Monthly Archive for April, 2012

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Fluvanna Debating a 20% Tax Increase

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 8, 2012 in Government, Politics and Taxes. 11 Comments Tags: .

Fluvanna’s got an interesting tax situation, Bryan McKenzie wrote in yesterday’s Daily Progress. The county’s Board of Supervisors has long been dominated by conservatives, and has steadily lowered taxes relative to expenses as election after election has put in office people who promise to lower taxes. As a result, the county has put off some financial problems for years now, leaving them in a terrible financial situation, without enough money to pay their basic expenses. Now some surprising people are supporting a 20% tax increase. Fluvanna residents pay a property tax of 57¢ per $100 of assessed value (they most recently assessed properties in 2006), which isn’t enough to maintain basic services, make payments on their debts, repair buildings, etc. County staff recommends a rate increase to 75¢ (a 31% increase) to maintain service levels, but a budget committee cut those down to a level that requires a rate of 68¢.

Perhaps the most vocal supporter of this tax increase is the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Shaun Kenney, who is as conservative a Republican as you’re liable to find. (Disclaimer: He’s an old friend of mine.) Kenney is advocating what he regards as the real fiscally conservative solution: getting the county’s financial house in order, rather than going into further debt and leaving the problem for some future Board of Supervisors to deal with. A specific problem that he cites is that the county has a $0 budget for capital improvements, meaning that even basic maintenance to schools or replacing old fire trucks requires a tax increase to fund, something that anti-tax groups have successfully fought for years. If the tax rate remains level, Kenney says, Fluvanna will be forced to more than double the rate in four years, to $1.22, to meet their core obligations. Kenney’s zest for tackling this problem has the county’s farthest-right Republicans upset (folks who should be Kenney’s base), notably the Fluvanna Taxpayers Association, a four-year-old organization that opposes any tax increase to fund fixing schools or paying debts.

The Fluvanna Board of Supervisors is holding a hearing about this on Wednesday, which is sure to be lively. This is a showdown worth keeping an eye on, because it’s a perfect encapsulation of a rift in the Republican Party on both a state and a national level, one that divides people who oppose all taxes on principle, regardless of the consequences (e.g., the Tea Party), from those who support fiscally conservative policies (which may include raising taxes, as necessary). Consider the Fluvanna dispute a preview of what’s to come on a larger scale over the next year or two.

RWSA Defends Switch from Chlorine to Chloramines

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 4, 2012 in Government. 15 Comments Tags: , .

The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority gave a presentation on the safety of treating water with chloramines to City Council on Monday night, Courtney Beale reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. The RWSA recently decided to make the switch in order to comply with federal pollution requirements. Every water purification method has benefits and drawbacks, and people are inherently nervous about what goes into their drinking water. The RWSA selected chloramines over other options primarily because it’s the cheapest option. There are some legitimate concerns about chloramines, and that’s got folks worried, hence the RWSA’s presentation. Whether that presentation changes the anybody’s mind remains to be seen; I’m dubious.

Albemarle Sets 76.2¢ Real Estate Tax Rate

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 4, 2012 in Government and Taxes. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has voted on a 2¢ real estate tax increase, Carter Johnson reports for CBS-19, settling on the advertised rate of 76.2¢ per $100 of assessed value. The idea is to retain current revenues in real dollars, which requires an increased rate to offset decreased property values. It was a 5–1 vote, with Rivanna Supervisor Ken Boyd voting against it, saying that “we should give more back to the citizens.”

That 76.2¢ rate makes possible the construction of the Crozet Library, many years after it should have been built, and the board accepted a $5.8M bid from a Roanoke construction firm to do so. Construction starts in July. The board also voted against providing funding for increased rent costs for the Northside branch, Aaron Richardson writes for the Progress, despite that it was the county who negotiated that rent increase with the landlord. That leaves Jefferson-Madison Regional Library to figure out where to come up with $15,000 to make up the difference.

Embattled VQR Editor Resigns

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 4, 2012 in Meta News and UVa. 11 Comments Tags: .

Virginia Quarterly Review editor Ted Genoways has resigned from his position, effective May 31. Genoways’ increasingly erratic and nasty behavior towards his employees culminated in the 2010 suicide of one employee, managing editor, Kevin Morrissey, and the rest of the employees quitting. (Including me.) A subsequent investigation by the university found Genoways lacked the capacity to supervise employees, demanded that his inappropriate financial practices be ended, and called for an investigation—which apparently has not happened—into his use of university funds to publish his own book of poetry. The university’s response to their own investigation was not to fire Genoways, but to retain him. For more backstory, see Dave McNair’s series of stories in The Hook from over the past couple of years.

After Genoways took over as editor, the 87-year-old’s publication’s focus gradually narrowed, being written for an audience of Genoways’ fellow National Magazine Awards judges, until every issue was dedicated to wars and various types of misery. Circulation shrank accordingly; the most recent published numbers indicate just over 1,700 subscribers (or two days of unique visitors to cvillenews.com).

Genoways is on a five-year contract that doesn’t expire for another couple of years, so presumably the university has bought out the remainder of his contract in exchange for his departure. UVA is left to rebuild the publication, and has gradually hired employees to take over the publication, including a new Web Editor—my old position—who starts June 1, the day after Genoways’ departure. With Genoways leaving, I wish them the very best of luck in their efforts to return the magazine to a viable state. Genoways’ house was on the market for a very brief period in March and, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, is scheduled for a closing very soon. I gather he and his family are moving back to his home state of Nebraska.

For the record, here’s how things ended for VQR’s remaining employees. Associate Editor Molly Minturn is now the Managing Editor of Arts & Sciences Magazine. Circulation Manager Sheila McMillen settled with the university under undisclosed terms, and was given early retirement. I went on to work for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, though as of last month I have a fellowship with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Intern/donor-turned-employee Alana Levinson-Labrosse has changed her name and moved to Iraq. Genoways has been pushed out of his job—and town—and is moving back home to Nebraska, to spend more time with his writing.

Progress Switching to Facebook Comments

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 4, 2012 in Meta News. 39 Comments

The Daily Progress is doing something about their cesspool of a comments section, and switching to Facebook as their commenting system. Second only in horribleness to NBC-29’s comments, comments on the Progress site are often filled with nasty, anonymous attacks, with a handful of regulars turning every conversation into an opportunity to go on one of a few stock tirades. Other Media General papers have been making the same switch (here’s a sample Times Dispatch article where you can see the comments at the end), in an effort to force people to put their real names on their comments—or at least outsource that to Facebook’s judgment and administration. That switch will take place tomorrow.

A year or so ago, I toyed with the idea of using Facebook as the cvillenews.com commenting system, until I realized that there was no need. There’s no problem here in need of solving. People are generally civil to one another, many people post under their real names, I know who many of the pseudonymous people are (and they know I know—there’s nothing nefarious going on here), and all is generally well. But nearly every local media outlet would benefit from either switching to Facebook’s system or simply eliminating commenting functionality.

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