Voters in Henrico County narrowly defeated a meals tax by 151 votes in an election yesterday that featured 14% turnout. All bond issues on the ballot for parks and schools passed. It’s difficult to glean much about the mood of voters from those results, except maybe that they couldn’t be bothered by an off-off election day that made no sense.
One Man’s Trash and the The Jaded JD have analyzed the vote. Both use the expression that the voters wanted to “have their cake and eat it, too.” The Jaded JD pursues this line vigorously while Norm at One Man’s Trash thinks the Henrico Board of Supervisors may have been bluffing in warning of large increases in real estate taxes if the meals tax did not pass.
I would have voted against the meals tax were I a Henrico voter, but I have mixed feelings. It’s interesting that one of the only type of retail sales that isn’t in competition with the internet is singled out for extra taxation. You can’t get your Red Lobster Shrimp Feast delivered by UPS from out-of-state.
If anyone has gone to a restaurant lately, you know the places are jam-packed. Granted, on the few occasions when I go out, I’m eating in meal tax-less Chesterfield County. Still–at six o’clock last Saturday the Olive Garden had over a one hour wait. The lobby was packed with people who obviously represented all income groups. I doubt if a few extra bucks on a check for a meals tax would depress those numbers.
But for the worker trying to grab a sandwich for lunch, the price on the menu bears no resemblance to the price rung up on a cash register in a meals tax jurisdiction. I think it’s at the lower end of the prepared food spectrum where the meals tax has a negative impact and is the most unfair.
