Guilford's unemployment rate went from about 5.5% in 2004 to about 10% in 2012, and home prices dropped during 2011.
On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, The Greensboro News & Record reported “A record number of Guilford County property owners are appealing their 2012 tax revaluations at the state level… after being rejected by the Guilford County Board of Equalization and Review”, and “this year’s number is nearly five times that of the 2004 revaluation”
The City of Greensboro’s property taxes are based on Guilford County’s valuation.
This information can be verified by Tax Director Ben Chavis at 641-3379, or bchavis@co.guilford.nc.us. The Rhino's Scott Yost, the News & Record's Amanda Lehmert, Joe Killian and Jeff Gauger failed to interview the expert who analyzed this information, and didn't investigate or report the following information to the public.
In May, 2012, Mecklenburg County moved to independently audit their 2011 real estate revaluation after numerous complaints of over-valuation. Among 52 neighborhoods with the fastest-rising values, 20 had major problems and 18 others had minor ones.
The audit found “neighborhood modifiers were often used…instead of using “influence code” adjustments such as shape, size, and topography with clearly expressed percentages for each adjustment… The use of neighborhood modifiers in this manner, results in a lack of transparency in land appraisal”, and “The mixing of influence code adjustments with neighborhood modifiers hinders an efficient review of neighborhood” and “this was a primary tool the Tax Office staff utilized to produce the values for the 2011 revaluation”, and “it is difficult to determine what individual factors were considered… Property owners cannot readily determine if nearby commercial properties also received the same base square foot rate or were adjusted for similar influences such as location or limited access."
Mecklenburg County's Tax Assessor resigned after the report revealed the department had not made on-site visits to actually see properties that were being valued.
Guilford County’s Tax Department declined to provide what data points and variable broad based assumptions (modifiers) and foreclosures were and were not included, as well as the software instructions for the 2012 revaluation.
The Greensboro News & Record’s Joe Killian 373-7000, or joe.killian@news-record.com, and the Rhino Times’ Scott Yost 273-0885, or scott@rhinotimes.net, also declined to investigate or report on the following, which correlates with the information above;
The North Carolina Department of Revenue’s “Sales Ratio” is an indicator used to access which NC counties are relatively over or under assessed for tax valuation purposes. Of the North Carolina counties that revalued in 2012, 5 had a Sales Ratio showing overvalued tax assessments as of January 1, 2011.
Those I spoke with who sell real estate valuation software, revealed some tax director’s interpretations of revaluation laws vary widely, and that all counties don’t incorporate the same information for assessments, meaning results may vary and can be massaged.
Guilford was the only North Carolina County in 2012 whose real estate values were supposed to fall by the state’s metric that didn’t, as 72% of the other counties fell more than the Sales Ratio indicated. Of the three counties that went higher, the other two were at the extreme opposites of the valuation metric.
Guilford County’s 2012-13 pre-real estate revaluation proposed budget including a 9.5 cent tax increase, but instead of falling about 3.72% or more as the 1/1/11 Sales Ratio and housing data from 2011 suggested, Guilford County’s values rose and tax rates decreased to the benefit of political incumbents.
In August 2012, Guilford County's Commissioners voted to give Guilford County employees a $250 bonus and 40 hours of extra paid time off.
In March 2012 before announcing her retirement, Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox created a temporary bonus for county employees, only for those retiring with more than 30 years of service within a certain time period. When Fox announced her retirement, she stood to receive another $44,500, until the Rhino Times’ Scott Yost reported the story.
Mrs. Fox was not fired.
Please support Greensboro and Guilford County investigating the 2012 revaluation process and redo the next tax revaluation in 2016 instead of 2020, and encourage our local news industry to report these results.
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