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Last year, PEC did a similar survey in Culpeper County which reached the same conclusion. Services demanded by residential developments in that neighboring county cost $20.8 million, while the same properties generate only $16.7 million in taxes.
Some of the shortfall is made up by all the county’s residents in the form of higher tax bills. Another chunk comes from taxes paid by the county’s commercial and industrial properties, which pumped $2.6 million into the county’s coffers while taking back only $516,000 in services.
But the best deal for Culpeper County — as in Rappahannock — comes from its agricultural, forested and open spaces, which paid $1.9 million to the county in taxes while demanding just $350,000 in services.
Dollar for dollar, the PEC study concludes, residential development in Culpeper demands $1.25 in services for each dollar in taxes it generates, while all other uses combined ask for only 19 cents in return for each tax dollar.
In terms of real dollars to the taxpayers, in 1987 the average new house in Culpeper was estimated to cost the county $1,242 more in services than the owner paid in taxes.
For Culpeper County to break even without raising the tax rate, that same house would have to be valued at $304,000. That’s not a price the low- to middle-income family can afford.
In Rappahannock County, the costs to taxpayers of even modest amounts of development will be staggering. Add the estimated $3.5 million cost of a middle school to last year’s $6 million budget — then figure the increase in taxes to that average taxpayer. Then add in the increase in demand for police protection, fire and rescue services, and landfill space. The county’s offices will need more space, and staff.
The resulting tax bills will make today’s assessments look like a bargain-basement fire sale. And more of the county’s residents — natives and newcomers, young and old — will be forced to leave because they can no longer afford to live here.
Land use appears to unfairly benefit the wealthy, because they are the people most likely to own the large, agricultural
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