Russ Potts received a standing ovation at a Virginia Association of Counties gathering in Charlottesville Sunday for a speech in which he stated his willingness to raise taxes and denounced Jerry Kilgore, as a “coward.” Kilgore, by contrast, drew a “tepid” response when he appeared earlier in the day and defended his proposal to cap real estate assessment increases at five percent, according to a story filed by Virginian-Pilot writer Warren Fiske.
For the first time in this campaign, I actually agree with Potts: State government should not meddle with local taxes. Enough is enough, the independent candidate for governor said. The flexibility of local governments has been crippled already by the General Assembly’s efforts to reduce car taxes. “Let me see a show of hands for how many people think the commonwealth of Virginia should have anything to do with the way local governments assess real estate taxes,” Potts asked. Of the 50 local officials in attendance, not one raised a hand.
There’s a fundamental principle at stake: The state should address those issues, including taxes, over which it has direct authority and for which it is accountable, and leave local matters to local elected officials.
Assuming the Pilot’s account was a fair and balanced capsulization of what transpired (not something that I take for granted), the Republican contender turned in a weak performance. Kilgore argued that a limit on assessment increases is needed to protect homeowners from the escalating tax bills that accompany soaring home values. “I know my plan is not popular in this room, but I also know it’s something we must do for the taxpayers of Virginia,” Kilgore said lamely. “I ask today that you not judge me on one proposal.”
What Kilgore should have done: He should have challenged local government officials to combat higher taxes by more aggressively cutting expenses. Local governments, like the state, should be continually re-engineering administrative processes and using IT to bolster employee productivity. Even more fundamentally, counties need to rethink their zoning codes and comprehensive plans that perpetuate scattered, disconnected, low-density development patterns that make it impossible to efficiently provide an urban level of municipal services. Unfortunately, Kilgore has never indicated that he has much of a grasp either of re-engineering or land use reform, so it’s not likely that we’ll ever hear such a message from him.
In fairness Potts seems totally unacquainted with those concepts, too. His solution to every problem is simply to raise taxes. But he’s right about keeping accountability where it belongs.
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