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136 counties and cities in Virginia to 125th. For maximum pay, the drop was from 107th to 126th. Small wonder so many of our best teachers finally gave up after the 1984-85 school year and abandoned the system.
Finally, a look at the revenue side of the 1985-86 budget revealed something about how willing we in Rappahannock County have been to spend income on education and other public programs rather than on private goods and services.
Having acted years earlier to abolish its taxes on farm machinery, equipment and livestock, on merchants’ capital, machinery and tools, and on personal property except cars, Rappahannock was left with only one sizeable source of revenue under its control — the tax on real estate. Thus, the property tax rate had risen from 38 cents in 1982 to 50 cents, a jump of more than 56 percent. After allowing for inflation, however, that 50-cent rate had a purchasing power of less than 46 cents in 1982-83 terms. Moreover, in adopting Land-Use Valuation and exempting nearly a third of its landtax base, the county had given up the equivalent of nearly 11 cents in its rate.
What it added up to: A property tax jump from 32 cents to 50 cents — while very real for property owners not protected by Land Use — was of negligible significance in providing needed improvements in education and other public services in our community.
And, while some — not all — of the leading opinion makers in the county were bemoaning a “runaway property tax,” our neighboring communities had been outstripping us in their willingness to pay for those im- . provements: In 1984, when our tax' was held to 50 cents, the five adja
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