Senate OKs gentler property tax bill
That is the headline from Friday’s Virgin Islands Daily News. The VI Legislature passed a bill to establish a new territorial property tax structure Thursday night with a 10-4 vote. The gist of the bill is a generous reduction in property tax rates. For example, the rate on residential real estate (homes) will be reduced to half the previous rate: from 0.75% to 0.38% of its value. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there was little mention of a plan to correct the property revaluation process that has resulted in as much as 1000% increases in the values of some properties on St. John (see my entry from January 22). According to the Lieutenant Governor’s office, property values have been updated as of February 6 to “reflect revised property values resulting from the informal hearings appeal process as well as 2006 property values.” The beat goes on…..
To see the entire Daily News article click the link below. For off-island residents, the current issue of the Virgin Islands Daily News can be viewed online with an online subscription.
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17620472
Marty’s email: marty@islandiarealestate.com
