Press Releases

(Lexington, KY) –Fayette Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill accepted an award yesterday, on behalf of his office, acknowledging the improvements in technologies and services implemented over the past year.

At the annual PVA Conference, the Kentucky PVA Association presented Mr. O’Neill with the Outstanding Assessment Jurisdiction Award for the Fayette County PVA Office. The association takes into account improvements made in the last two years; Mr. O’Neill has only been in office for 18 months.

“I want to thank my peers in the PVA Association for recognizing the many positive changes we’ve made in the Fayette PVA Office,” said Mr. O’Neill. “The staff is dedicated to public service and does an outstanding job each and every day. They earned this award.”

Since Mr. O’Neill took office in March 2009, the Fayette County PVA Office has increased the number of new Homestead Exemption recipients by 69%, invested in aerial photography and software to improve assessment accuracy, sold unnecessary fleet vehicles and implemented financial transparency policies unmatched by other government agencies.

“We’ve accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time, but there’s a lot more for us to do and I look forward to building on the improvements we made to make the Fayette PVA Office even more responsive and user-friendly.”

David O’Neill was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear on February 11, 2009 to fill the unexpired term of Fayette County PVA. The Kentucky Constitution designates the PVA offices as the administrators of “ad valorem” taxes, including residential, tangible and commercial property taxes as well as setting taxable values on vehicles and watercraft. The Fayette PVA Office is dedicated to assessing property in the most fair, equitable and timely manner possible.

(Lexington, KY) – In an unprecedented action, Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill has requested a second budget cut in operating funds appropriated by Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) for the 2011 fiscal year.

In December 2009, O’Neill voluntarily asked for a $21,000 reduction in the funds appropriated by LFUCG to the Fayette County PVA Office. The FY 2011 budget request of $335,400 is 8% less than the approved budget for FY 2010 and is 21% less than the most recent budget requests by O’Neill’s predecessor.

“Taxpayers deserve proof that their elected representatives are working with less funding, just as most Lexingtonians are doing in their own families,” O’Neill said. “I’m proud that the efficiencies I’ve put in place now allow the office to do better work with less funding.”

Since taking office in March 2009, O’Neill has made significant reductions to operating costs including:

• Annual $5,000 savings by 45% reduction of the PVA automobile fleet,
• Annual $4,000 savings by bringing in house services previously outsourced, and
• Reductions in travel, cellular service and other non-essential expenses.

LFUCG is statutorily obligated to contribute funding to the Fayette PVA Office.

David O’Neill was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear on February 11 to fill the unexpired term of Fayette County PVA. The Kentucky Constitution designates the PVA offices as the administrators of “ad valorem” taxes, including residential, tangible and commercial property taxes as well as setting taxable values on vehicles and watercraft. The Fayette PVA Office is dedicated to assessing property in the most fair, equitable and timely manner possible.

(Lexington, KY) – Continuing his ongoing effort to make public information more easily accessible, Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill announced that new overlay zoning information – Neighborhood Design Character, Paris Pike Corridor and Courthouse Area Design – will “go live” today on www.FayettePVA.com.

“Adding the overlays to the PVA web site gets us closer to my goal of making the PVA web site the one-stop source for information on every parcel of real property in Lexington,” said O’Neill.

The Neighborhood Design Character overlay (ND-1) allows residential or non- residential/commercial areas to place restrictions on development in order to protect the visual harmony and characteristics of the area. The Courthouse Area Design overlay encourages downtown redevelopment while preserving the unique features of the area in accordance with the LFUCG Comprehensive Plan. The Paris Pike Corridor overlay recognizes and addresses the special characteristics of lands along rural transportation arteries.

Primary zoning information is already available on the PVA web site, along with the Historic District Overlay added in October 2009. Future data additions may include expansion area zoning and infill and redevelopment zoning.

“We received a great response in October with the Historic District overlay. Hopefully visitors to our web site will appreciate this additional information,” O’Neill said.    “We continue to receive numerous requests for this data, and we are very pleased to be able to make it available.”

The Kentucky Constitution designates the PVA offices as the administrators of “ad valorem” taxes, including residential, tangible and commercial property taxes as well as setting taxable values on vehicles and watercraft. The Fayette PVA Office is dedicated to assessing property in the most fair, equitable and timely manner possible.

