My comments to the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors

I delivered the following remarks to the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors regarding the proposed budget and tax rates for the year.  Under the current advertised rate of 62 cents, the average county tax bil will rise 10.7% due to higher assessments.  In order to balance that out, the rate must be “equalized” to 56 cents.  That is the rate for which I advocated in my remarks.

Good evening.  My name is D.J. McGuire; for those of you who don’t know me, I live in the Hamilton’s Crossing subdivision, in Lee Hill District.  I have been a cost estimator in the defense industry for eight and a half years, and I am also an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Germanna Community College.

Our economy stands at the knife’s edge; the decisions of each city council and Board of Supervisors will determine whether their locality will fall into recession, or remain on the path to economic growth.   In the modern economy, with real estate investment trusts and collateralized debt obligations, our property values are not only of interest to homeowners, but also investors around the world.  The message you will send with the tax rate you set will determine whether we are closer to prosperity, or continuing plummeting property values.

It is with this in mind that I ask you to adopt the equalized tax rate of 56 cents.

This is a more defensible rate than it initially sounds.  In fact, the local school system has provided the best example of this with the flyer it has been distributing throughout the county.  Using their own figures, we discover that a hiring and salary freeze for one year would save $12.2 million, just over the amount required to achieve equalization – and I’d like to thank Dr. Hill for providing those numbers.

Of course, the school system does leave some things out, in particular the fact that student enrollment is projected to increase by less than 1% this year – an average of one student for every nine teachers, hardly a crisis situation.  As for savings outside the school system, I found nearly twice the remaining $5.5 million required to achieve the equalization rate in my cursory examination of the budget.  As you gentleman have been examining the numbers far longer than I have, I will leave it to you to determine the best way to achieve those savings.

The most important thing I ask you to remember as you come to your decision is the long-term economic health of the county.  By adopting the equalization rate, you will send a message that Spotsylvania is committed to stopping the slide in property values, and making this county a place to do business and raise a family.  A higher rate, by contrast, will push us closer to a future of bankruptcies, boarded homes, and blight.

I ask you to remember this, and adopt the equalized rate of 56 cents, and I thank you for time.

Cross-posted to Rappahannock Red