Serve the Servants

Last year, the appeal process for our property taxes was a three-part whipsaw of good cop/bad cop. Fortunately, the final say went to the good cop who came to the house and did a visual inspection, both inside and outside the house. She lowered the valuation dramatically. One would think that the folks at the tax office would consider that level of scrutiny an accurate way to determine the value.

When we got our tax appraisal this year, the value had gone up again, while I knew that the real estate market had been flat at best. In preparation for the initial hearing, I rarely do much research, though I have in the past taken in pictures of our rooms with 7 foot ceilings, etc. This time I checked the valuations of all of our neighbors on our side of the street. Down, way down! Everybody else's values had dropped from between $10,000 and $35,000 from last year.

So, with last year's visual inspection (assumed to be accurate, right?), and the neighbors' drop in value, I had a  case to make. I did not want to go to stage two, the formal hearing, which was a very adversarial, bad cop situation last year. Fortunately, the informal hearing people are good cops, willing to find ways to resolve the issue in your favor, if it can be justified.

After waiting in the crowded hallway for more than an hour, my name was called. I made my case to Ms. Reese, with the emphasis on the amounts by which my neighbors values had gone down. My goal was to keep my value the same as last year, not to lower it again. She punched up something on her computer that got pretty close to what I was looking for, then ran some other numbers that would be fatal to my case. We went with the first set of numbers, and she checked with a supervisor to make sure we could settle on keeping the value the same as last year. Why, yes we could do that, was the reply.

In 16 years, I've only appealed four times, so I don't do it for fun. It's not fun, but it is educational, interesting, and worth it when you win.
I've never been treated unfairly, or disrespectfully, by anyone while going through this process.

The current weather conditions inspired the use of this photo for today's blog entry.  I cannot wait for cooler, even cold, weather.

Peace,

JS4

About a Girl

In the final moments of July 4th, seven pounds and eleven ounces of wonderfulness was welcomed into the world. Our dear friend Tara provided the fireworks by bringing us Millicent Kathryn Kirkland, pictured below at about 36 hours old.

 

She is now several times older and 22% cuter (not scientifically measured).
Mother and daughter are healthy, happy, and one of them is getting plenty of sleep.

I am happy beyond words for Tara, and Millie is a joy to behold, for her family, and for those of us who share the kinship of friendship with Tara.

Peace,

JS4

Flashback to June

Summers of Jay, of course, begin the day after my last day of school. The plan for that first day usually involves sleeping late, and some sort of frozen beverage with lunch. This year the plan was an early alarm clock buzzer, followed by a day of travel. If I was going to break summer routine, there had better be a good reason. St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands was our destination, so that's a good enough reason, right there. My mom and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in May, and wanted to renew their vows on a beach  in the Virgin Islands, where my sister Julie lives. No way were Carrie and I going turn down that invitation.  It was a quick and thorough break from school, and an easy place to move into relaxation mode. The first picture, I took as we glided along the bay after Julie had taken us out on a small boat to a nice snorkeling spot.

Weather-wise, June marks the beginning of hurricane season; not exactly ideal. We did get rained on, and the bugs were pretty vicious, too. We managed to get some sunny beach time, and snorkeling in the rain is remarkably pleasant, especially compared to sitting on a rainy beach. Plenty of fresh seafood, great burgers at Skinny Legs, and tasty home-cooked meals by our hosts, Julie and Ken, kept us fed and happy.