Just how much is it worth now?

Property in Pittsylvania County is worth more than it was four years ago, according to the latest assessment.

Pittsylvania County land and buildings are assessed every four years for tax purposes.

When property is worth more, the same property tax rate will bring in more revenue to pay for the local government services provided by Chatham — the public schools and libraries, the sheriff’s department, the volunteer fire and rescue departments and trash collection.

But the connection between reassessments and future tax bills makes the process naturally controversial.

This time around, the country is recovering from the deepest recession in a generation and a national housing market collapse.

Everyone would like to believe that their investments — especially their property and particularly their homes — have appreciated in value over time. But how can county property appreciate in value in these times?

The county’s assessor looked at 49,113 taxable and tax-exempt parcels and found the overall assessment increased 8.7 percent over the past four years.

Already, there have been plenty of complaints.

“They have vented their frustrations out on me,” said Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram of his restaurant customers. “I have no answers for them because I’m surprised too.”

Surprised but certainly not out of luck.

While reasonable people can argue whether this latest county reassessment accurately measures every downtick in the local real estate market, the advantage of this process is that county residents have the right to appeal their new property assessments.

We encourage all county residents who dispute their properties’ new values to do so.

“It’s an opportunity for the property owner to bring to our attention details we may not know,” said Don Thomas, vice president of field operations at Wingate and Associates, the county’s assessor.

Those property owners may not prevail during the process, but no one should pay more tax than their fair share.

The assessors work for the county, and the county works for its residents.

To ensure that this process is done correctly, people will have to be willing to make sure that the assessors did their job correctly.

If it looks right, live with it. If it doesn’t, appeal it.