I hope the assessors are paying attention to HB602, proposed by Del. John O’Bannon (R-73).
Provides that when any assessment of real property is 20% greater than the previous assessment, in any appeal of the assessment to a board of equalization or circuit court, the burden of proof is on the commissioner of revenue or other local assessing official to show that the assessment was accurately computed according to generally accepted appraisal practices.
This represents a shift in responsibility – from the taxpayer to the government. Now, given that property values have stopped going up so rapidly (Norfolk is now anticipating a 3% increase), the effect of this bill will be minimal. But 25-30 years from now, when we experience another runup in values, I can see this bill creating some issues.
The bill is currently in subcommittee #1 of the House Finance committee.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
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East Coast, yes. Virginia 😉
And thanks for your help.
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Ah, Gotcha.
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The bill makes sense to me. Anyone else remember that crazy story from the Virginian Pilot about the guy who on paper owned an island in the James River that local assessors had claimed and increased value of about 15% since the prior year–except the river’s water level had risen enough to flood the island basically year round?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I sure as hell don’t want to drive around town assessing everyone’s property, so I can understand the urge to cut corners…but that’s why I didn’t get into the property assessing business.