Al Aitken, Chairman
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Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to VOTORS:
You’ve just received your annual property value tax reassessment notice and it reflects an increase of 25%. Your
local politicians “come to the rescue” by lowering your tax rate by 2% when Virginia law requires them to reduce it
by much more. But now they can claim they “lowered your taxes” while they fatten their budget to spend your money.
But you’re not buying that because you know your tax burden is increasing by hundreds or even thousands of dollars
while your income remains relatively stagnant. What will you do? What will you cut from your family budget?
That is precisely what is happening now in counties all over Virginia. And that is precisely why we have formed
VOTORS, or Virginians Over-Taxed On Residences. The goal of VOTORS is to achieve a Virginia Constitutional
Amendment that provides limits on real property tax assessment increases and real property tax rates. The new
Constitutional Amendment would change Virginia's "Current Market Value" property tax system to an "Acquisition-
Value Based" one similar to California's 1978 Proposition 13.
VOTORS has been working steadily toward our goal and has succeeded in getting a bill introduced by Del. Jeff
Frederick (R-52) that will bring needed real property tax relief to the Commonwealth. House Joint Resolution No.
559 (HJ559) was debated in the recently concluded General Assembly 2007 session. HJ559 calls for a constitutional
amendment that limits annual tax assessment increases to no more than 1%, plus any percentage increase in the rate
of inflation, until a property is sold, at which time the property gets reassessed at its then fair market value.
HJ559 also limits property tax rate increases to no more than 1% of the previous year’s rate.
We’re making headway, but there is still much work to be done. Although VOTORS has succeeded at including our
issue in the highly popular Freedom & Prosperity Agenda, now endorsed by over 40 legislators in Richmond, HJ559
unfortunately was tabled in the 2007 session because eight of the eleven delegates on a subcommittee in the House
Privileges and Elections Committee felt “uncomfortable limiting the local governments’ right to raise revenue.
Apparently those delegates, both democrats and republicans, put governments’ rights ahead of your individual right
to liberty and economic freedom.
Regardless of your income or state of wealth, if you are concerned with the rising property tax assessments and
their potential adverse impact on your property tax bill, I invite you to join together with thousands of other
VOTORS from all over Virginia to gain control of our property taxes. I invite you to explore this VOTORS web site
to learn more about the property tax process in Virginia, the VOTORS position, the full text of HJ559, the history
of Proposition 13 in California, the Freedom and Prosperity Agenda and the resulting increase and stability of
revenue growth that an "Acquisition-Value Based" property tax system can bring. Click on the "Find Out" button to
learn how this initiative will affect your property taxes. Most importantly, join VOTORS by clicking on the "Join"
button found on any page. Membership is free... contributions are always welcome and needed. It will be the power
of many thousands of Virginians like you that will finally persuade Richmond to reform our unfair real estate tax
system.
Constitutional change in Virginia is very difficult and requires the involvement of average hard working citizens.
You own your government. Your Delegates and Senators represent you…but they must hear from you and they must know
you are united and serious in your demand to limit increases in property taxes. Discuss this issue with your
families, friends and neighbors. Click on the VOTORS Position Statement button and print several copies of the
"Printer Friendly" version and pass them around. Together, the VOTORS will send a clear message to our state
candidates and elected officials that we want a Virginia Constitutional Amendment that provides limits on annual
increases in property value assessments and on increases in the property tax rates.
Welcome to VOTORS.
Al Aitken, Chairman
chairman@votors.org
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