To the Editor:

Now that you have received the re-evaluations of your Haywood County property, are you pleased county commissioners chose to re-evaluate your home? Are you getting the runaround when you try to get inflated values reviewed?

These commissioners made no secret about their plans to raise the values on most homes $300,000 and under. I read it in the newspaper. Last November, you could have replaced these commissioners with excellent candidates, but you voted them back in power. Now, for four years, you will only be able to replace two of the commissioners. The just-elected will not be up for re-election until 2014. They will retain the majority of 3 of the 5, so it will not matter what two commissioners you replace.

This is the result of apathy, people who didn’t have any idea what was at stake, automatically pulling the lever for the party running this county for years. They have accumulated debt, and now the taxpayer is expected to cough up the money to pay for their spending. Re-evaluations are required once in eight years, and most counties have chosen to wait because of the instability of the real estate markets.  

Haywood County did a re-evaluation in 2006  so they didn’t have to reassess until 2014. But this greedy bunch couldn’t wait that long, so while almost all real estate has dropped in value due to the weak market, the commissioners decided that our property and homes have gone up in value. Commercial properties have really been hit hard. Just what we need — more small businesses and jobs to go under while the county government delights in the windfall they will see due to unrealistic re-evaluations.  

Arlene Hemm,

Canton

Editor’s note: Revaluations are required by state law and are based on market value as determined by real estate assessors. County commissioners don’t choose which houses to raise the values on compared to others.