Beaufort Country to Reassess Property Values this Year - Smart Move for Who?

In a somewhat surprising move the Beaufort Country will be reassessing property values in 2009.  The county assessor, Ed Hughes, who just last month said it might be beneficial to the county to postpone reassessment, has changed course again.  On Monday, March 23rd Hughes told the Finance Committee that his team had made such preparations for the reassessment this year, that waiting until next year wouldn't make sense.  With council members is agreement, it looks as though it will go through as planned.

I'd say more than a little shocking.  Sure, the scheduled 5 year reassessment time is 2009 but the government has the option to put it off one year.  Hughes and the Beaufort County Council are well aware that the SC Association of Realtors and many South Carolina lawmakers are attempting to repeal the "Point of Sale" property tax bill of 2006, which has skyrocketed taxes on homes and property in Beaufort County and the state.  All signs point to a repeal, which would drastically lower taxes on Beaufort SC homes and land bought in the past two years.  If council would delay this one year, Point of Sale would most likely be gone sometime this year, and real estate taxes here in Beaufort would be back in-sync.