There’s a reason why Albemarle County is one of the most picturesque places in Virginia. Its stately manor houses and landscapes enjoy layers of protection from the higher real estate taxes that result from providing services to a growing, urbanizing population. But people who don’t live in those manor houses are beginning to grumble.
A group calling itself Forever Albemarle and claiming more than 100 members was formed in October. The leader, Hank Martin, asserts that small property owners are getting a raw deal, according to the Daily Progress. At issue is a land-use taxation program that allows landowners to defer hefty amounts of their real-estate tax bill on agricultural and open space land for up to five years. About 60 percent of Albemarle County acreage qualified for the program, with the result that $17.8 million in taxes were deferred last year– shifting the tax burden onto homeowners. (And those numbers don’t even include the tax benefits of conservation easements.)
But Albemarle Farm Bureau President Carl Tinder argues that open space and farmland don’t require the same level of services that subdivisions do. Says Tinder: “My cows have never got on a school bus. … We’re paying more than our fair share.” Without the tax deferment program, he argues, more farmers would be forced to sell their land.
Supervisor David L. Slutzky disputes that logic. As reporter Jeremy Borden summarizes his thinking:
When a rural landowner bought the land, he paid less because the sale price reflects the longer wait for emergency services, rural roads and other “dis-amenities,” Slutzky said. “I think that the land-use program in its current form is a bad idea,” Slutzky said. “The cows-don’t-go-to-school position is bogus economics.”
Voodoo economics, meet Cow Poo economics. As this controversy reminds us, the politics of growth is all about getting what you want — and getting someone else to pay for it.
