Keep 'Em Comin', Barkeep — Brewing Up Budget Questions at Another Albemarle TAX INCREA$E Tow
A small group of Albemarle residents brewed up some tasty questions last night for County Executive Tom Foley and four Board of Supervisors members at another in a string of TAX INCREA$E Town Halls. This one was at Western Albemarle High School, but once again drew more than twice the number of County employees and/or officials than members of the public.
Total attendance count by my reckoning: 21 County employees and/or officials, 9 members of the general public, 3 members of the local media, and one blogger.
Total speaking time by the County Executive and by School Finance Director Jackson Zimmerman: 43 minutes — 24 by Tom and 19 by Jackson.
Audience Q&A: 32 minutes.
However, Supervisor Rick Randolph (D, Scottsville), disregarding a non-engagement reminder from Tom, ate up six minutes of the audience’s time with a political soliloquy on the relationship of the Comprehensive Plan to what he called “deferred and deferred and deferred” investments (Translation: tax increases.) in Capital Improvements by his predecessors on past Boards of Supervisors. Rick was careful not to single out previous Republican BOS members by name. Maybe this was because his companions Liz Palmer (D, Samuel Miller), Brad Sheffield (D, Rio), Ann Mallek (D,White Hall), Diantha McKeel (D/alleged I, Jack Jouett), and former Supervisor Jane Dittmar (D, Scottsville), now turned Fifth District Congressional Candidate, were also part of these “predecessor” Boards.
The man who posed the question that prompted Rick’s oratory referred to something he called a “structural imbalance” in the County’s finances. The questioner wondered why some of Albemarle’s peer counties are either holding the line on their taxes or actually reducing their tax rates for the new fiscal year while Albemarle is contemplating a 4.07% effective tax rate increase for FY2017. He wondered if there was something wrong with Albemarle’s controlled growth plan that has capped the County’s developable land at just 5%. In reply, Rick said: “If you want things to get worse, just turn around and say ‘let’s develop more and more land.’”
Here’s a sampling of a few other comments and questions from the general public at the meeting:
In the very first question, a man challenged County Executive Foley to explain why Albemarle lost the Deschutes Brewery’s 108 jobs and $85 million investment to Roanoke and what “concrete steps” the BOS and County staff are taking to promote economic development here. What I believe I heard Tom say is that Albemarle County is analyzing what it needs to do to promote economic development by hiring an Economic Development Director a year ago and letting her spend a year analyzing what Albemarle is doing right and wrong about JOBS! (My bold, capitals, and exclamation.). She is to bring him a report in 2017 so that he and the BOS can analyze her report and decide what needs to be done in the future.
Say, barkeep, a round of Roanoke Deschutes o’er here. I got sum analyzers gittin mighty thirsty. Wee probly gonna be here a while.
Another man in the audience challenged Tom on why there is $16 million in the budget for what he called “the wealthiest families in Albemarle County.” He was referring to the annual tax losses to Albemarle for agricultural, livestock, and forestry Land Use Value discounts approved for owners of significant amounts of rural property. He contended that the County does not treat equitably taxpayers who live in places like Crozet when giving out $16 million in tax discounts to rural land owners and not spending similarly on decaying or needed infrastructure in growth areas and urban ring neighborhoods. The County Executive noted that Land Use Value discounts have been around for years as a decision made and supported over and over again by many different Boards of Supervisors. He concluded by saying “There’s no question that money could be reallocated to help with infrastructure in existing growth areas. A big number in our budget are these taxes that we forego.” Tom admitted that the man’s comments were accurate, but said that an equal $16 million spent in growth areas like Crozet or the urban ring would add another ten cents to the currently proposed tax rate increase up to 84.4 cents.
Whoa, Barkeep. More Mirror Pond. Analyzin’s these here figgurs is a gittin’ seeryus.
One more man challenged the Board of Supervisors to take four actions regarding the annual revenue-sharing contract that Albemarle has with Charlottesville that will cost County taxpayers $16 million dollars in the upcoming budget:
(1) At every opportunity, send news releases to local media to repeatedly tell County residents how much money is given to Charlottesville annually as part of the anti-annexation agreement;
(2) Ask Albemarle’s General Assembly members to support legislation to do away with the 1982 Revenue-Sharing Agreement;
(3) Withhold money from the annual payment to Charlottesville equal to the value of any potential partnerships that the City Council backs out of during negotiations (specifically mentioned: a $40 million joint Courts project);
(4) Find a law firm willing to take a percentage fee for finding a way to break the Revenue-Sharing Agreement with Charlottesville.
This was the final comment at the WAHS gathering. After a noticeable silence, BOS Chairwoman Palmer stood up and adjourned the 90-minute TAX INCREA$E Town Hall.
In doing so, Liz and the other three Board members fully complied with the non-engagement rule Tom had highlighted earlier that Supervisors should not engage with the public during community engagement, public input meetings.
Yo, Barkeep, double up on that Black Butte. We got us more analyzin' than we coulda ‘magined.