News-Record.com

My colleague Jonnelle Davis reports Rep. Nelson Cole of Rockingham County has filed H1530: AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE COUNTIES TO RESCIND AN ADVANCED GENERAL REAPPRAISAL OF PROPERTY. From her early brief:

Rep. Nelson Cole, D-Rockingham, on Wednesday filed a bill that would let counties rescind property revaluations.

House Bill 1530 is scheduled for its first hearing in the Local Government II Committee on April 29, Cole said in a news release.

The Rockingham County Board of Commissioners in February voted unanimously to rescind the property reappraisals and put it off until 2011. The decision came amid public outcry that the county was reappraising property during an economic recession. Some residents complained of inflated revaluations.

Cole said in his release that the offices of the attorney general and the N.C. Department of Revenue issued a directive this week stating that Rockingham and three other counties that had rescinded property revaluations would not be allowed to do so.

Counties are required to revalue their property every eight years. They can do it more frequently if they choose, as appears to be have been the case with Rockingham. Traditionally, the reason for a revaluation is to keep tax values more in line with property values.

In theory, revaluation tax years can be "revenue neutral," a wonky phrase that says the government won't collect more in taxes than it did the year before. However, people can get a shock when their tax values go up. And "revenue neutral" reflects an average, and some people do end up paying more in taxes.

In Rockingham's case, they revalued in 2003 and would not have been required to revalue until 2011. More background from Jonnelle here and here.

The same conversation has been going in Orange County.