The Vance County Board of Commissioners is likely going to consider a shorter time between real property revaluations than the current eight-year cycle.
It’s a move that county staff recommends, and following a discussion at the Jan. 9 annual retreat, it’s something that most commissioners would appear to get behind.
Vance County is one of about 30 counties across the state still using the eight-year cycle – which is the maximum time the state allows. Granville and Franklin counties, for example, currently are a on six-year cycle. By comparison, Wake County undergoes a revaluation every two years; about two-thirds of the state’s 100 counties use either a four-year or six-year cycle.
Many county residents experienced “sticker shock” when they opened their 2024 tax bills. More than 1,400 residents made appeals, according to County Tax Adminstrator Jennifer D. Williams.
Commissioner Dan Brummitt asked how many of those appeals resulted in adjustments to tax bills.” That would be good information to have,” Brummitt stated, expressing criticism about the results of the 2024 revaluation process.
The county contracts with an outside company to conduct the revaluations – it’s a long process that takes a couple of years to complete and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. The 2024 revaluation cost was about $892,000 – one reason for the high price tag was because the reval included a full measurement of every single property in the county. That process doesn’t happen with every revaluation cycle, so future revals shouldn’t be as costly, Williams noted.
Another reason the price tag was so high is because the county doesn’t have the personnel in-house to do the work. With one appraiser on the county payroll, it simply isn’t something the county can do itself, and so it must contract with an outside company.
Williams said the N.C. Dept of Revenue and the UNC School of Government recommend having one appraiser on staff for every 10,000 parcels; Vance County has more than 20,000 parcels.
There’s a lot more to the revaluation process than many realize, and, despite efforts to communicate with county residents that the process was taking place, Williams said there was a great deal of “citizen frustration” and “sticker shock” once the bills hit mailboxes.
She said the county disseminated the information in a variety of ways, from putting notices in bills to speaking at events in the community.
“There was at least a two-year ramp-up leading up to a revaluation date,” Williams said, adding that the goal is to inform and educate – “we try to let them know what’s coming…(and) that the assessed value may not always mean an increase (in tax bills).”
Commissioner Leo Kelly said, “I don’t know what the answer is…you just do a little bit of everything” to try to communicate with residents in the most effective way.
Kelly said he would like to see future public information sessions held in the commissioners’ meeting room where county staff could address residents’ questions.
Williams said a six-year revaluation cycle would promote accuracy and improve taxpayer confidence.
Brummitt agreed that it may be time to start a conversation about a shorter revaluation cycle, but he would not be in favor of changing it right now.
“To knee jerk and move to a shorter cycle doesn’t make sense,” he said, adding that the county needs to be prepared for a shorter cycle, but he isn’t ready to introduce that change just yet.
“We’re seeing pretty consistent growth throughout the county,” he said, mentioning the nearby I-885 shortening the time it takes to get to RTP and the increased interest in properties around Kerr Lake thanks to the Microsoft data center near Boydton.
If the revaluation cycle shortens to six years it would be conducted in 2030 instead of 2032. But the county would need to get started in 2028 to get everything in order, Williams said.
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