(Lexington, KY) – Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill has voluntarily taken a 5.8% budget cut in operating funds appropriated by Lexington- Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG).

“We are all in this period of economic recovery and revenue shortfall together,” O’Neill said. “The tax payers expect nothing less than full cooperation and belt-tightening from all government entities and the PVA office is no exception.”

For fiscal year 2010, LFUCG appropriated $365,000 to the PVA office. O’Neill has requested that the city reduce that number by $21,000. The reduced budget will be possible through savings in expenses and increased efficiencies.

Earlier this year O’Neill reduced the size of the PVA automobile fleet by 45% saving taxpayers approximately $5,000 per year in related expenses. Additionally, services previously outsourced have been brought in house saving $4,000 per year. The remainder will come from reductions in travel, cellular service and other non-essential expenses.

“This is exactly the type of response that our current situation requires, and I hope Mr. O’Neill’s proactive efforts will inspire other agencies to step up in similar fashion,” said Mayor Jim Newberry. “We very much appreciate the help of the PVA and his staff in resolving this issue.” The Mayor said the PVA is coming forward with the cut even though he has not been asked to do so.

David O’Neill was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear on February 11 to fill the unexpired term of Fayette County PVA.

(Lexington, KY) – As part of his ongoing effort to make public information more easily accessible, Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill announced that H-1 overlay zoning information will “go live” today on www.FayettePVA.com.

“The PVA web site should be the one-stop source for information on every parcel of real property in Lexington,” said O’Neill. “Adding overlay zoning data is the first of several steps in expanding the data available on our site.”

H-1 overlay zones designate Local Historic Districts. Properties designated as H-1 conform to certain standards enforced by the Board of Architectural Review and by an historic preservation officer with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Overlay zones are zoning designations that literally overlay a standard zone (such as single family residential, agricultural rural, or light industrial). Primary zoning information is already available on the PVA web site.

Additional overlays will be added to the site in the coming weeks. Other overlay zones used in Lexington are Neighborhood Character Design, Courthouse Area Design, Transition Area, and Paris Pike/Lexington Road Corridor. Future data additions may include expansion area zoning and infill and redevelopment zoning.

“We decided to start with the H-1 overlay because the designation helps protect some of the architectural flavor of Lexington,” O’Neill said.    “We have received numerous requests for this data, and we are very pleased to be able to make it available.”

The Kentucky Constitution designates the PVA offices as the administrators of “ad valorem” taxes, including residential, tangible and commercial property taxes as well as setting taxable values on vehicles and watercraft. The Fayette PVA Office is dedicated to assessing property in the most fair, equitable and timely manner possible.

(Lexington, KY) — Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA) David O’Neill gave the “Westward, Ho” today to send a caravan of four more PVA office pool cars to Frankfort to be sold. The measure will save taxpayer dollars, according to O’Neill.

“I’m reducing our automobile fleet roughly by half, from 11 vehicles when I took office in March, down to six,” O’Neill said. “In addition to saving taxpayers over $5,000 per year in insurance, fuel, maintenance and parking costs, we will invest the revenue generated from the sale of the cars to improvements in our technology.”

One automobile has already been sold. “All proceeds from the vehicle sales will be applied toward the cost of GIS, aerial photography and other new technologies, which we will use to complete much of the research that previously required costly and time- consuming field inspections,” O’Neill said.

“In many cases, aerial photography eliminates the need for an assessor to leave the office, drive to the property, disturb the property owner, access the grounds and return to the office with the data,” O’Neill said. “This approach is much safer, more environmentally friendly, faster and much more efficient without compromising accuracy.”

“Rather than spending money on cars, we are going to catch this office up on technology,” O’Neill said.

In addition to cost saving measures, O’Neill announced a new web page that lists every office expenditure on the PVA public web site at www.fayettePVA.com. “The citizens of Fayette County have every right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, and I am committed to full transparency with all financial transactions of the office,” O’Neill said.

“In our ongoing effort to be fully accountable to taxpayers we will continue to enhance this section of the web site so we encourage everyone to check back often,” he said.

The Kentucky Constitution designates the PVA offices as the administrators of “ad valorem” taxes, including residential, tangible and commercial property taxes as well as setting taxable values on vehicles and watercraft. The Fayette PVA Office is dedicated to assessing property in the most fair, equitable and timely manner possible.