Borough tax assessments double for lake lots

To the editor:

I’m wondering if anyone else in the Mat-Su Borough noticed that their lakefront lot values suddenly shot up sky high?

I admit that when I received all my little white cards with the assessments, nothing jumped out at me, or to my husband. What I remember each year come August is what my check to the borough comes to. According to assessors, my lake lots each suddenly jumped from $19,000 in value to $40,000! Excuse me? My brother-in-law next door was so angry he called the borough and spoke to the gentleman in charge of assessments.

He told my brother-in-law he basically decided Valley lake lots were undervalued and he just decided to double everything. He apparently told my brother-in-law our lots probably don’t hold to that evaluation and he’ll try to remember next year to lower them. Sorry, it’s too late to change this mistake this year.

I’d like to hear if anyone else has noticed this sudden surge in the assessed valuation of their lake lots. It was done without anyone taking a look at what your property was like — if there’s power, gas, lots of swamp area.

Sounds like it was just a way to bleed us for more tax money. I mean, I think everyone knows home values have been flat for years, or even falling. But this land revaluation has raised my home value about $80,000 since it’s on a lake lot. So the borough, I guess, did find a way to get more tax money from me, from lake land and from my home.

Anyone else a little perturbed over this?

Joy Bruns

Wasilla