City Proposes Changes To Board Of Equalization

(Wednesday) January 6, 2010

By James Cullum
alexandrianews.org

As residential and commercial property values continue to slide, more owners are contesting their assessments.  The City of Alexandria will ask the Virginia General Assembly to grant a charter change, which will allow the city to make adjustments to the local Board of Review of Real Estate Assessments, also known as the Board Of Equalization. That board hears and decides upon property assessment adjustments.

“In the first and second quarter of 2009, the commercial market struggled and we’ve seen a lot more appeals,” said Cindy Smith-Page, the City’s director of real estate assessments. “Those commercial properties are larger and much more complex than residential assessments, so it takes longer for the appellant and the City to present their cases.”

Cases usually take a half-hour to an hour each and the five-member board convenes for three-hour sessions three days a week. Board members serve three-year terms.

“Residential property values have been going down the last few years, but this is the first year in decades that commercial properties have seen a dip. I don’t have specific numbers on appeals, but it’s a lot more than the Board has seen in the past,” Smith-Page said.

In Alexandria in 2009, average home values dropped 4.7% and commercial property values saw a nearly 13% decline. Just over 56% of the City’s total revenue comes from real property taxes, split nearly evenly between commercial and residential.

The increased number of appeals “is making it difficult for the BoE to complete its work within the time established by statute,” according to an October 2009, memorandum from City Manager Jim Hartmann to the Mayor and City Council.

The changes are based on current Fairfax County legal authority, and include the following:

• The number of BoE members should be increased from five to nine; appointments of new members will be made by City Council and the Circuit Court (two each).
• The BoE should be given authority to create panels of three members to hear assessment appeals. All three members would have to be present to constitute a quorum for any appeal. If the panel decision is unanimous, that decision would be final unless the entire Board voted to hear the appeal. The full Board would also hear any appeals in which a panel decision was not unanimous.

“This will give us more flexibility to find more people who will serve and it will alleviate the pressure from those serving so that they don’t have to be there all the time,” Smith-Page said. “We may even have two bodies, one that oversees residential appeals and one that oversees commercial appeals.”

The 2010 session of the General Assembly will open on Jan. 13.

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