Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 2 · column 1 of 3 · from the scan, no model involved
Tax rate lessons
TAXES ARE NEVER pleasant, but citizens of Rappahannock County can count their blessings where their county taxes are concerned. The rate hasn’t been changed since 1969, and in this day and age that’s a rarity to be marvelled at..
By contrast, the tax rates in some nearby counties have become fearsome things. Prince William’s Board of Supervisors has set a rate which figures out as the highest in the entire state of Virginia. Loudoun’s Supervisors are toying with a budget which would require a $6.50 personal property tax rate on top of a $3.50 real estate rate! Even Fauquier County, whose rate of “growth” —^induced by land speculation pressures connected with Washington, D.C., “urban sprawl” has been relatively low, may have to jog its rate up another 25 cents this year.
THESE COUNTIES are in the fix they’re in because the y failed to realize soon enough that all that lovely new “development” some people are always promoting just doesn’t pay its way.
Every new house which has a kid or two in school just doesn’t generate enough tax revenues to pay for those kids’ education, no matter how grand the shiney new house might be. In many respects, the same thing can be said for industry , which was once viewed as the golden alternative to spoliation of rural areas by. suburban sprawl.
93.1%