DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040193

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ON THE STREET 

SOURCE: Bill Reed 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

WHEN AZALEAS BLOOM, TAXES GROW HIGHER

This is the time of year when the average working stiff feels like a bait fish tossed into a middle of a school of hungry sharks.

First, Uncle Sam takes a sizable bite out of his or her earnings in the form of federal income taxes.

Then, along comes the state, which takes another generous chunk.

Meanwhile, city officials are sharpening their knives in anticipation of divvying up what is left.

This is budget preparation time, when the azaleas and dogwoods bloom and a bureaucrat's thoughts turn to schemes to separate you from what is left in your wallet.

The recently proposed $957 million municipal operating budget is a case in point. It is 5.5 percent higher than last year's budget, which means - percentage wise - it is 2.3 percent higher than the average raise the Virginia Beach working stiff got this year.

Then there is the second shoe that falls annually - the capital improvement budget. This is a wish list of things like new schools, roads, water and sewer projects and Oceanfront improvements the city intends to complete in the next six years.

It is updated each year and this year the capital improvement budget figure is $1.001 billion, or about $3 million more than last year. This really isn't much when you're talking billions of dollars.

Or, as the late U.S. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen, R-Illinois, once said, ``A million here and a million there and pretty soon you're talking real money.''

An increase in public spending means an increase in taxes in some form.

Last year, city property owners were handed a 3.2 percent increase in real estate taxes. What will happen this year is anybody's guess.

The School Board says it needs $13 million more than the City Council wants to give it to operate the school system. In order to give the board that sum, city budget gurus say the real estate tax would have to go up seven cents.

Not much, you say, but if you own a $150,000 house or condo, that means a $105 jump in your annual property tax rate. So, instead of paying the city $1,830 a year, you'll be paying $1,935. Get the picture?

Even without another real estate tax increase, the city manager is contemplating a hike in utility and stormwater taxes to cover the cost of hiring new police officers, expanding the library system, adding parks and giving all municipal employees a modest raise.

The net result is that this year is no different than last - except that a municipal election looms in May 1998.

At that time nine seats on the City Council and nine seats on the School Board are up for grabs.

And none of the officials sitting in those seats now wants to even think about uttering the ``T'' word. That's ``T'' as in taxes or ``T'' as in tax increases.

Actually, uttering this phrase aloud in public is akin to yelling ``fire'' in a crowded theater or ``admission free!'' at a Jimmy Buffett concert.

It tends to panic taxpayers, send them scurrying into the arms of opposing politicians who always seem to run on a no-tax-increase, reduce-the-government-to-nothing platforms, much to the consternation of incumbents.

An incumbent is an office holder who was elected to office by running on a no-tax-increase, reduce-the-government-to-nothing platform, only to find he or she can't deliver on those promises.

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