WINTON – The Hertford County Board of Equalization and Review convened here during the last regularly scheduled meeting of the Hertford County Commissioners on June 16 and made a decision that resulted in a $3 million change to the county’s tax base.

Tax Assessor Sylvia F. Anderson went before the board to discuss the property tax assessment of the Ahoskie High School Apartments (ASHA).

ASHA had apparently disputed the $4.5 million assessment based on the fact that the income approach was not considered in calculating the property’s appraised value.

&uot;When applying the information against our schedule of values, the cost approach was used due to the lack of additional information and no comparables for a property of this nature,&uot; Anderson stated in a June 13 memo to the board.

The memo continued, &uot;When you renovate a structure of this age and size, the cost is usually to the extreme.&uot;

After collaboration with the state Department of Revenue (DOR) and CADA officials and comparing AHSA to similar properties in surrounding counties, a tax valuation of $1,574,152 was determined.

During the June 16 meeting, county attorney Charles Revelle told the board, &uot;Anderson has done a lot of work on this… she got the DOR involved and did an excellent job in getting information to justify the appraisal.

She has come up with something that is very much defendable if questioned.&uot;

Board member Howard Hunter III asked County Manager Loria Williams if the change would affect the county’s budget.

She answered, &uot;This is not going to affect the budget; we have the correct figure to balance the budget… but since the old figure is $4.5 million, that’s quite a difference.&uot;

Revelle added, &uot;That’s a significant change to the tax base.&uot;

Commissioner Curtis Freeman made a motion to accept the new figure, and Commissioner Johnny Farmer offered a second.

The measure passed without objection.