Beaufort County Revaluation of Real Property: Part I | Eastern North Carolina Now

Stop, Look and Listen: Beaufort County’s Revaluation is Now in Progress

    Beaufort County, as mandated by the State of North Carolina, will revalue all property within its borders. It is required by state mandate, and it will be performed just as the sun rises and Spring will return. That is the simple truth, and collectively, we will face it, and we will deal with it.

    Associated with this revaluation, there are two pieces of news. The first bit of news is that Beaufort is a revenue neutral county. What this speaks to is that Beaufort County will not take in any more money than it needs to govern and provide essential mandated services as the agent for the state and to a lesser extent, the federal government.

    In essence, when Beaufort County performs its budget in late Spring in 2010, it will consider all outside funding sources; then it will consider its portion of sales tax revenue, and last it will consider its assessed tax values on all property, real and personal (vehicles, equipment, etc.). The only flexible revenue source is the ad valorem piece of the revenue pie (property taxes), and in terms of keeping that within some reasonable and tolerable increase per annum, it is the prevue of the Beaufort County Commissioners.

    I have served on a county commission (2002), when the majority (I was in the minority) did elect to spend more money for pet projects, and still was able to reduce the tax rate. With the absence of any real investigative reports, at that time, these commissioners were able to hide these expenditures, and use the revaluation and the reduction of the effective ad valorem tax rate as a smokescreen to fund pet projects.

    This publication will serve as a platform, and a spokesperson for the true nature of this current 2010 revaluation. We will broadcast the truth as we know it, as soon as we know it. Moreover, we applaud the efforts of County Manager Paul Spruill to give the unvarnished truth of the revaluation and its effects on the citizenry of our county.

    Paul Spruill has embarked on what I like to call, “The Hidden Shift of Tax Burden Tour” to inform all who will listen that the first year of the revaluation, as mandated and prescribed by general statute (The Machinery Act) of the State of North Carolina, will be a proverbial bitter pill to swallow for real property owners. The nearly appraised and assessed real property in Beaufort County will realize, what Manager Spruill refers as, a hidden shift in values, and therefore will pay a larger percentage of that burden.
    Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill meets with the Beaufort County Republican Mens Club to address the Revaluaition.

    As dictated by state general statute, Beaufort County must revalue real property on at least every eight years basis, which is our schedule of revaluation. Personal property (vehicles, equipment, especially manufacturing and mining equipment) is revalued every year as per state general statute. The rub here is that the burden of real value property owners will get the shock of the increase of its value on the aforementioned eight year basis, the personal property increases annually, and both will receive the benefit of a lower tax rate. There in lies the mathematical word problem of the infamous “Hidden Shift,“ as per the Machinery Act, and there is absolutely nothing county commissioners can do about it, outside of advocating the elimination of that state general statue; and therefore changing the state constitution to reflect that the state has no law for collecting property tax - the oldest, continuing tax in the state of North Carolina.

    This why Paul Spruill is touring the county as the bearer of this bad bit of news for real property tax payers. Beaufort County Now will report on this issue, and its explanation, but moreover, will adress the real impetus for tax increases - the part county commissioners can control - unnecessary spending.