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Budget is part of politics in the city
On tax rate, Girvan and Tomzak take different approaches
Date published: 4/20/2008
BY EMILY BATTLE Fredericksburg's City Council has been plodding through a difficult budget process this spring, working under the reality that it may have to raise the tax rate by 5 cents next year while at the same time cutting some services. But in the public discussions that have gone on in the mayoral race between Debby Girvan and Tom Tomzak, there's been much more talk about last spring's budget process. Last May, Tomzak and four other council members voted for a 53-cent real-estate tax rate, which was 3 cents higher than what would have been the equalized tax rate after last year's reassessment. Girvan and Councilman Hashmel Turner both voted for a 50-cent rate. The 3-cent difference amounts to $1.2 million in city revenue. Girvan argued in council meetings and in an e-mail to constituents at the time that because the city had been bringing in more money than it had budgeted for in the past five fiscal years, city staff could recalculate their revenue projections to make up for the $1.2 million and keep the rate at 50 cents. At the time, the council members who voted for the 53-cent rate said lowering the tax rate without making any budget cuts was not an option. Councilman Marvin Dixon said at the meeting during which the vote occurred that Girvan's proposal was "reckless and irresponsible" and that it amounted to saying, "Let's go raid the rainy-day fund." Tomzak leveled that charge anew at a forum hosted last week by the College Terrace Neighborhood Association. "She talks about budget discipline, but last year she wanted to dip into the city's rainy-day fund rather than vote for a 1-cent tax hike, a decision that was not supported by our tenured financial staff in the city and that was opposed by six of the council members." Tomzak was wrong on two counts: The tax increase was 3 cents, not 1 cent, and only five council members voted for the 53-cent rate. But even as the city this year faces a potential $3 million budget shortfall due largely to declining sales-tax revenues, Girvan maintains that the budget would have been okay with $1.2 million less coming from the real-estate tax.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 4/20/2008
budget numbers
(posted by
thatguyb
, Apr. 21, 2008 7:36 pm)
Revenue is down for FY09, if you look at the proposed budget, it's less than last year. Yet that # still would require an increase in real estate taxes to make up for big shortfalls in retail. Shop local so that next year we don't have a bigger problem.
Fredericksburg needs more revenue. Taxes will increase.
(posted by
Chiswald
, Apr. 20, 2008 10:26 am)
Tomzak knows there will be a tax increase, but downplays it. Girvan insists there will not be a tax increase, and believes it.
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