Stewart: No New Taxes
By Greg L | 27 November 2007 | Prince William County | 9 Comments
County Staff has said it would be a bad idea, and Corey Stewart agrees, according to the DC Examiner. Even though the transportation plan passed last session allows Prince William to increase commercial real estate taxes, given the current vacancy rate, there’s not going to be a tax increase in Prince William County. Bully.
“We’re never going to do that,” Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart told The Examiner. “We’re not going to subject our businesses to that kind of tax when our neighbors to the south aren’t subject to the same kind of tax.”
When Fairfax and Arlington raise their taxes, most businesses will stay put, but some will move if it means a difference in the bottom line. New businesses may also see the competitive advantage of locating in Prince William County as being a little more compelling, and pass on the higher taxes they’d have to pay if they were located in Fairfax. It might not make a huge difference, but to every commercial property owner that gets to rent out space that might otherwise remain vacant, it’ll mean a lot.
The difference between the behavior of elected officials and unelected representatives to the Northern Virginia Tax Authority has never been more apparent.
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I assume that they will just be passing the higher taxes onto homeowners. That revenue has to come from somewhere. I shudder to think what creative scheme that Manassas Park is going to come up with to balance their books with the plummeting home values, mass exodus of what’s left of the citizenry and foreclosures that we are experiencing here. My blood pressure is raising just thinking about it. Breathe, breathe, breathe….
I fully expect to get gouged. It is just a matter of when and how much.
Don’t worry, park’d, the chairman of the school board assured me that there would be no problem when I questioned how the city could afford a $33 million school with the declining real estate values. He also informed me that he’s an economist.
Well, let me tell you, that really reassured me. When I look in Belmont Station and see that houses are now going for about $210K, I know smart guys like the school board chairman have a solution for this potential problem. So what looks like a big problem really isn’t. Don’t worry, be happy. I guess he’s an optimist in addition to being an economist. An optimistic economist, just what we need.
1) Never say never.
2) I wouldn’t say our commercial tax rate is the deterrent to commercial growth in PWC
3) What is the Honorable Mr. Stewart’s stand on BPOL - he ought to suggest that be removed. That would deserve a ‘bully’. Doing nothing doesn’t.
$51Million short. Darn right we are about to be gouged.
The fun is just beginning…..
Bend over and grab your ankles folks because it’s coming in one form or another. God forbid they take the fiscal shortfalls out on the corporations and businesses when they can pass it on to Joe Middleclass in the form of real estate tax increases and restaurant taxes, etc, etc.
MP Resident, things have come down quite a bit in my neck of the woods too. Last year they were still asking for $350k for townhomes here and now the lot of them are all selling in the 290’s. They have dropped a good 20% here in the past year and with the current state of things in the park they will only continue to slide in value. Nobody wants to live in a town full of illegals except for an illegal or their ilk, and they can no longer get loans. This puts the town in a very unique and precarious position compared to other nearby localities.
Park’d
Business has already taken one hit this year losing their cheap labor supply….. how much should they have to take in one year
From where I stand I sure don’t see that any of their labor has disappeared.
The crew that endorsed Faisal Gill for the HOD-51 nomination is playing the public.
Remember that last July the PWC BOS approved the formation of the Northern Virginia Transportation (Taxing) Authority after Loudoun County rejected it. If PWC had also rejected it to then the NVTA could not legally have come into existence.
The NVTA legislation which Stewart ratified includes a $0.40 per $100 “congestion relief” tax on transferred real estate.
The whole point of the NVTA is so that supposed anti-tax politicians–including Corey Stewart but not only Corey Stewart–can deny that they supported tax increases. It’s that bad NVTA, they will say.
But since it was Stewart and the PWC BOS that approved the formation of the NVTA in the first place I don’t see how Stewart can avoid taking responsibility for the “congestion relief” tax.
Even worse was Ken Cuccinelli. This guy signed a no new taxes pledge last January. Then Cuccinelli voted for HB 3202 which included real estate transfer taxes and did so from its inception by the Republicans.
Then Cuccinelli made some statement that, gee, he usually opposes new taxes but his hands were tied.
And finally, in September, Cuccinelli signed yet ANOTHER no-new-taxes pledge, identical to the one he violated a few months earlier.
It’s what Chris Royse said about politicians in general. There are some pols who will make a promise, get elected, break the promise, and then run for reelection and make the same promise again.
That’s Cuccinelli to a “T” when it comes to taxes. Stewart isn’t much better, but at least Stewart didn’t sign a no-new-taxes pledge.
Park’d
Ha ha…