Grumpy Old Ganz

Give and Take

Just the other day I received a friendly reminder about my property taxes. I noticed a slight discrepancy in my notice and thinking it was just a clerical error, I called to make the county aware of it.

My issue wasn’t with the taxes due, but with how many acres the notice showed that I owned. What I thought was a simple mistake quickly turned into a very heated conversation. In fact, I found out there definitely was no mistake made.

I’ve been living, paying property taxes and a mortgage on my property for 20 years. Now the county decided to just “take” 1.5 acres of my land that I had bought and had been paying for all these years. Really?

So this is what I was told...the county decided to survey all the land with new technology available and decided to move forward with the new survey results to make it “fair” for everyone.

Some may have gained a few acres and some, like me, lost a few. Many have fence lines, tree lines, etc. to mark their property. And, of course, we’ve gone by the “markers” that were used in surveying from many years ago. Now they decided to up and totally change everything.

From a tillable and agricultural standpoint, this could be just a few acres to maybe hundreds of acres where the property line has been changed.

So I asked a simple question since my mortgage, loans, and resale was based on my total acreage...what am I supposed to tell my lender now? The response was...it’s between you and your banker and it’s not our problem.

The county created this mess and now has nothing in place to fix it or refuses to fix it. How is that “fair” for everyone?

The world as we know it has changed and so has technology. I am all for what’s right and fair and can always adapt. I know there is nothing I can personally do to change this situation and I will deal with it and take the hit.

What I’d like to know is where the money came from to pay to have all the land in the county surveyed? The county can hide behind the “fair for everyone” clause and will reap no repercussions for their actions, but all of us property taxpayers need to question if it was really “necessary”?