There’s no science to tax increases
I wanted to attend a lecture at Virginia Tech about dark matter on Thursday night. Dark matter is mysterious stuff that scientists know exists out in the universe but have never directly observed. They deduce its existence from how it affects the stars, gases and galaxies we can see.
Instead of science goodness, I listened to Montgomery County residents explain why supervisors should or should not increase the property tax by 12 cents. The current rate is 75 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The testimony — hours and hours of it — was the opposite of dark matter. It was easily observable, but it probably will affect nothing.
Continue reading Christian Trejbal’s column.
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Montgomery County property taxes are not terribly unreasonable, even at the new projected .87 per $100 assessed value. However, the notion that supervisors would raise taxes by 16% in a single year suggests lack of reason.
At this point a .10-.12 increase may be inevitable, but the questions residents should be asking is why there was such a lack of foresight and planning by the board as they approached the 2012-2013 budget year.
It doesn’t take an insider to realize that in this environment Richmond was almost certainly going to be sending less money to the county in the next two-year budget cycle. The supervisors overspent (over-committed future funds) and now taxpayers essentially have to pony up the $$ necessary to cover what has been pledged.
Factoring in inflation and slightly less from Richmond, a 5-6% tax increase seems to be what should have been reasonable and necessary; however, 16% simply represents poor judgment.
Property taxpayers should be willing to step up and take on half the proposed increase (8% or .06 per $100 assessed), and parents who have children in Montgomery County schools should have to make up the difference for better education and/or facilities for their children. Fees on student enrollment can and should be instituted beginning in the 2012-2013 school year to have a more equitable share of the burden fall on the demographic actually benefiting from the vast majority of the increased spending.
Comment by Homer Jay — April 2, 2012 @ 1:48 am
I received unsolicited emails from other groups wanting the tax to be increased. Why no complaints about those? Oh, I know, you want the tax to be increased. Robocalls and unsolicited emails are, unfortunately, part of democracy these days.
Comment by Jesse Richardson — April 2, 2012 @ 7:53 am