Today's Beacon brings us that annual rite, the ad on the Property Tax rate. Under 58.1-3321 of the Code of Virginia, the 89 cent rate rolled back to 86.66 cents. The City Manager's Budget would reinstate the 89 cent rate.
Okay, everyone knows there will be howls from the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance (VBTA). You can bet the mortgage that they'll play it for all it's worth - and then some - in an election year. Their campaign last year was for a 78 cents. What will they demand this time?
As thin as the Budget is stretched, does anyone outside the VBTA expect an appreciable cut this year? Maybe a couple cents in an election year, but I'd be shocked to see anything under 87 cents. Given the services that are needed but not funded in the proposed Budget, there isn't room to go much lower.
12 comments:
In Norfolk, we're pitching $1.09 in 2009!! I support regional cooperation. I say the VBTA should work with The Tea Party(2) and go $1.09 in 2009!!!
Uh...in Virginia Beach, $1.09 would mean a 20 cent rate hike.
Don't think that's what you meant to advocate. :)
Wrong...It is exactly what I was advocating! If those had working AntiTaxpayers want $1.09, I say wwe give it to them in Virginia Beach. Fully funding, transportation, public safety and education (as core services) is what our government should be all about.
$1.09 in 2009 is our rally call...
I wish you NTP2 guys were running the VBTA. :) We wouldn't necessarily need $1.09, but with a few extra cents could fully fund public safety and mass transit. (Education already gets a majority of VB's Budget.) HRT has a draft plan to boost our abysmal bus service by 20%, but it sits for lack of money.
BTW, can NTP2 manage to swing the VBTA on light rail? They're adamantly opposed.
Sorry but we can't help you with the VBTA folks-They're nuts!
You have to admit, the Norfolk Tea Party 2 has A LOT more credibility than the VBTA.
The big question: will November elections render them even more insignficant?
I think we all agree on the VBTA's lack of credibility.
As for November elections, I'm one who does think it will push the VBTA further to the margins. Those who wanted to vote the VBTA line came out in May because they were that angry. With the VBTA lurching further to the far right daily, their only real appeal is to some middle class White ultraconservatives. As they become a smaller percentage of the electorate, the VBTA's vote will shrink. Then, Virginia Beach's changing demographics would have done that without the move to November.
It goes back to a question I've asked before elsewhere, "How did NTP2 win in urban Norfolk while the VBTA failed in largely suburban Virginia Beach?" If you answer that question, you'll realize the VBTA is a spent force.
The only reason the VBTA has a voice in VB is because the media allows them to be the opposing voice in any tax issues in the newspaper. If it were not for the media's need for balanced articles, we wouldn't hear about the VBTA.
Spent indeed: Their members have lost every election they have run in the last decade...
One of the projects going on at the CCO is the development of standing positions on a number of issues. Once that is completed, the media could reference the CCO position for an alternative without having to turn to the VBTA.
That’s all well and good, but we all know the CCO doesn't represent the vast majority of civic leagues in VB. The CCO is no better than the Chamber of Commerce in representing businesses. Both only have a small sampling of the total of the existing groups. Yet they both try to pass off as representing tens of thousands of folks, who in reality are not members.
The CCO has 107 member civic leagues, and is open to any civic league in Virginia Beach that wishes to join and whose By-Laws are in order. In addition, the CCO's Standing Rules prohibit it from passing a position without it being advertised to all member civic leagues and giving them the opportunity to speak and vote on it.
Your comment implies that it's somehow the CCO's fault that the other civic leagues want to go it alone. No, the CCO would love for them to join.
Sorry but you are incorrect. My comment didn't blame the CCO because other civic leagues go it alone. My comment blamed the CCO for claiming to represent the residents of Virginia Beach when infact they do not represent most residents. The VBChamber of Commerce makes the same false representation claims about businesses in VB.
You know it to be true. You see the VBTA claiming to represent the homeowners and taxpayers. All these organizations make claims the numbers do not support as factual... Sorry.
Post a Comment