Continued from page 1 “You're reducing the rate and

Continued from page 1

“You're reducing the rate and raising the assessment ratio. But you don’t advertise the assessment ratio — just the rate,” the accountant explained.

Mr. Cox noted that Rappahannock’s advertised 64-cent levy on real estate is the highest in the area. He added, however, that the county's rate on personal property is among the lowest; at $2.10 assessed on full value, it still will fall at the lower end of the scale.

By unanimous vote, the supervisors set the personal property tax rate at $2.10 and requested the commissioner of revenue to apply that rate on 100 percent of the finance value of licensed motor vehicles. Even with that change, they noted, vehicles won’t be taxed at full value, since the finance value, as listed in the “Blue Book," is about 70 percent of actual worth.

Line items reviewed

Going through the proposed 1986-87 budget line by line, the supervisors added more than they whittled away.

They trimmed $2,600 for secre' tarial help from legal fees, $2,000 in salary requests denied by the State Compensation Board for the Treasurer's assistant and part-time help, $1,175 from the judges’ request for furniture and equipment, $400 from equipment for the clerk’s office and $168 from health and welfare, the amount constituting the contribution requested from the county for the women’s abuse shelter.

The total $6,638 reduction was more than offset by the inclusion of $12,000 for gas and oil inadvertently omitted from the sheriffs request. The board members also acknowledged that appropriations for animal control may have to be upped to cover shelter costs (see separate story).

By consensus, the supervisors left untouched the $59,340 included in the proposed budget for fire and rescue. Of that, $38,230 is for insurance on buildings, equipment and grounds for Rappahannock’s five companies, the first time that bill will be paid by local government.