One Brick Short

Dear Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and School Board
CC: Charlottesville City Council and School Board

RE: Welcome to the real world.

My morning D-P tells me you guys aren’t getting any “new money” for the coming year, being as the housing bubble done burst and the economy is sinking like the U.S.S. Scorpion on a training mission and y’all are having to make tough decisions like freezing positions and maybe making cuts. (Read more here)

Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of your taxpayer.

Every year—or two years in your case—that your assessed values went up, meaning our property values, you got more tax money and we paid more. Now our houses are worth either the same or less and that means you get the same money or less, unless you raise the tax rate. But you know that.

So, the school board has given you a proposed budget based on what they believe the needs are. Unfortunately, to fund that budget you’d need to raise the tax rate to raise a couple million more dollars. To fill those frozen positions and keep government operating at the same level as last year and the good years of rising assessments and economy, you’d have to raise tax rates. But here’s your taxpayers’ reality:

Our costs have all increased. The costs we pay for food are up as much as 10 percent. Our fuel costs are up 20 percent. Our heating costs are up 30 percent. Inflation is eroding our purchasing power. Our places of employment, UVa, hospitals, private businesses, entrepreneurs, news organizations, have limited our raises to 3 percent on a good day and sometimes less as they face the same issues plus the pressure of shareholder dividends.

We are cutting spending where ever we can. Just read the news reports on Christmas and manufacturing, if you don’t believe me. We are facing higher costs with no more income and, with the contraction of the job market, limited chances of getting second and third jobs to make up the shortage between what we spent last year and what we need to spend this year. So, we are cutting out new cars, cablevision, buying less in groceries and more generics. Some of us are going without medications that cost $200 to $300.

In short, your taxpayers are in trouble. We, in a way, are your employers and when our employers are in trouble they cut our wages and benefits or at least hold the line on what they give us. We elected you to do what’s right for us. If we’re in trouble, so are you. Do not raise the tax rate. Balance your budget as we must balance ours. Do your best to lay off no one but to keep the line as tight as possible. We all have needs, but some must go wanting in our budgets and the same must happen in yours.

We understand your pain. Please feel ours.

Thank you for your time.

Go Hoos!

Bryan