The Virginian Pilot is reporting that the Virginia Beach city manager Jim Spore is proposing a six-cent cut in the real estate tax rate, from 99 cents to 93 cents per $100 of assessed value. Also discussed was an interesting proposal:
…council members threw their support behind a measure by Councilman Bob Dyer to create a committee of residents and business leaders who will propose improvements to the city’s tax structure in time for the 2008- 09 budget.
Wow. Wouldn’t it be great if Norfolk did something like that? I’d love to see citizen input into the tax structure for the city, if for no other reason than to educate the citizens on the mysteries of the city budget.
At this time, the Norfolk city manager, Regina Williams, has not presented her budget for 07-08. What will be happening, though, is that the budget will be presented earlier – on April 18 – and there will be three hearings on the budget, one more than last year.
One thing that Norfolk will not see is two budgets – one reflecting the city manager’s proposals and another with the 19 cent reduction in the real estate tax rate as advocated by the Norfolk Tea Party II.
I’m expecting that the city manager’s budget will come in with a reduction of about 10 – 12 cents, more than likely 10 cents. With the coming homestead exemption, which will likely pass the GA in 2008 and no doubt will pass overwhelmingly on the November 2008 ballot, plus the slowdown in sales, I just don’t see the city passing a large rate reduction, certainly not 19 cents.
UPDATE: There is an excellent letter to the editor in today’s paper from Virginia Beach city treasurer John Atkinson. In it, he ties the reason why Virginia Beach can’t afford to lower the rate much to the transportation problem:
Currently Virginia Beach’s $200 million-plus worth of unfunded mandates from the state equals 39 cents of our 99-cent real estate tax rate. Without the transportation package, this amount will climb higher once we understand the full impact of the legislation passed by the 2007 General Assembly. The General Assembly’s unfunded mandates just about eliminates meaningful tax relief on local real estate taxes.
I wonder what Norfolk’s numbers are?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, it’s even better. Dyer’s proposal also includes a study of city spending to report at the same time the tax study is done.
That’s an incredible letter from Atkinson, who incidentally could also be cited as the *Republican* Virginia Beach Treasurer. It’s also the most common sense I think I’ve heard out of the guy in a while. Good for him for taking a stand!