Dare County re-evaluation

Well, all property owners in Dare County should by now have received their re-evaluation notices. Now that the shouts and cries and sharp epitaphs of disbelief have died down, we can get about truly analyzing how this affects each of us. In our personal portfolio of real estate holdings in Dare County, we saw a wide variety of upswings, ranging from a low of about 2 times to a high of over 8 times the previous valuation. The lows were on the improved properties with rental homes on them. The highs were on the larger tracts of unimproved land. In general vacant lots in already platted subdivisions went up about 6 times. The county has published its "revenue neutral" rate at 22 cents, meaning that if the commissioners adopt a 2005 tax rate of no more than 22 cents the overall county budget will receive no more money than last year. However, no one has yet mentioned the other components of the tax bill that could have a far bigger impact on the bottom line of the tax paid. Those are the rates paid for fire districts and sanitation in the unincorporated areas and the municipal rates for those pieces located in a town. No mention has been made publically that I have seen as to proposed rates on these items. For instance last year, we paid 7 cents and 16 cents respectively for fire and sanitation. Unless these rates drop down to 2.8 and 6.4 cents the average taxpayer will pay more. I sincerely doubt that the commissioners will adopt a rate of less than a whole cent number, so we probably can expect to pay 3 and 7 cents, which will increase taxes. Also for the municipalities which I am familiar with, those being Southern Shores (previously at 20 cents) and Kitty Hawk (previously at 38 cents) those budgets will be set individually by each town, and their rates remain to be seen. It should be interesting to see if this is used as an opportunity to increase revenue anyway, and blame it on the "whole cent" thing.
Personally we will definitely pay more tax next year, because the pieces we own rose more than the 2.47 average. I suppose one should be glad that a solid outperforming investment was made. One thing is for sure, there are many more millionaires in Dare County now, at least on paper. They were here all along, but now they know it.