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By SHARON KILPATRICK
Rappahannock New* Staff Writer
The Rappahannock Board of Supervisors is coming under increasing pressure to enact business taxes.
Last winter Commissioner of the Revenue Beverly Atkins said her office was informed by the state’s Department of Taxation that the county should have a tax on machinery and tools and either a merchant’s capital tax or a business license.
County Administrator John McCarthy said when the county has explored these sources of revenue in the past it has appeared that it will cost the county almost as much to administer the taxes as they could generate in revenue.
Hampton District representative Mike Massie said it doesn’t make sense to him to enact taxes that impose a hardship on businesses in the midst of a recession.
At the March meeting the supervisors asked County Attorney Peter Luke to write seeking an Attorney General’s Office opinion on whether or not the county has to enact such taxes.
Mr. Luke said he can’t simply ask for such an opinion. He has to do research to justify the position that the county doesn’t need to have such taxes and then request a ruling by the Attorney General’s Office on his opinion. He sent off his opinion in late March and has not yet received a ruling.
Mr. Luke said his research indicates that the legislation allows the county to enact such taxes and reserves such revenues to the localitie— but does not
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