by Peter Griffith

Well, here we go again with our county supervisors who know better than we do.

The county assessment!

Did they not clearly hear us when we voted this past election and said we were tired of paying higher taxes? How can some out-of-town firm come here and make these kind of claims on higher taxes on our property?

What are they comparing our values to?

Smithfield, Chesapeake, Suffolk (north end), or is there a little extra money going their way for this? My property was valued just this past June at $225,000. This company comes in, and now in six months’ time it is worth roughly $335,000.

You have got to be kidding me that it rose $100,000 in six months.

Talking with some people this morning, these people assessing our properties are even taxing our flowers and such. What? You have got to be kidding me!

Who are these people and whose stupid idea was it to do all this in a time when most of us have enough trouble just making ends meet because of mismanagement by our politicians?

We are tired of this kind of treatment by the supervisors of this county and no longer will stand for it. I am having enough trouble paying my taxes and they add this to our burden.

Since our know-it-all county fathers bought the Turner Tract, maybe now they are trying to go into the housing business by causing some of us not to be able to pay these higher-than-normal taxes. Then they foreclose and own more property.

They can spin it all they want, but the bottom line is that Southampton County is in trouble and it is not getting out by riding on the backs of those of us who work hard each day just to feed our families.

We are hurting here, and now we are taking it again. I am tired of this tax, tax, tax to get us out of the mess our officials got us into.

Outgoing Supervisor Walt Young could not understand why he was thrown out of office. Bingo. Here is your sign.

I urge everyone to go forward and appeal all the taxes that have been imposed on us over this. It is going to take us all, including those whose taxes went down or stayed the same, for we are all in this together.

I also would like to see an investigation into the whole affair of this tax assessment. We know through Ash Cutchin’s remarks at the last board meeting that there has been some backroom politics going on, and now this happens.

Too many slimy things have been going on in this county and now we need to act on them. Yes, I think a full investigation needs to be called in this matter.

Maybe if the Board of Supervisors did not take its so-called retreat this year and waste our money eating and drinking and doing nothing, maybe our taxes would not go up. Again, maybe it is time for some investigations by the commonwealth’s attorney’s office of some of the spending practices of this board in office now.

I do believe there is something wrong here. I am willing to stand and call them out. How about you?

Tea Party, citizens for a better community, Democratic Party, Republican Party and all the other groups — maybe it is time we hold a central meeting and talk about this and see about getting it repealed. Yes, I said repealed, repealed, repealed.

We do not need this at this time. We do not have the money to give the politicians, and we cannot afford to do so anymore.

Peter Griffith lives on Scottswood Drive outside Franklin and can be reached at griffith33@gmail.com.