Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 2 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
General use value taxation is a local option and the supervisors can elect to eliminate forest land as an eligible category, he noted. But forest land in all Agricultural and Forestal Districts will still qualify for the preferential assessment, Luke said, even if that category is dropped from the general use value program.
A special state committee sets the per acre use values for the different types of land based on soil classifications, he continued. At present, those values are $620 for cropland II, $470 for cropland III, $380 for pasture IV, $280 for pasture V, $200 for forest.
Those state recommended assessment figures can be changed by the supervisors but only in the year that the county is scheduled for a re-assessment, the former supervisor chairman emphasized.
Financial Problem
While describing the $15,000 in taxes deferred this year through the use value program in ag districts as insignificant, Luke still maintained that the county has a “financial problem.” Currently, Rappahannock has on file land use applications for property with a total fair market value of $2.9 million, he reported. In 1980, the supervisors dropped the local levy from farm machinery and livestock, removing a total value of $5,530,260 from the tax rolls, Luke said. That coupled with land use will result in a tax burden shift of $152,288 onto houses and
97.3%