One small car part is the sole evidence of who killed a Waynesboro woman in a hit-and-run on Saturday. The community at Jalopnik figured it out—it’s from the grille of a 2003 Ford F150 XL. #
One small car part is the sole evidence of who killed a Waynesboro woman in a hit-and-run on Saturday. The community at Jalopnik figured it out—it’s from the grille of a 2003 Ford F150 XL. #
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.
Does the city have the power to set the speed on the bypass so ridiculously low? Several people argue that it does not. #
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.
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.
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