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which consists almost entirety of teacher salaries. Rappahannock County has historically had relatively low teacher salaries. In recent years the county has struggled to keep teachers who often are forced by high local property values to commute long distances, and who are tempted to go to better financed, high growth counties like Loudoun, which offer higher salaries.
Without salary increases, teacher. turnover would increase and teacher quality might decrease.
Over the two years, school spending increased by $1.5 million. More than a million of that is due to increased salaries, and almost all of the rest is the first debt payment on last year's $4 million dollar school construction bond. Cleaning foul water
Lastly, the unavoidable cost of treating foul water, called "leachatethat seeps from the Amissville landfill has more than tripled to $180,000 since last year.
Your increased property tax paid for pay increases to teachers and county employees, debt service on a bond for school construction and cleaning dirty water.
Increased property values did not cause your tax to increase. But they have triggered property reassessment.
Next time: Your county property assessment, what is happening, how it happens, and what you can do about it if you think it's wrong.
Bill Kossler can be reached at bkossler@timespapers.com
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