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Residents Jam Westin Looking for Property Revaluation Answers

Oct. 4, 2007 — More than 250 St. John residents sat on the floor, filled every available chair, spilled out the door, and lined up at the microphone Thursday to let Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis, Tax Assessor Roy Martin and their staff know how outraged they are about property revaluations on St. John that are far higher than comparable properties on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
"You are putting people out of our property," St. John resident Catherine Stevens said at the meeting held at the Westin Resort and Villas.
St. John resident Theodora Moorehead put it a different way.
"If we're not careful, not too many of these faces will be here in a few years," she said, looking around the diverse St. John community gathered for the meeting.
Moorehead pinned the problem on two factors. She said the park takes up much of St. John but contributes nothing to the V.I. government.
"And outsiders are coming in with lots of money," she said, referring to the fact that many St. John vacation villas are owned by non-island residents.
Kharid Wallace said St. John was not going to give up without a fight. Lorelei Monsanto suggested residents would file a lawsuit if necessary to get some relief from the situation.
After Martin said numerous times that values across the territory are based on market value, Stevens pointed out that the revaluation values were based on a period when sales were sky-high on St. John, not the more recent lower prices that reflect the island's real estate slump.
After Delbert Hewitt, chief of operations for the lieutenant governor, said that the average sales price on St. John stood at $1.4 million, resident Lisa Durgin pointed out that was for luxury villas, not average homes.
Pam Gaffin said the average market value was weighted in favor of the high end prices. She said that 33 houses sold on St. John in 2006.
"Almost all were million-dollar properties," she said. And Bill Dove pointed out that very few people in the room lived in $1.4 million homes.
Brian Smith suggested creating a separate tax category for vacation villas.
Sen. Louis P. Hill, who attended the meeting, said he plans to sponsor "equitable" legislation that would base property taxes on what it cost owners to build or buy their house.
Several residents detailed the values determined by the revaluation. Stevens said she owns a shack with no plumbing and no cistern — valued at $552,500.
Paul Jordan said that when his house was revalued, he had only a slab and a cistern. His revaluation came in at $1.69 million.
Jordan said the revaluator told him he had an exceptional view, but Jordan pointed out that the St. Thomas residents across Pillsbury Sound whose view included his house had revaluations far lower.
He noted that the base rate per square foot for St. John houses stands at $360 while St. Thomas homes were revalued using a $93 a square foot rate. He didn't mention St. Croix, but previous information from BearingPoint, the company that did the revaluation, put that base rate figure at $89 a square foot.
Several people suggested that St. Thomas and St. John be lumped together to spread the burden. However, Hewitt said that the revaluations were done by neighborhood.
"So we're not one family, are we? We're to be treated differently," Durgin said, referring to comments by Francis that all the Virgin Islands were one family. "Our taxes are four times higher, but we're getting less services."
Martin said that some sort of territory-wide relief may be in the works that would help St. John property owners, but he said he could provide no details.
He said that while the current tax rate stands at .0075, Government House is proposing different rates for different types of properties. The residential rate would be .0035, the land rate .0046, the commercial rate .0065, and the timeshare rate .0100. But the plan still needs legislative approval.
Martin also said that a new exemption schedule has been proposed that includes a $400 homestead exemption, a $450 veterans exemption, a $500 disabled exemption, and a $500 elderly/senior exemption. He said that residents must apply for the exemptions.
Residents were also upset that a handout included only average taxes for St. John but did not include the other islands. According to the handout, the average residential tax under the old tax rate was $1,542. Under the new tax rate, it will be $3,831.
Martin said that the revaluation figures listed on the impact statements mailed in June do not reflect 2006 real estate market values. He said those values will be included when the final valuations are set before the 2006 tax bills go out before the end of the year. He said the 2007 tax bills will go out in June 2008.
He suggested that taxpayers may be able to pay their tax bills in two installments rather than one lump sum.
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