THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604270171
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ON THE STREET
SOURCE: BILL REED
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
A proposed real estate tax increase looms ominously over the upcoming May 7 City Council and School Board elections.
Up in the air now is whether the new rate increase will be 3.2 cents or 12 cents higher than the present $1.18 per $100 of property valuation.
There are millions of dollars worth of requests out there to cover the cost of running the usual services such as schools, police and fire departments, building roads and collecting trash. Advocates of the arts, tourism and environmental protection and others also have their hands out.
The prospect of deciding how much more money to ask of local taxpayers to pay for it all is making sitting City Council members verrry nervous.
But doesn't it always? If you want to induce goose pimples on the backs and arms of politicians at any level, just mention a tax increase - no matter how slight.
It immediately raises visions of enraged taxpayers, waving pitchforks and flaming torches and pounding at the gates of City Hall in full cry.
The next thought that flits across the minds of politicians - bless 'em - is the prospect of being tossed out of office by the same raucous horde of voters, who somehow won't be satisfied with just electing somebody new. They might want blood!
With this in mind you could appreciate the tension in the air late Thursday afternoon as five of the 11 council members remaining at the end of a municipal budget workshop heard E. Dean Block, director of Management Services, say the deadline for a submitting proposed ad for a public hearing on a tax rate was the following day - Friday.
``We need council's direction,'' Block said.
Council members replied nervously that they must be reeeal careful about the wording of the advertisement. Don't want folks in Virginia Beach to get the wrong idea. You know, like a 12-cent hike in real estate taxes was actually happening. You never know how the public will interpret those advertisements, or worse yet, how the media interprets them.
Mind you, Block and City Attorney Leslie L. Lilley cautioned, if the advertisement mentions only the 3.2-cent hike, the council cannot exceed that amount in future deliberations. They can, however, decide on a lower rate. The municipal budget must be adopted by May 14 and a tax increase - if any - must be part of the package.
Recent public hearings have shown that spending requests from city and school departments could push a tax increase well beyond 20 cents, Councilwoman Barbara Henley noted, and a chill descended over the room.
Block and Lilley first were told to draft the language for a proposed ad, but Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, Councilman John A. Baum and Councilwoman Henley argued that all 11 council members should be present to decide ``appropriate'' wording. They couldn't speak for the absentees on an issue this serious, the five agreed. Too much at stake, especially somebody's political future.
Well, nobody said it would be easy, Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn scolded. Making the tough decisions comes with the job.
This brought her an icy glare from her peers, who then decided Block should contact missing council members overnight to determine a ``consensus'' on the wording of a newspaper advertisement. On Friday he was still tracking them down.
Now if Block were a Marine drill instructor, he could make use of a tried and true military stratagem to steel the nerves of faint-hearted charges by addressing them thusly: ``All right, you maggots, listen up! No guts, no glory!'' by CNB