Highland County Board of Supervisors March Meeting

The Highland County Board of Supervisors held it’s monthly meeting on March 1.  Commissioner of the Revenue, Yvonne Wimer, spoke to the Board about inflated vehicle valuations this year from NADA, the National Automobile Dealers Association.  Shortages of both new and used vehicles have resulted in inflated prices and increased values.   Wimer said she is seeing increases of 10% to 40% from 2021 to 2022.  She said her office uses the clean loan value from NADA, which is one of the lower values they provide, which is 20% less than what would be paid if a vehicle were purchased from a dealer.

Wimer said she needed to go to bat for the taxpayers, without hurting the county. She said usually 100% of the vehicle value that NADA provides is used to calculate tax.  She asked if the Board would consider adopting a resolution allowing her to use 80% of vehicles’ 2022 assessed values.  She said this would not result in the county losing any money and this change in assessment ratio would only be in effect this year.  It would include cars and pickup trucks.  She clarified that a three-quarter ton truck is considered a pickup, while a one-ton truck is considered a heavy truck, which is on a deprecation schedule.  Wimer said all taxpayers would benefit with this change, some more than others, if they have an older vehicle.  Even if the Board passed the resolution, Wimer said there would still be some who would see an increase in taxes.   She said other counties have made adjustments to counteract these increased values. Before making a decision on this, Supervisors John Moyers, Jr. and Harry Sponaugle agreed they wanted to see how the rest of the county taxes look and also discuss this with Supervisor David Blanchard, who was absent from the meeting.

The Board approved a contract renewal with Mary K. Earhart, CPA, for accounting services to prepare for the annual county audit.

The Board also approved the renewal of health insurance for county employees.

A budget work session was set for Wednesday, March 9, at 7:30 at the Highland Modular Conference Center, in order to meet with a few county departments.

And Supervisor David Blanchard was reappointed as county representative to the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission.