The North Carolina property tax assessment increased 93.3% for a Forsyth County, NC (FCNC) property owner’s home. The 36-year-old 1600-square-foot house, needing repair, formerly assessed at $125,500, was now just appraised at $242,600. The median home value in FCNC is $163,426, which is already 25% higher than the national median value of $130,626. The lead tax appraiser explained that this increase is because $242,600 is the selling price of new 1600-square-foot homes in FCNC.
The government isn’t supposed to “appraise” the value of your home. It is supposed to “assess” the value of your home instead, which isn’t supposed to be confused with the appraised value, according to smartasset.com. Concerning the “assessed value,” the website says it’s “meant to be utilized regardless of market conditions, [and the] assessed value is generally 20% to 40% lower than the fair market value.”
Assuming this 36-year-old 1600-square-foot home, needing repair, had a fair market value of $242,600, which is the price of a new 1600-square-foot home, then the assessed tax value should be between $144,000 and $192,000, which averages $168,000, nearly the median home value of FCNC without depreciation.
“Historic increases” in property values, states the FCNC website, and while “property tax rates” decreased from 67.78 cents to 53.52 cents per $100 of property value, this homeowner stated his actual FCNC taxes went up 62%; this new property tax value also increased three other taxes that he must pay as well.
“It’s crooked,” the homeowner expressed. However, his real concern is that the board of commissioners and tax assessors next move will be to increase the “tax rate” back to 75.35 cents per $100, as it was in 2019. This would increase the homeowner’s property tax by 128% as compared to his 2024 taxes.
This is the classic frog in the cooking pot scenario. Putting a frog into boiling water, he jumps out. But if he’s warmed up gently, he’ll sit there ‘til he’s cooked.
Surprisingly, the tax appraiser explained to him that the taxes had to be raised because they didn’t have enough money to meet their budget. Excuse me? Was she saying that these tyrannical taskmasters needed more money, regardless of the consequences suffered by the working citizens?
Not having sufficient funds for the budget is interesting since in 2022 sixty-four members of the Forsyth County government had salaries over $100,000/year. The largest salary was Jack Watts (no party affiliation), County Manager with a salary of $275,018. The Winston-Salem city manager, William Patrick Pate (no party affiliation) has a $285,000 annual salary, again with numerous staff making over $100,000. Who would be a “no party affiliate” except someone who wants no accountability? Does the area really need both a city and county government with such fat salaries? Can residences afford such high salaried people? Maybe lower paid locals would work better.
According to page 57 of the Forsyth County’s 377-page 2025/26 Budget the county plans to increase property taxes 59.3% in 2025. Their expenses on page VI reveals $104,714,750 on Public Safety, $3,646,515 on Environmental Management, $95,982,084 on Health and Human Services, $191,829,896 on Education, $20,150,944 on Culture and Recreation, $10,137,053 on Community and Economic Development, $39,297,627 on Administrative, $26,984,466 on General Government, $88,758,055 on Debt Service, and $2,217,250 on Community Grants. These numbers show the reason for increasing property isn’t due to a lack of money, but instead due to pork from a pseudoelite bunch of overpaid politicians. How do you budget twice the amount of money for “Culture and Recreation” as you do for “Community and Economic Development”? Maybe the community doesn’t need as much “Culture and Recreation.” How do you spend $39,297,627 on “Administrative”? Have the prices of stamps and envelopes gone up that much? You would think the “Government” expenses would be covered in “Administrative,” but they are budgeting an additional $26,984,466 for the “Government.”
Fat in this budget could have been cut, saving taxpayers millions of dollars, but that’s not the will of the tyrannical taskmasters, for whom the community works as slaves.
This county’s government has forgotten the role of government. U.S. Government Review states, “the role of government refers to the functions and responsibilities that a governing body assumes to maintain order, provide services, protect rights, and promote general welfare of its citizens.” It’s hard to understand how increasing property taxes of primary dwellings 59% is promoting the general welfare of citizens, but it’s actually worse than that. This property owner explained he saw a map and took pictures, showing the scale of changes in the property values went from -20% decrease to over 300% increase. Most of the Winston-Salem city locations had a tax increase of 0-40%, while the county showed increases of 50% to 100%. If we were speaking of electoral districts, this looks very reminiscent of gerrymandering maps.
The U.S. Declaration shows the framers thought it to be “‘self-evident that all men are created equal’ and have ‘unalienable rights’ —including the rights to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’” The writings of James Madison show those rights included “property—understood as ‘everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right’,” including his home and his wallet. The varying percentages of increases in property values clearly show citizens of FCNC aren’t being treated equally, with east Winston-Salem (largely black section of town) having far more homes falling in the range of 0%-40% increase.
Perhaps this explains what the newly appointed Tax Collector and “Assessor” Amanda Markle (registered Democrat) meant when she stated, “I look forward to serving the citizens of Forsyth County to ensure fair and equitable assessments in tax value.” Remember, Kamala Harris set the standard on equity stating, “We had over 200 years of slavery …we recognize that everybody did not start out on an equal footing in this country and, in particular, Black people have not.”
Are FCNC property owners having to pay reparations?
The homeowner said he knows “no one who ever owned a slave or even came from a slave-owning family, but with the salaries of the city and county officials, they area certainly are reminiscent of the carpetbaggers.” He explained that the tax assignments are reevaluated and raised every four years, which explains why people move to Florida, which has no property taxes. The FCNC Board of Commissioners isn’t represent FCNC voters.
NOTE: Winston-Salem is one of 20 municipalities having “local level recall provisions in their charters and ordinances.” Should this be considered?
Remember, while widows, the elderly, and retirees of middle class FCNC are having to consider selling and moving from their family homes because of the doubling of taxes, they will also be paying for these FCNC tax employees’ and government official’s lifelong retirements!
With the number of people in the FCNC government having enormous salaries and considering the tax office is confusing “tax assessments” and “market appraisal values” of homes, these decisions are either being made purposefully, or by incompetence. Either way, Citizens of FCNC should “reassess,” or DOGE the positions of these “servants of the people.”
More articles by Richard Blakley can be found at Blakley on the Write.