The St. John-based V.I. Unity Day Group will hold a rally Monday at the Winston Wells Ballfield in Cruz Bay to raise awareness about rising property taxes.
"The rally is to inform the public," said Myrtle Barry, who heads the group’s property tax committee. Barry also hopes the rally, set to begin at 5:30 p.m., will encourage St. John residents to get more involved in the property tax issue.
Barry said many St. John property values are currently higher than actual market prices, and thus present an unfair tax burden for local property owners.
"We are fighting for people’s homes," Barry said.
According to Barry, the group invited Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone and Tax Assessor Bernadette Williams to speak at the rally. She said Malone indicated he is coming, but the group hasn’t gotten an answer from Williams.
Malone was invited because he told the group that he has legislation in the hopper that will help St. John residents hold on to their properties, Barry said. However, she said that she doesn’t yet know the details of the bill. Malone’s office did not return a phone call requesting further information.
Barry cautioned that the rally is not a political forum and that the Unity Day Group will not endorse any candidates for office.
"We are holding this hearing to provide transparency," she said.
The property tax issue first came to the forefront when St. Thomas business owners, who felt their properties were unfairly valued, filed suit in U.S. District Court. That case, filed in 2003, has one point left to resolve. That’s a decision on whether the Board of Tax Review is functioning.
Still pending, however, is the Unity Day Group’s suit, which was filed in 2008 after a property revaluation resulted in huge property tax increases for St. John residents. The suits asks that the government start over with the revaluation process and not assess or collect taxes until the issue is resolved.
"The court hasn’t addressed our case at all," Barry said.
The suit alleges that the company hired to do the revaluation, Bearing Point, unjustly used different formulas and cost figures for St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John.
In August 2007, figures obtained from Bearing Point by the Coral Bay Community Council indicated that St. John’s base rate for houses stands at $360 per square foot. The St. Thomas rate was $93 a square foot, while St. Croix’s base rate stands at $89 a square foot.
Meanwhile, St. John land is valued at a base rate of $25.12 a square foot, while St. Thomas and St. Croix is valued at $7.41 and $2.78, respectively.
Barry suggested that a law on the books that says residential properties cannot increase in value if a shopping center is built nearby be amended to included newly constructed villas and mansions. High-priced villas located near homes owned by full-time residents, Barry said, have contributed to overall higher property values on St. John.