The Virginian-Pilot
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VIRGINIA BEACH
Residents are unlikely to see their tax bills go down again next year.
Faced with a potential $49 million shortfall in the 2010- 11 budget, c ouncil members Tuesday floated the idea of raising the real estate tax rate and charging user fees for item s such as trash pickup and ambulance service.
"We need further evaluation," said Mayor Will Sessoms of the ideas discussed. "This is a starting point."
The City Council didn't commit to any one idea to fill the hole, but it instructed staff to study, for example, the budget impacts of raising the property tax rate by 2 cents to 91 cents for $100 of assessed value or charging an $8 monthly garbage fee. Virginia Beach doesn't have a separate fee for garbage.
"That to me starts the hardball side," Councilman Harry Diezel said.
The discussion came after a Monday night community meeting with 80 residents, developers and business and civic leaders.
This year, residents on average saw their property taxes dip, because the assessed value of their homes fell. The assessment on an average home in Virginia Beach for this fiscal year was $312,000, with the homeowner paying $2,777 in real estate taxes.
Assessments are expected to be down again for next year, and if the city could raise the rate so that homeowners won't have to pay any more in taxes, huge cuts in services wouldn't have to be made, Councilman Glenn Davis said.
But Councilman Bill DeSteph said some homeowners, especially in more moderately priced neighborhoods, saw the value of their property go up this year, along with their tax bill. If the city raises the rate next year, these residents would have to pay more, DeSteph said.
Because of the expected shortfall, City Manager Jim Spore last Friday instructed all department directors, except public safety to cut their proposed budgets for next year by 15 percent. Public safety departments, such as police, fire, emergency services and sheriff's, have to make a 5 percent reduction.
Most council members said the city's economic development department should also be excluded from the deeper 15 percent cut.
The city needs to continue trying to recruit new businesses to Virginia Beach, especially when other communities are shutting down their marketing efforts because of the economy and costs, Davis said.
Council members also dismissed a proposal to spend $95 million on seven big projects, including an animal shelter, recreation center, road construction and development of the former Dome site. In August, Sessoms had proposed partly paying for the projects with a tax increase.
Many residents have questioned the need for tax increases for these projects, and at least two council members said they wouldn't vote for it.
Some of the individual projects, such as the recreation center and the development of the Burton Station neighborhood, made the council's list of high priorities for the year.
"It's on life support," said Sessoms of his funding proposal for major projects.
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
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The best refutation of your view that Will Sessoms won because citizens supported his campaign financially and by voting for him was the election some thirty years ago in which Ms. Ann Gemenez from Rock Church spent just about exactly the same amount, that is, $8.00 per vote, and lost so badly neither she nor her husband ever considered local elective office again. I certainly do not deny that many citizens from all over this city and from all walks of life, donated to Will's campaign. They, like me, thought it really was that important for the largest city in this Commonwealth to have competent political leadership. To suggest that Will's views were not well known, it patently false; he won because he was able to oust a long term incumbent who needed to leave.
The Master of Spin has spoken ALS
Well ALS, you should know by now that Mr. Barrett just cherry picks the areas that he wants to respond to. He can't refute the rest of what you said. That said, I am amazed that Mr. Barrett will chastise me because it was the will of the voters in VB that rejected the lie (and it was a lie) on the ballot for light rail in 1999 because the word STUDY was NEVER in the ballot question and was NEVER the true intent, and of course the will of the people to elect the same republicans to the house of delegates. It's a different ball game if HE doesn't agree with the will of the voters. I have accepted that the fact Will Sessoms is mayor and I BELIEVE his election was bought and paid for by special interests. As long as his candidate wins, it's the will of the people and in the public interest. If it is not, then that candidate was elected by Grover Norquist anti-tax, anti-christ less than 16% of the vote boo bird zealots. And that goes for their cat too!
Mike, Answer the question
Will Sessoms spent well over $600,000 or about $8.50 cents a vote and he still only received 38%. John Moss spent 4% of the amount Will spent for Maypor and he received almost half the votes. Also Me Sessoms ran 8 full page ads in the Beacon which he called his number one priority was to shift the disproportionate tax base. Mr Sessoms simply replicated the exact exact same mission of John Moss.
