The Real Estate Tax rate that will be advertised will be $1.15.5 this year. Understand that once the rate is advertised, it may not go higher but it can go lower. This seems high and it is – with good reason:

In the last General Assembly scrum, the law regarding when localities are required to advertise their tax rate was changed. This change required advertisement far in advance (4 weeks I believe) of any public hearings on a real estate tax increase. For this to happen, the Council had to pick a rate last night – after only having had 2 budget meetings.

In some years, this short schedule is not a big deal but the Fire levy is a major change for the City and the Council hasn’t formally approved it yet. However, we did vote to approve the hiring of new fire fighters. This being the case, it seemed wise to pick a rate that would allow us to hire fire fighters even if the fire levy doesn’t make it through the process. Of course, w/o the fire levy hiring the firemen costs twice as much as that money gets split with the schools.

For my part, I would be surprised if we end up with a rate of $1.15.5 but anything is possible. Point is, it is simply too early in the process to say with any certainty what the eventual rate will be.

UPDATE:  Here is a web page that explains what is going on.

I spent last weekend in Richmond visiting with family.  The renovation of the Capitol building is complete and the building looks great. In stark contrast, the sidewalks, streets and many of the surrounding buildings look like the Civil War just ended.  As our State Capitol, the place could use some serious work.

 While I was in the hotel room recovering from too much prime rib at the Tobacco company, I caught Doug Wilder delivering what seemed to be a “State of the City” address on the government cable channel.  Mr. Wilder spoke quite a bit about Economic Development and the pressing need for Richmond to focus on ED and quality schools.  I find this interesting as this is exactly what our City is talking about.  In the days and weeks ahead, I believe there will be an expanding discussion on the subject.

All of that got me thinking about “change” and what it takes to make “change” happen.  On the local level, if you and ten of your closest friends are prepared to sit through a couple of meetings at City Hall and speak up when the time comes, you can pretty much guarantee that some sort of change will take place.  In our lovely little town, things will not change much this year unless the citizens get involved.  The tax rate will need to increase about 16 cents just to get back to a flat budget.  If we’re to do anything past that, the Council will need to hear from the citizens.  The budget process is still young:  If you think things need to change, you need to let the Council know.  We have a hearing on this on Monday night – 7:30.