On Valentine’s Day, some people post statements online about their immense love for their spouse or partner.
However, this year the Guilford County Tax Department is doing something quite a bit less romantic – posting the new value of your house, building or other property online based on the 2022 revaluation.
Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis said this week that the new tax values for property in the county will be posted on or around Tuesday, Feb. 15.
Your new property tax bill this year will be based on that value, which in almost all cases will be a higher value than the county put on your property five years ago – the last time the Tax Department conducted a countywide “reval.”
While the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is unlikely to increase the tax rate for fiscal year 2022-2023, which begins on July 1, the Democratic-majority board is also not expected to decrease the county’s tax rate to a level that would keep the county “revenue neutral” – that is, keep the same amount of money coming into the county and keep the amount of property tax being paid by residents the same as the previous year.
When the Tax department conducted the last revaluation, the Republican-controlled Board of Commissioners did reduce the county tax rate to keep revenue the and the tax payments made by property owners relatively flat.
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has already said that he intends to put the estimated $56 million or so in new revenue to work meeting county needs rather than return it to the taxpayers.
While some people may appreciate it when the value of their homes has increased, the Guilford County Tax Department isn’t the entity that you want to see thinking highly of your house’s worth – because it means more taxes for you to pay.
Years ago, in an interesting moment at a Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Carolyn Coleman chastised the county tax director because, after a revaluation, she didn’t believe that the value being put on her home and the houses in her area got the same increase in value that others in the county did. During that discussion, there was a bemused look on the faces of many people in the meeting room who would have loved to have seen their homes appraised by the department at a lower value.
Thank you so much to builders and developers for driving the prices way up. I get that it costs more for supplies right now (LGB), but putting heavier tax assessments on the people now is not the answer.
I have to disagree. Supply and demand run prices up and down. In other words, the consumer. And at this moment, supply bottlenecks (think of lumber).