Time to eat crow. The tax assessment numbers are in for Henrico County, and they are disappointing indeed — up only 2.8% from last year. (I blogged about Chesterfield’s assessment results yesterday.) I had suggested that soaring home sales prices would give a much bigger boost to the tax base, obviating the need for a 4% meals tax. The number was slightly higher than the 2% percent that the county administration had budgeted, but not enough to close the county’s perceived long-term budget gap.
So, kudos to the county administration for getting it right.
This still doesn’t change the bigger-picture narrative I advanced about Henrico County — the county cannot continue doing business as usual. I do not buy the false alternative that local governments have no choice but to raise taxes or cut services. The county manager took a small step in the right direction recently when he proposed disposing of excess property, a move that would simultaneously lower operating expenses, increase the tax base and strengthen the county’s balance sheet. But that’s just a start.
Henrico County needs to get serious about exploiting the potential of the “smart city” revolution criss-crossing the globe. The county needs to move more aggressively to urbanize selected parts of the county to bolster its tax base with higher-yielding, lower-costing development. And it needs to take greater advantage of the burgeoning revolution in online learning. In the final analysis, the meals tax is an $18 million blip on a billion-dollar budget. It’s a temporary patch. It’s also over and done. Let’s start thinking about longer-term reforms.
— JAB
