Four of the five lake area counties say they plan to take part in a property tax forum Saturday at Littleton Community Center.

The forum, sponsored by the Lake Gaston Association, is a chance for local officials to explain tax rates and property value assessments, then area residents and property owners can pose questions to those officials.

Workers with Warren, Halifax and Northampton counties, all in North Carolina, say they plan to be there, as well as officials from Mecklenburg County in Virginia. Brunswick Commissioner of the Revenue Wanda Beville said her office had just received an invitation to the meeting last week and would not be able to schedule anyone to attend.

The meeting, at 1 p.m., comes at an opportune time for land owners in the region, with two of the counties having just finished reassessments and two others working on coming reassessments.

Charles Graham, tax assessor in Halifax County, said his office just completed a property value reassessment that went into effect Jan. 1. The tax rate of 86.5 cents per $100 of assessed value will most likely change, he said, because property values increased fairly significantly since the last reassessment in 1999.

He said the county’s board of commissioners will ultimately decide what the new rate will be as it works on the 2007-2008 budget that will go into effect July 1.

“I think they will try to keep revenue neutral,” he said, meaning the commissioners will most likely lower the rate to balance the increase in assessed property values.

In Warren County, Tax Assessor Robert E. Mitchum said the next assessment won’t take effect until 2009; that’s eight years after the last one, in accordance with state law that requires counties to do reassessments at least every eight years.

Although Warren County’s rate of 84 centers per $100 of assessed value is among the 20 highest rates in the state, Mitchum said it is, in fact, on the lower end when the effective rate is considered.

He explained: “Our assessment of the property is only about half of the actual price of the property (54.31 percent).” That means, if a piece of land would sell for $100,00 on the real estate market, the county would assess the property at a value of $54,310 for taxing purposes, then levy the 84 cents tax on that assessed property.

The effective tax rate is what the taxation rate would be if all property were assessed at 100 percent of its market value. In Warren County, that rate would be 45.62 cents per $100, twenty-fifth lowest of the state’s 100 counties.

“If you are living on Lake Gaston, I’d say we are favorably assessing your taxes for you,” Mitchum said of the county’s practice.

Even if the county continues to assess property lower than its actual market value, he said assessed values most likely go up considerably in 2009.

“Our highest lot values (in the lake area) were in the $150,000, and most were around $75.000 a lot,” he said of the last assessment. Those figures are higher today.

Northampton County officials are in the midst of completing the work for its next reassessment, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2007, according to Chief Tax Assessor Avery Davis.

“We did the last reassessment in 2001, and we’re moving toward a four-year cycle for assessments,” he said. “The next one will be in four years.”

He said the county will assess property values as close to actual market sales as possible, which means property owners on or near Lake Gaston will probably see a bigger jump than those elsewhere in the county.

At present, the county’s tax rate is 88 cents per $100 of assess value, but like the other counties, that is subject to change once the Board of Commissioners gets the new assessment figures.

On the Virginia side of the lake, Mecklenburg County’s latest reassessment went in effect July 1, and Commissioner of the Revenue William Bracey said property values increased quite a bit.

“Lake Gaston property values jumped about 30 percent,” he said, compared to a countywide average of about 15 percent. Even though the county’s Board of Supervisors lowered the tax rate from 43 cents to 36 cents per $100 of assessed value to accompany the reassessment, he said property owners are still paying more. Overall, he said the county will reap about $300,000 more in real estate taxes in the current fiscal year.

He said Mecklenburg conducts its reassessment every two years, though the state only requires it to be done every six years for localities with less than 50,000 population.

“We used to do it every six years, but it was a real sticker shock for property owners,” he said. “Last time we did it, we had property that doubled and even tripled (in assessed value). That’s when the board went to every two years.”

Brunswick County just finished a reassessment, according to Beville, who said the county does one every six years.

With the reassessment, the tax rate dropped from 60 cents to 39 cents, though the total amount of money collected from property tax revenue will increase for the county.

Although she said didn’t have figures or percentages, she did say many property owners will see their tax bills go up. The lake area was the area where we saw the biggest increase (in assessed value). They see the biggest difference in their tax bill,” she said.

Lake Gaston Association Executive Director Moira Underwood said questions at the forum must be submitted in writing, either prior to the meeting or during the meeting.