Editor's Note: This is the

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of articles exploring real estate assessmen t and your taxes.

By Bill Kossler

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

If you own land in Rappahannock, you should have recently received your real estate property tax statement in the mail, and may be wondering why it is more this year than last year.

Contrary to one popular perception, steep increases in land value in recent years have nothing to do with the increase. Assessment is an important part of determining your tax, and a new assessment is going on right now, but it will take effect in the next cycle. But counter-intuitively, increased land values don't increase your tax.

Every time the county reassesses land, it automatically reduces the tax rate to get the same amount of revenue as before. Each year the Rappahannock Board of Supervisors, (BOS) with the County Administrator, figure out how much money they need to raise for the year's expenses, and set the property tax rate at the level that should give them the amount they need. If they need more than the last year, they hold budget hearings and vote on a tax increase. If they need the same amount, they adjust the rate so the tax revenue raised by it is about the same.

If you are a farmer or have land in a conservation easement, you may pay a lower tax based upon land use value rather than upon sale price of the land- and if you are a farmer, you know all about that. But for most people, for homeowners, you pay the amount determined by the most recent assessment and this year's rate.

Rate increases

The year before last, the property tax rate was 70 cents for every hundred dollars of property value. Last year, the rate was 72 cents per hundred . dollars of assessed land value. This year, the BOS increased the rate to 80 cents. If your house is assessed at $175,000, you paid $1,225 the year