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 9 · column 5 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
According to Baumgardner, there is no state law specifically prohibiting a county income tax. He noted, however, that Virginia operates under the principle of the so-called Dillon Rule which holds that a locality has only those powers specifically delegated by the state. The right to levy an income tax is not one of the local powers enumerated by the General assembly, he added.
Eastham proposed further investigation, maintaining that Rappahannock should eliminate all taxes except that on real estate and instead generate local revenue through an income tax using figures from state returns. With his proposal, he said, “ability to pay would determine how much you pay.”
The supervisors’ vote will determine whether “farmers pay everybody else’s taxes or spread them out,” said Mike Massie. In response to charges of unfairness on shifting the tax burden from persona] property to licensed vehicles, Massie noted that farmers have cars and trucks like everyone else and so would pick up their share.
In reviewing the county’s current tax structure, supervisor chairman E. P. Luke noted that in the past five years, taxes on land here have increased just 12.S per cent while taxes on merchants’ capital have gone up 139 per cent and personal property by 76 per cent.
Addressing other potential revenue sources, Luke said a transfer tax could be applied to land sales. “We might increase business and occupational license fees.” he added. In addition, he said, regulations governing contractors have been changed and now anyone doing over $1,500 worth ~ of business a year must have a license.
But. the supervisor chairman emphasized, alternative revenue sources are limited. “Like most rural counties in Virginia, we have no industrial or commercial base" to absorb part of the tax burden, he said.
Rappahannock has no budget surplus, according to -Luke, and therefore, if the county is hit with unexpected expenses, it must borrow money and repay the loan the following year through increased taxes.
According to date Luke used from last year's personal property tax rolls. 1,158 Rappahannock residents had one car; 1,498 had two cars; 759 had three cars and 580 had more than three. He further noted that 110 farmers (defined as owning 10 or more cows) had 370 cars of the total 4,365 licensed vehicles in the county.
Most Pay Little Of the approximately 2,800 personal property taxpayers in the county, 1,032 paid less than $25 last year, 664 paid less than $50 and 405 paid less than $75, according to figures supplied by the supervisor chairman.
Farmers, on the other hand, pay as much as 100 times more in personal property taxes than the county's average non-farming households, Luke said. “We have a few people paying a high percentage (of the county’s personal property taxes) and a lot of people paying practically nothing,” he pointed out.
The supervisor chairman maintained that use value taxation, a step he endorses, must be considered as a part of the total picture in deliberations on whether to eliminate the three classes of
84.9%