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Reading into
the numbers
To the Editor:
Your recent description of the in-t formation on file at the office of Planning District 9 (“The numbers tell story of a changing county”) was a treasure chest of facts—providing^ not surprises so much as confirmation in figures of what we already knew or suspected.
Let me explore one comer: per capita income and per capita sales taxes. You state that in 1989 Rappahannock’s average (i.e. per capita) income was $17,648—second highest among the five counties of the district even though only about threefourths as high as the leader, Fauquier.
Evidently Rappahannock's per capita income ranks at least moderately well among other counties of the state. This is important because, as your readers will know, per capita income is one of the nuyor parameters (along with assessed value of real estate) in the formula determining state aid to school districts despite the fact that per capita income has no direct influence on county revenue.
Sales taxes, on the other hand, are no part of the formula but do provide some revenue to the county as 1.0 out of the 4.5 percent sales tax is sent by Richmond back to the county where it was collected.
Now if there were $42 billion in taxable sales in Virginia in 1990 as you say, that is about $7,000 in taxable sales for each of the roughly six a ■million Virginia residents, or about n, $70 per person to be sent back from Richmond to the “average” county, if such there be. If Rappahannock were “average” in this respect, about $462,000 would have come from Richmond(~tq the office of Frances Foster, our good treasurer.
Actually, as you report, Rappa
86.7%