What I continue to find amazing is how many people keep coming up to me about their ever increasing taxes. It took just a brief call to the state tax office to get information that our local officials say they do not have.

Several questions have been posed, one of which is, “How can my property values go up when the market is so bad?” The pat answer seems to be, “Well, Hampshire County is not one of those areas being hit by the recession.” The second response is, “We have spoken with a contractor who has given us the square foot price to build a new home.”

Let’s see if we can shed some light on a few things. First, the cost to build a new home does not accurately portray how a home ought to be valued. An appraiser will take the age of a home and start to depreciate it based on the life expectancy of the home. There will be many other factors that play into how that home is valued.

But let’s talk about contractors for a moment. Two of whom I consider the larger and better home builders in our area are facing the same problems as every other builder in our nation today – no new construction in the residential market. While there have been a few new homes constructed, many spec homes have been on the market for almost a year. Several builders I know have been looking for remodeling and service work so they would not have to lay off their employees. One company who normally has a back log of homes to build has no back log this year.

Several smaller local developers have been sitting on properties for well over a year putting future development on hold. One of the larger developers in our area closed its doors just last week.

Back to the information easily gained from the state office. By the way, the people at the state office are easy to work with and will get you accurate information in an hour or so. Give them a call.

I asked about the issue of bringing property values to 100 percent of fair market value. They informed me that Hampshire County was really close. As a matter of fact, we are now at 97 percent of full value for Class II properties and between 95 and 96 percent for Class III and IV. As for property owners who used to have Class I property, you can blame the loss of that property class on our state elected officials.  

If we in Hampshire County are at 97 percent of full market value — per the State Tax Office — then why do we continue to see 10 percent letters going out? This question has been posed to me by several residents. One resident in particular called me after my last article and informed me that she had received five letters in the past five years and she had the papers to substantiate her claim. While she did get some relief in a couple of those years, I was surprised to see how sharply her property values had gone up and as well as down during those five years. I have to ask if there was that much room to adjust up and down, then how the original assessment could have been an accurate assessment of the property. Personally, I think she should take her complaint to the state tax office and ask why this is happening.

I do have to praise our county commissioners for standing their ground by not increasing the tax rate. Per the census bureau, we have nearly 4,000 of the 20,000 residents living here in Hampshire County listed as disabled. The average income is below $35,000. With a large part of our community being blue collar workers who commute daily outside of the county for work and gas prices nearing the $4 mark, the commissioners do need to be thanked. A continued increase in taxes would have forced an already financially strapped community into an even greater hardship.