Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I read with interest and chagrin the article in the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal this past week concerning additional funding for the Commissioner of the Revenue to assess new construction. I am not aware of any other time when the Mathews Commissioner of the Revenue either requested or was given additional funding for this purpose. How can the Board of Supervisors justify using local funds to pay an outside contractor to do the job that the Commonwealth of Virginia is paying the Commissioner of the Revenue to perform?

The newspaper article quoted the Commissioner of the Revenue as stating that there were 254 assessments for new construction from 2011 that were not completed. This is blatantly and patently false information. The last general reassessment of real estate was completed and effective on Jan. 1, 2011. According to information obtained from the Mathews County Building Official’s records, there were 434 building permits issued in cal...