Coalition Urges Reform of Virginia Property Taxation
On January 9, ACTA joined with the National Taxpayers Union and other groups throughout Virginia in this letter asking the Virginia General Assembly to:
“reform the way property is taxed in Virginia. As the ballooning assessments and soaring property tax bills of recent years have demonstrated, the existing “current market value” system can create uncertainty and hardship for Virginia’s taxpayers.”
While the average 2007 residential assessment in Arlington County dropped 0.8%, the increases from 2000 to 2006 provided enormous windfalls in revenues for Arlington local county government as well as many other Virginia jurisdictions. For example, from 2000 to 2006, Arlington’s average residential tax payment increased 114% even though taxpayers’ incomes increased only 22%. As NTU wrote in their letter, “Taxpayers deserve a more rational approach” than the present system of using “current (or fair) market value.”
Delegate Jeff Frederick (R-Prince William) has patroned House Joint Resolution 559 that would limit annual increases in assessments of real property by “one percent plus the percentage increase, if any, in the rate of inflation. Increases in the rate of taxation on real property are limited to one percent per year.”
Background on the “acquisition value-based property tax system” and other issues that would increase Virginians freedom and prosperity is available from Tertium Quid.