PORTSMOUTH

As many as 100 boats have left the city since last July, when elected officials increased the boat tax.

But the new rate of 50 cents per $100 of assessed value has not significantly affected the number of boats docked in Portsmouth, the city's commissioner of revenue, Franklin D. Edmondson, said this week.

About 3,025 boats remain in Portsmouth, based on figures provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, he said.

Portsmouth has yet to start collecting the higher tax. Edmondson's office plans to send out boat tax bills in early May. He expects the tax will bring in about $287,124 in revenue.

Members of Portsmouth's marine industry have argued that the tax has already driven away business and that the loss of those boats is significant. Michael Davis, vice president of the Portsmouth Boating Center, told the City Council earlier this month that 10 percent of the pleasure craft docked in the city have left since July - some of those boats are worth millions.

Marina owners already pay plenty of taxes to the city, he said.

"It's not really about the haves and have-nots," Davis said. "It's about the jobs."

Portsmouth council members have talked in recent months about revisiting the boat tax.

City Manager Kenneth Chandler's budget proposal for next fiscal year reduces the boat tax rate from 50 cents back to 1 cent, the rate before the increase.

Virginia Beach has also been discussing the issue. Its proposed biennial budget raised the boat tax from nearly nothing to $1 per $100 of assessed value to help pay for dredging projects. However, several Beach council members have said they are reluctant to increase the tax.

Instead, they are considering tacking a penny onto the storm water utility fee. That would raise $860,000 for dredging. Storm water runoff has caused sand and silt to build up in many of the city's waterways.

Virginia Beach Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson has proposed that the city participate in a regional study of the boating industry to help local officials gauge the financial impact of a boat tax. Hampton has already commissioned a similar study.

Staff writer Deirdre Fernandes contributed to this report.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com