One of the things I love about this blog is that I often hear from people with different viewpoints and who really get me thinking with their comments or emails sent in response to something I've posted.  Dwight Defee sent me an email about my Revaluation post from March 29 and I liked it so much I asked his permission to post it here.  He graciously said yes so here it is:

This is response to your post of March 29, 2009.
 
Jon.
   I can’t say that I disagree with you about annual appraisals: However, if that happens you and I had better be prepared for higher tax valuations and higher taxes annually.  Even though annual valuations would reflect more accurate property values, who’s going to pay for the additional cost associated with such an accelerated project?  We will, of course, because we are property owners and we are asking for additional services provided by the County Tax Assessor. In North Carolina, Counties are considered a political subdivision of the State.  The State requires Counties to revalue Property every eight years but permits more frequent valuations. 
   Quite a number of years ago ( I was a county employee at the time) the Tax assessor, Harvey Pardue, recommended that the County move from an eight year valuation cycle to a four year valuation cycle.  He was hailed as a hero by the Utilities and Business communities and as a demon by residential property owners. The reason for this, as I understand, is that utility and business property was valued annually and residential property was valued every eight years. Since this was a period of growth for our County, Utilities and Businesses were clearly paying more than their “fair share” of the tax burden.  When Harvey retired, his assistant, Jack Sprinkle, continued the quadrennial valuation schedule but was able to reduce costs with technological advances.  After Jack’s retirement, Pete Roda took the reins as Tax Assessor/Collector and in my opinion has done a good job.  As a former associate of Harvey, Jack, and Pete, I say unequivocally that I have the utmost respect and admiration for the job that they performed for the County.
   Now if you can convince the County Commissioners to provide for annual valuations, I’m sure Pete can handle the job…BUT…you and I had better be ready to help foot the bill for more employees (think salary & benefits), more space and equipment (think office space, desk, computer, etc), Transportation (some of these people have to visit property sites across the County), and other employee expenses that I can’t enumerate at this time.
    Sorry to be so verbose but I needed to respond to a person quick to criticize professionals employed by public entities which are governed by officials elected by the likes of you and I.
 
Dwight Defee
Former Personnel Director
Forsyth County, NC

Here's part of my reply to Dwight that explained a little better (I hope) what I'm thinking when I say that annual revaluations would be better than every four years:

Dwight,
Thanks very much for the email.  I think you make very good points and I have to say that I agree with you. I thought about the extra staff too but I figure that it will be paid for by the extra revenue the county would see.

In retrospect one of my errors is that I came across as thinking that I blame Mr. Roda or the other folks doing the work. I don't. I always assumed that they were working within boindaries set by the
legislature. In other words if they calculate the property values using a formula it is one they've been given and they do the best they can. But that's not how I said it and that's my fault.

I actually think that if the revaluations were done annually it would work out best for everyone, just like I believe that a flat income tax of 10% on everyone without any deductions would be better for everyone and meet the country's needs (but that's a whole other topic).  I also agree with you that we'd have to be prepared to closely watch our commissioners and the tax rates they apply to us.