Editor, Gazette-Journal:

At the Gloucester Board of Supervisors’ March 30 public hearing, two citizens and a member of the board of supervisors made several comments indicating that I am to blame for the county’s delay in transitioning from calendar year to fiscal year billing for real estate taxes. I wanted to take an opportunity to address those claims for your readers.

I have never told the board of supervisors that the Treasurer’s Office is unwilling to move forward with the transition. To the contrary, I have repeatedly told them that the Treasurer’s Office is willing and able to do so. What I have, however, told them is that I am concerned about how this change will affect citizens with regard to their tax bills and I wanted to make sure that they fully understood the results of the change they were making.

In Virginia, the Commissioner of the Revenue assesses all taxes and then turns the assessments over to the Treasurer for billing and collection. It ...