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properly taxes, i ne only way they can go is up... If we go to land use, that will make (the tax burden) even more on houses,” he said.
Even if new assessment figures are coupled with land use, "the people in houses are going to make out real well,” Scoggin said. With a 20 cent rate next year applied to 100 per cent assessements (the equivalent of this year’s $4.40 rate on discounted assessments), taxes on houses will actually go down, according to the commissioner of revenue. With .a 30 cent rate on 100 per cent assessments, taxes on houses will increase slightly while taxes on land will go way up, she said.
Farms Subdivided
Without land use taxation, interjected Dick Latham, farms and large land holdings will be developed into subdivisions “and then everybody’s taxes will go up.”
Luke agreed, adding that the levy may have to be put back on farm machinery in order to lessen the burden on Hit tdnd. He reported that-ta Madison County, implementation of land use has “pushed tax bills up considerably... We’re moving in the direction of taxing people out of their houses,” he warned.
‘‘And off their land,” Latham added. “1 think the pressure is equal.” . In regard to fears of higher tax bills under the new 100 per cent assessment, Scoggin said she’d received complaints from a woman who figured her taxes would double. But the woman is paying only about $100 now for her house and 80-some acre lot, the commissioner of revenue added.
Gilkey reported similar complaints, one from a man who currently pays only $25 in property taxes. Undertaxation has been the county’s problem, the Wakefield supervisor maintained. "One hundred per cent fair market value brings everything up to what it should be for everybody in the county. It may be nice to get a $25 tax bill but it’s not fair!”
Luke agreed that the new assessment will make county taxes “more equitable" but he also supported Latham's argument that without some kind of tax break, farmers and large landowners will sell their property for development.
.Gilkey said he supported a tax break for real farmers but not for the investor who comes into Rappahannock County, buys 50 acres and applies for land use.
That person wouldn’t qualify for use value taxation. Scoggin countered. She noted
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