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icai Let A U111S IS out-of-control growth - not use value taxation. And note that the Board of Supervisors can improve the use value tax system for 1990 —. if it acts by this coming June 30.
The worst thing that can happen to you - if you wish to keep living ; where you do now - is for a speculator to buy the farm next door and , cell it as small lots at $7,000 or more 1 ppr acre. That will set a new value • l?r your land, and (unless you qual*ify for use value) you’ll be taxed jftecordingly. This is already a prob♦j&m in Rappahannock, and it’s beaming
a major problem in Culpeper tjtjhd Fauquier. Real horror stories fafe told in Loudoun and Prince Wil* Bam. t' • In Loudoun, a house and 3.7iScre lot assessed at $112,300 and r$67,000 respectively for 1988 taxes j Will go to $121,900 and $185,000 for , c1989. The 8.5 percent increase on the house might be reasonable and manageable - but 176 percent on the land? The Loudoun Times-Mirror commented: “Such an increase might be a speculator’s dream, but for a native Loudoun working man with a family to feed. . . it’s a night-Ware.”
• Then there is the 83-year-old Prince William woman who has lived for 40 years in the same house. A Pizza Hut was approved on one side of her, a Wendy’s on the other. Her '1'988 taxes were based on an assessed value of $45,000 - but for 1989 the figure is $279,000. She has a Social Security income of $280 per month. Prince William Delegate David Brickley, chairing a House Finance subcommittee study of the problem, says, “We’re seeing assessments go up as much as 1,000 percent (yes, ten times) in all of ’Northern Virginia.
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