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Local taxes on residential, property amounted to $:« million; on industrial/commercial property, $6 million and on farm land (with 45 percent of'assessed worth deferred through use value) $5 million. On the other side of the equation, residential property demanded $47 million worth of services (schools, water and sewer facilities, police, etc.) “That’s 1!) percent more than residential properties brought in in revenue,” Reynolds pointed out. Industrial/commercial properties used $1.8 million in services, a favorable balance for the county, he noted. Farm properties required $541,000 in services—“ten percent of what farm land brought in so that’s a 90 percent surplus.”
According to Reynolds, the financial picture is roughly the same in Rappahannock and other rural Virginia counties. “Residential properties are not paying for themselves and the cost has to be born by somebody else...The contribution of the farming community is practically equal to all the rest of the industrial/commercial complex combined. Talk about fairness—you can see where the fairness lies.”
Services Not For
(lows And Trees
Reynold told the supervisors that the reason for the county’s high property values is the rural, agricultural character of Rappahannock, its farm land, forests and open spaces. “What do we need taxes for? Schools. Cows and trees don’t need schools. Cows and trees don’t need jails or fire and rescue or police service. It’s the people in the houses who need those things. Water and sewer? It’s the same thing. It’s people who need those services, not cows and trees.”
Using figures from Loudoun County again, he presented statistics that showed tax bills on farms soared 600 percent between 19611 and 1972 while taxes
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49.8%