If you were genuine and truthful you would have attempted to refute my observations. You quickly changed the subject & introduced content that has little to do with the issue.
Popular but Worthless
Well Keith and ALS, I wouild say it is you who simply refuse to seek the truth. I am amazed that you dismiss the will of the voters, as expressed in the last election, in which they clearly and with great numbers, defeated the extremism expressed by John Moss. His principles and his positions were well known and discussed during the campaign. His draconian cuts which included firing every blue collar worker of the city and the schools, simply removing major departments that provide services and programs that the citizens use and want, essentially resigning from our role in the region and declaring that we will be a parochial jurisdiction that cares nothing about our region, these ideas were clearly expressed. Frankly, as you can tell from reading this forum, these views are still held by the anti tax, anti government zealots who populate these pages. They represent about 16% of the voters; you either deal with that, or your posts will continue to be popular herein but essentially worthless to civil dialogue.
hypocrisy
Barrett, you are not interested in civil dialogue. You are interested in your agenda and you cut and paste your rants ad nauseum. So stop trying to come across as some sort of open-minded concerned citizen. Your boss, Mr. Fine, tells you to stay on those blogs and get to all these meetings and spout this nonsense so we can get more projects. It is all about $ in your pocket.
So Good, Needs to Be Said Again and Again
Today's word is B O H I C A. Say it, live it, be it. The CoVB is not comfortable until every tax paying citizen is bent over so money spills from our collective pockets. B O H I C A - Nuff Said.
cuts
If they need more money thats fine. Just cut everything by 15%, no exceptions; salaries, education, personnel manning levels all departments, I'll bet not many of the ones left will opt out of a job. And if they do hire someone who can do the job cheaper. This outragious spending for the future, for right now, has to stop.
Citizens will eventually quit asking for more expensive services. complaints will become overwhelming, but it has to happen, no ifs, buts, or hows.
You will need to understand "The more services and social programs you want the more you are going to pay."
Is smaller class size the answer, I did alright in school and we had 30+ to a class. What we didn't have was a school administration with so many that never see a student. Let's cut back there too. In fact lets start there.
Yes Mike, I do live in
Yes Mike, I do live in Virginia Beach and my real estate tax assessment STILL went up, even though houses in my area sat for sale empty. I have been here since 1999. Only once (in the year 2000) there was no increase in my assessment. It has gone up each year since then. The dirt is worth more than the house now. And of course you tout the same "sky is falling" when it comes to our roads that the grass is up so high you can't see the signs, so don't go there. That is rubbish too. And we still hear you beat the same dead horse about John Moss and the less than 16% of the vote. Yet we dare not draw any parallels if a republican wins an election in the HOD. You know which side your bread is buttered on Mike. And so do we.
you need to get real
If you were genuine and truthful you would have attempted to refute my observations. You quickly changed the subject & introduced content that has little to do with the issue.
But now you have to resort to your ridiculous 16% analogy. This represents a campaign that spent only 4% of your candidates massive expenditures of over $600,000+ and still received only 38% of the vote! He than replicated John's primary goal to change the one sided tax base and ran 8 full page ads in the Beacon to emphasize what he called his primary goal.. Incidentally, you must feel pretty good knowing the referendum will produce 84% in support of light rail. Isn't that your claim?
Effect of Draconiam cuts
Propoganda machine? You mean the truth machine. Fact is, I would never expect to win even a plurality on this forum. But of course, those who express the "chicken little, the sky is falling down" perspective had an excellent chance to elect their chosen candidate, John Moss, last time around. Problem is, even though I suspect most of those herein showed up to vote, John got less than 16% of the vote. Now why do you think that was the case? Well frankly, most of our citizens actually enjoy the quality of life they have at the Beach. They supported the school modernization program. They supported city subsidies of the state in order to keep class sizes small, cops on the beat, sheriffs on the job, and city clerks to run the court system. The draconian cuts proposed by John and his chief ally Ben Krause, which included firing all city and school blue collar workers to replace them with government contractors, fell flat on its face at the polls. The same will happen again.