Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan takes the cake for her story at 11 last night about residents being confused about their property tax bills. We’ve never seen such a dumb story. Hold your breath and follow it: residents are surprised to learn they’ll pay more in property taxes even though Ashvegas City Council on Tuesday said it wasn’t raising property taxes, and that’s because here’s the shocker people who live in Ashvegas also live in Buncombe County, and county commissioners raised the county tax rate!
Holy Crap, Carolyn! So, if we live in Ashvegas, that means we live in Buncombe County, too? Holy Toledo! And there’s such a thing as city taxes and county taxes? Are there state and federal taxes, too??? Could you do a follow-up reveal on that? WOWZA!
It looked like Ryan based her report solely on people over at Neighborhood Housing Services, a non-profit that builds houses and helps get needy people into home ownership. So Carolyn talked to a NHS spokeswoman, as well as a couple of homeowners NHS has helped. We’re not trying to make fun of these new homeowners, because owning a home is a complicated responsibility. But really, people. Where’s your basic understanding of how things work in life?
All of this, of course, doesn’t even address the debatable fact that Ryan reported as true – that Ashvegas City Council didn’t raise your taxes. Council did, in fact, drop the property tax rate, but that’s because this year was a revaluation year, and most everybody’s property values increased. And even with the drop in the tax rate, lots of people will pay more in city property taxes.
But that’s some involved math there, Carolyn. Drop us a line and we’ll you help you through it if you want to try and file and accurate report.
In other news…
A Buncombe County man was sentenced to 26 years in jail for torturing a woman, his girlfriend or his wife – we’re not sure. He locked her in a trailer closet, burned her with cigs, choked her with a telephone cord and slapped her around. She says he’s getting what he deserved… A Tennessee man and woman got life in prison for killing a South Carolina businessman last year. They killed him by smothering him with duct tape, then locking him up in a freezer… A missing Transylvania County man was found dead in a pond not far from the weekend party that he had left. No foul play is suspected in the 22-year-old’s death… There’s lots of flooding around… Some Hooters restaurant somewhere wanted to hold a fund-raiser for an animal shelter and call it “Hooters for Neuters,” but the animal folks didn’t like the objectification of body parts. Huh?… Some people rallied for an “oil-free Congress” on Haywood Road in West Ashvegas… and Good Morning America’s Kate Snow on Wednesday morning had some live reports from Bryson City and the Nantahala Outdoor Center as GMA does its “Vacationland USA” series.
Oh snap!
– WL –
You gotta remember, very few people under 40 watch news 13. Over the years I’ve helped several old ladies in Montford with their property tax appeals – they absolutely did not have a clue about what property taxes were, let alone that you could appeal them.
I actually think news 13 is brilliant in capturing their demographic. It is insane to watch if you are a pensive, sarcastic, asinine x’er such as myself, but it makes perfect sense if you sit down and watch it with a 75 y.o. neighbor.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy your site, but sometimes even you take tv 13 too seriously – they’re not talking to you. Except for Russ Bowen, he is The Man-