"figures don't lie, but liars figure."

Good afternoon, Strasburgians! If you're like me, then you got your shenandoah county real estate tax bill today. It reminds me of our town of strasburg water bills--funny numbers (and I don't mean haha). For example,

• our real estate tax bill went up a whopping 22%. Talk about inflation!
• the 2022 real estate tax rate (58%) is 11% less than the 2021 real estate tax rate (69%)

wow! how can this be? if the 2022 tax rate went down 11%, then how can the tax bill be 22% more than 2021's tax bill? answer:

• our total taxable assessed value increased a double-whopping 45%--in ONE year!

does anyone really believe that the cost of government (real estate tax rate) actually went DOWN from 69% in 2021 to 58% in 2022? if your really do believe this, then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell you.

there's an old joke. One man says to another, "what's 2 + 2?" the other man replied, "what do you want it to be?"

just like the town's water bills, where we're billed on a fictitious number of gallons instead of actual gallons used, the real estate tax bill reminds me of the old Mark Twain quote--"figures don't lie, but liars figure."

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