Further, because state law requires that the rate be lowered to produce an equal amount of tax revenues (plus 1%), there was no “rate cut” either.To suggest there was a rate cut is to ignore state law.Had this additional “pizza and beer” increase gone through, that property owner would have received a $512 per year increase!…  Unlikely-we’d see the same hand-wringing about the budget.Back to “pizza and a beer.”One man’s pizza and beer is another family’s six (or more) doctor visit co-pays.Or another person’s two dental check ups, because some folks don’t have dental insurance….  $15 per month may not be much, but to some it pinches.Demeaning the tax increase by suggesting it’s merely a”pizza and beer” per month is like TV commercials that hawk elder life insurance policies by suggesting that it only costs 50 cents a day!…  We need to focus first on how we are spending current revenue before considering any increase in taxes, “pizza and beer” increases included.”I’d like to link to a Daily Progress article from the last time assessments were done in Albemarle County, but apparently they’ve never written about David Slutzky (but they’re working on it).

Read More