Will anti-taxers be consistent on real estate taxes
By Brian Kirwin | Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | Catch-AllWith home assessments on the slide, anti-taxers will have to decide whether to abandon their years-long talking point of “keeping real estate taxes revenue neutral.”
This year, revenue neutral likely means endorsing an increase in the real estate tax rate to keep people’s tax bills the same as last year.
I don’t support raising taxes, but I also didn’t spend the last few years saying real estate taxes need to be revenue neutral either.
I expect the talking points of the anti crowd to quickly change from “revenue neutral.”
I’m not sure how they’ll use their age-old “you’re taxing people out of their homes” by sending them the same tax bill as last year, albeit with a different rate to arrive at the same number.
But I’m sure they’ll find a way.
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The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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7 Responses to "Will anti-taxers be consistent on real estate taxes"
Brian, I can’t decide if you’re just stirring the pot to get reactions or prepping VB for tax increases to help fund all the projects council will insist on even in a bad economic climate with budget short falls.
Revenue neutral was never what was wanted, it was the minimum acceptable standard. Revenue positive would mean a tax increase. We fiscal conservatives would actually prefer revenue negative accompanied by spending cuts or at least a reduction in spending increases.
You don’t support raising taxes? What do you think revenue positive rates equate to?
I’m sure the retired couples that paid off their home and have taxes that exceed their original mortgage payment take exception to your characterization of “taxing them out of their homes”. I bet it was serious to them and more than just rhetoric.
Well, for whatever reason, VB did lose population according to the census. Paid consultants HAVE recomended closing two elementary schools due to a lack of student population.
A loss of population yet costs of service that contiually spiral upward.
Further, when tax rates were cut they were not revenue neutral. Taxpayer advocates asked for AT LEAST that but, in fact the cuts still generated higher tax bills for the individual household.
All that said Brian, if things did stay revenue neutral it would be ok. If it meant we weren’t being increasingly tax as before, at least we wouldn’t be losing ground like before under council’s shady ‘smoke & mirrors’.
I think taxpayer advocates can stomach higher rates that are REALLY revenue neutral. Expect groups like VBTA (no I’m not a member) to crunch the numbers and not necessarily trust the council/manager that earlier wanted to take credit for tax cuts when the rate cuts were not low enough vs. pricing increases and were in effect tax INCREASES.
Now that I think about, “neutral” sounds pretty good. We’re so accustomed to revenue(tax) positive and losing ground. Not losing ground would feel like a gain in comparison.
Maybe a VBTA’er will post and give their take on your question.
Brian,
If you’ve been paying attention to Reid (he’s great for laughs), the VBTA line is that the City took in a windfall during the recent years of assesment escalation and that City Council should give it back. Therefore, expect the VBTA to still talk about a “windfall” even as assesments decline.
Thank you Henry for your effort to deny the years of wild spending the city engaged in.
Budgets need to be developed based on needs. Taxes are assessed to cover the cost of needs. What Virginia Beach suffers from is far too many “wants” thrown into their budgets. In addition, over the past 6 or 7 years far too many “deals” are made with businesses to allow them to avoid paying their fair share of property taxes.
We VA Beach homeowners have suffered from over taxation during an over inflated housing ‘bubble” whereby government SPENDING went wild to SPEND the phantom ‘equity” in our homes. Now the bloated city budgets are seeking to sustain the same levels of bloated spending and the City Manager’s folks are crying because they can’t.
Since 2000 local city government SPENDING went wild! (In Va Beach).
We now have many years of gross OVER INFLATED CITY BUDGETS to “correct”. The claim we are “short” is “short” in the sense of the desire to keep SPENDING like the City Government has unlimited money to SPEND.
Should our required core services result in the need for a tax increase then taxes would be raised.
But we have massive annual DEBT SERVICING piled up for many years of non-essential “economic development”. Speculative “investments” such as “Town Center” with million dollar Italian marble fountains, SPORTSPLEX white elephants, and a $15M piece of land off with a “planned condo” on Laskin Road to “Save Oceana” . . .
Bloated city government, a unrealistic “no lay off policy” and unrealitic city employee benefits need to be “corrected” before any new tax increases are considered.
Oh and HRT-guy henry – Sorry dude, but we can’t be spending $40M on a old rail road track and then justify raising taxes. I know you want your choo choo and certain businesses want their TOD scam, but we can’t afford your “wants”.
The ratio of business property taxes to homeowner property taxes needs to be corrected. If property taxes are to be increased, it isn’t homeowners that should bear the burden first.
But first and foremost should be the serious effort to REDUCE SPENDING and have city workers pay health related copays like the rest of the non-government private sector does. We need end the VRS rip off.
As we seek to cut spending the City Council should immediately demand that Jim Spore and friends STOP BORROWING MILLIONS for more speculative “economic development’ – to include Henry’s pet project, TOD (light rail and its ‘feeder bus system).
We can’t afford to subsidize more wasteful city spending.
In Reid’s world, lowering the rate to revenue neutral isn’t a tax cut (because the tax bill is the same), but raising the rate to revenue neutral is a tax increase (even though the tax bill is the same)?
We have a similar issue in Fairfax County
As a fiscal conservative blue dog I understand that the tax rate is going to have to go up because real estate property values took a nose dive.
What I will fight for like always is a smaller increase in the total budget package. The economy is so bad right now there is actually less money being proposed in current budgets than there was last year.
All of this could have been avoided if during the high years instead of 7-9% budget increases and new programs budgets would have been in the 2-5% increase range and new programs would be few and far between. More importatnly exisiting programs should have been analyzed for efficiency and waste annually.
Instead we have all this sky is falling rhetoric due to lack of dilligence and oversight during the good years.
Of course, Reid had his chance to cut the City Budget. On April 20, 2004 Reid Greenmun told the Virginia Beach City Council he would prepare a Budget Report for them with suggested reductions. (Anyone can get the tape from VBTV.) Then, Reid never proposed a single cut…and now he has the chutzpah to complain about “wild” spending.
Sportsplex and Town Center both came online before the assessment escalation, yet clueless Reid blames them for the associated spending increase. Greenmun is fooling no one but himself.
Finally, we have The TOD Conspiracy that only Reid and his friend Harvey see. NEWS FLASH: the only thing that can stop light rail in Virginia Beach is the FTA.
Poor Henry, still living in the past. You version of events is – as they so often are – simply incorrect. But hey, when have you ever bothered to research your facts before launching one of your off topic personal attacks?
The reality is that we can’t afford the taxpayer scams you keep pushing – such as Light Rail. No amount of diversionary tactics on your part is going to change that.
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