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Rappahannock’s rate is now $4.20 per $100 of assessed value. In reality, said Forberg, with the procedure that the county follows, the “average effective rate" is 26 cents per $100 of fair market value.
With the switch to 100 per cent of fair market value assessment, Forberg acknowledged that the value of farm land will go up higher than the value of houses. To illustrate the impact of a new 100 per cent assessment, he estimated that taxes currently average about $2 an acre on most farm land. Assuming that appraisal figures will run close to the current sale price average of $2,000 an acre, property owners will end up paying $5 an acre if the tax rate is set at 25 cents per $100.
In order to keep the tax burden split between houses and land in the same manner that it is currently divided, Forberg suggested that the supervisors consider adopting a use value tax ordinance to become effective at the same time as the new assessment.
‘‘The best avenue to maintain the status quo that you have now is through the land use vehicle,” he stated. He added, however, that the supervisors should “take a real hard look at land use taxation. You might only need it on agricultural and horticultural land” rather than on those two categories plus forestal and open space land as allowed in state enabling legislation.
When land use taxation enabling legislation was first passed, Forberg said, no one thought that there’d be much interest in it. “But with fair market value assessment coming, almost all counties have taken a look at it and 72 (localities) in Virginia have adopted use value,” he added.
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