Christiansburg Mayor acknowledges need for a 5% increase in real
estate tax next year if economy doesn't turn around.
(See
Video Clip6)
If you were present at the June 22 Christiansburg Town Council
'Something or Other' meeting, and, if you listened very closely, you
heard something things during the budget portion of the discussion that
were enlightening.
There were things proposed to be cut from the budget, but a lot of
them contained the softly spoken comments that if they had to do those
things, the budget could be amended to accommodate them. What I
understand that to mean is that the Council can go through the motions
of making budget cuts to appease citizens but can then go back and add
those items at a later date.
Shuffling like that is NOT balancing a budget in my opinion. It is
nothing but a shell game to make sure citizens see what Council wants
them to see. True budget cuts would show a dedication to make sure the
cuts were in areas that could be maintained through the rough economic
times we are in right now.
Last year, the Town Council strongly discussed the elimination of the
Steps program. Yet, here it is another budget discussion and the Steps
program is right back in the thick of things. At the last work session,
it was left with the possibility of cutting the step increases to 2%. At
the meeting on the 22nd, the Mayor reported that an agreement had been
reached and that 'furlough days' were the topic of choice. (See Video Clip1) I don't recall that part of the
previous meeting, and neither does my camera. But, whatever saves money
and Mr. VanHoozier noted that he feels it is fairer to spread the loss
over all employees rather than affect the 'steps' related people only.
(Gotta wonder if someone on steps has contacted an attorney. However,
although very difficult to hear, the Town Attorney advised Council that
they are under no legal obligation to honor any steps commitment (See Video Clip2), obviously no contracts there.)
Mr. Showalter was the one to initially ask how raising property taxes
would affect the Town's current deficit. Mr. Barber noted that he did
not disagree with a property tax increase, he simply wanted Henry to
bring it up as an option. Even with a property tax increase there would
still be an ongoing deficit. Ms. Carter pointed out that trying to base
so much of the Town's revenue on something like the Meals tax, which is
highly variable, is gambling. Even the Mayor acknowledged a property tax
increase would be need in January or possibly next fiscal year if it is
not done now, despite having had 35 years with no property tax
increase. Mr. Barber acknowledged that taxes need to be increased or
services will suffer. (See Video Clip 3)
Mr. VanHoozier pointed out that where he sees groups of employees
'working' he would like to see more than 20 or 30% of them working at
the same time. He called for Council to start looking for greater
efficiency throughout the various town departments. Town Manager
Terpenny reported that efficiency reports in the public works department
and he believes that department has maximized there performance. Mr.
Terpenny reports that if personnel are cut, services will have to be
cut. (See Video Clip4)
Why heck! The Mayor even came up with a whole new tax, Occupancy Tax,
although he admits he doesn't know what it is, he seems to believe it
would generate revenue and thus must be good. (See Video Clip 5)
Mr. Showalter noted that continuing to use up reserves could affect
future job creation as reserve money is used to make changes required to
bring new businesses into the Industrial Park. (See
Video Clip 7)
If anyone has ideas of how money can be saved,
expenses can be cut, or revenue raised, now is the time to contact
Councilmembers and the Mayor with your thoughts.
Wondering how
much of a projected impact the Aquatic Center could have? I'm working on
something special using Virginia locality data. For the time being,
there is some information that indicates a family of 4 (2 adults and 2
children) spend about $100/day (2007) on meals while
traveling/vacationing. With a 1 cent per dollar increase in meals taxes,
$1 per day would be generated. That means the Aquatic Center would need
to generate almost 2,000,000 visitors in order to offset costs. If
meets involved as many as 1,000 competitors and each competitor brings
his 'family of 4', and they stay for an average of 2 days, only 500
meets will need to be held at the Aquatic Center to offset costs. I'm
not sure where they will all sit or park while at the Aquatic Center,
but that will be a major undertaking. Of course, the user fees paid by
citizens using the facility will make up a portion of that. Just a
thought:)