A New Kent County judge this morning dismissed a citizen group's appeal of this year's tax levy.

The appeal had claimed that this year's property reassessments were inconsistent and invalid. County officials had argued that a state law cited in the appeal only allowed the group to contest the legality of the tax levy, and not to challenge the reassessments themselves.

In dismissing the case, Circuit Judge Thomas B. Hoover ruled that the appeal failed to show that the tax levy was imposed illegally.

"Whatever defects may or may not exist in the assessment," the judge's order reads, "the statute in question is not the vehicle for that challenge."