USVI-On-Line

The tax bill is so ridiculously low partly because we are still working with 1998 property assessments-- since the VI Government totally screwed up a re-assessment process about 10 years ago, and hasn't managed to remedy the situation.
The National Park has had shamefully little interest their stewardship of all above sea-level resources in the VI. Although they are chronically understaffed, there are a number of marine resource people on island, but nobody dealing with land issues. The park defers to the VI government on many development issues. A number of illegal developments (Yes, Grande Bay and Sirenusa both among them) have made corruption glaringly obvious in recent years.

As I posted earlier.....

I urge everyone to call the National Park headquarters in DC and report this - not sure what (if anything) the National Park on STJ is doing about this so I think it needs to go straight to the top (so to speak) and for us not to sit around and hope that the STJ division is doing something - I mean it can't hurt to bring it to their attention - maybe they already know but maybe they don't.

Jonathan Jarvis
Jon_Jarvis@nps.gov
(202) 208-3818

Hey, FWIW, I just found the most recent tax bill for the monster house itself. It isn't in Ingrao's name, but rather "Denis Bay Properties, LLC". The "improvements" on the property are assessed at an entirely laughable $192,400, and the tax bill from a few months ago was $1,651. Unreal!

All the worst,

Kevin

I was just able to open the VI property tax database to take a look at the monster house lot that ties to the tax bill in my previous post, and its surroundings (see the attached image below). The house lot is highlighted in yellow, and that is the Peace Hill parking lot at the upper left corner of the image. The NPS property adjoins Ingrao's on the north and south, and you can see the path of the old park road. What surprised me is the number of undeveloped but privately held parcels of land in the area. I wonder how many could be built upon in the future. Hopefully, many are on steep and difficult lots and will remain undeveloped land, but hey, that didn't stop this guy.

All the best,

Kevin

Are the discrepancies in tax valuations similar across the board (meaning, if this house is valued at $192K, is a much smaller home valued at, say, $50k)?

NMSS: I wish... While the current assessments that I'm aware of are lower than market by about 2X, and could spike up in the future, Coconuts is valued at over double the amount of the monster house, despite being a much smaller property.

All the best,

Kevin

Coconuts wrote:NMSS: I wish... While the current assessments that I'm aware of are lower than market by about 2X, and could spike up in the future, Coconuts is valued at over double the amount of the monster house, despite being a much smaller property.

All the best,

Kevin

Wow, that is ridiculous!! Makes me wonder (if you know what I mean).

It's very unlikely that the tax office is aware that the building there now isn't the same modest circa 1973 house there before.

In my stateside town new construction is not assessed until the building is completed. That may also be the case in the VI, which would explain the difference between Coconuts' assessment and this house's assessment. Perhaps Pia could weigh in on this.

jpm wrote:In my stateside town new construction is not assessed until the building is completed. That may also be the case in the VI, which would explain the difference between Coconuts' assessment and this house's assessment. Perhaps Pia could weigh in on this.

Ditto in MN.
But regardless, taxes on that chunk of property are very low.

"News of St John" has done some in depth researching and reporting on this ... today's post...

http://newsofstjohn.com/2013/08/08/npss ... denis-bay/