Code. It also would raise the net worth limit from $75,000 to $100,000, not including a home and one acre of land."
I don’t qualify and I’ve never looked into the program so I do not know the details such as the amount of rent relief and whether the exemption is for 100% or if there is a formula that connects income to the amount of exemption.
Kevin Cox
It’s Carlottesville’s "New Economics!"
Now let’s see if the County steps up to the plate with a similar proposal.
The City’s at a .02 reduction – do i hear .03???
Seriously, this is a definite great move for the City, and to me a rather surprising one. Nicely done!
A cool thing: this tax cut probably wouldn’t have happened without cvillenews.com. This site turned a few people’s dismay at their assessments into an ad hoc investigation through discussion. Then the Progress and other papers picked up the story from here, even finding their interview subjects through cvillenews. That forced Council to do something.
I think that the same thing happened with the coal emissions increase from UVa.
Anyway, it’s just really neat that this has become the bleeding edge of journalism and public policy in Charlottesville.
Like debka.com is to Middle East policy. Debka is a slapped-together site that doesn’t look like much and most people have never heard of it, but whoever runs it has friends all over the intelligence community and almost always turns out to be right. In the last year or so, the mainstream American media has figured this out and gets a lot of their stories through them.