The Assessment Shell Game: Getting Money the Old Fashioned Way -- Bait and Switch

Here is how the PWC Tax Shell Game works:

The Board of County Supervisors tells all taxpayers they want to keep taxes flat, so they publish a tax rate of $1.215 per $1000 of assessed values of homes.

Then, just to put a little gloss on the pig, they do a little misdirection by telling taxpayers the tax rate of $1.215 is actually not a tax increase at all (even though they tell you the "average tax increase will be $110")when "adjusted for inflation."

Makes the whole tax increase thing make you think you are getting off the hook.

That all changes when you get your assessment bill in the mail.

For taxpayers living in homes in the high-growth areas, where nearly all of the new homes were built in the last 10 years, they you are in for a real shock.  Your assessment likely ranges anywhere from 4% to 15.5%.

For residents in the community of Oak Valley where I live -- located in western Prince William County, most homeowners got a tax assessment increase averaging 14.5%, and that adds $850 to the tax bill owed to Prince William County.

And the inflation adjustment is another horror story.

That 2% inflation number is an absolute fraud -- and the County staff knows it.

For municipalities like Prince William County, there is a CPI for government entities that uses a vastly different calculation that the regular CPI that measures a so-called market basket of goods and services a family of four would typically purchase.  That is the 2% inflation number used by the County to make us all feel good about the so-called inflation adjustment making our tax bill "neutral."  The Municipal CPI is less than 1% because the goods and services purchased by the County are DIFFERENT that those a family purchases.

But that puts more money in the County's pocket while trying to make you feel like they are in the same inflation boat we are.  NONSENSE!

Here's the rub:  The Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI deliberately excludes food and gasoline prices because those commodities have pricing models that are too volatile to measure.  So the truth is that families are hit with an everyday inflation rate of over 10% right now, and gas prices are predicted to keep climbing throughout the summer.  Given that 2/3 of County residents commute out of the County to work, that really slams families hard.

So the truth is, a significant number of Prince William County families are getting hit with double digit assessments and tax bills that are five or six time higher than the County claims for its "average" tax bill, and the County counts the cash all the way to the bank.