Loudoun County Assessment Notices To Be Mailed First Week Of February

According to a press release from Todd Kaufman, Loudoun County Assessor, 2008 assessments will be mailed to Loudoun County property owners in the first week of February. The press release seems pretty standard as you begin to read it, but then it gets interesting.

Here’s one excerpt that caught my attention:

"The Code of Virginia and local ordinances require that assessments be made annually at fair market value. "It is important to understand that assessments are not influenced by the budget or tax rate.  Assessments are market driven.  The creation of the budget and the setting of the tax rate are independent from the assessment process," said Kaufman. "The budget is proposed by the County Administrator and approved by the Board of Supervisors.  The Board also sets the tax rate.  Assessments are the County Assessor’s opinion of the value of a jurisdiction’s real property portfolio as of January 1.  Real property tax levies are the result of the application of the tax rate on the real property assessment.  The Board sets the real property tax rate following a process which includes a public hearing and a series of work sessions."

Here’s the other:

"In order to better serve the public, the Office of the County Assessor has recently opened a satellite office in Ashburn. The office is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  The satellite office is located at 45201 Research Place, Suite 130, Ashburn, VA 20147."

That statement and the recently opened office makes me wonder… We’ll see what property owners think and how they react when they get their assessments in the next week or two.

D