With almost all of the surrounding cities discussing the prospect of a real estate tax rate reduction to alleviate the pain of double digit property assessments except our own city council here in &uot;Peanut-town&uot;, what’s up?

The citizens have asked for some small measure of relief from the tax treadmill we are on, but so far there has just been a scramble to justify more spending.

Is it too much to ask of our council to lower the tax rate by some small measure, to reduce the growing burden of our ever rising real estate taxes?

Obviously it is not and the issue can be framed in two methods.

One is the lack of any reasonable effort to date for tax relief; the other is the quest for ever higher spending.

To resolve the situation, it is clear that both of these effects must be reviewed and corrected, now…

With your new property assessment soon to be revealed in a short letter from our friendly and kind assessor, who is doing a difficult job under arduous terms, it is clear the pain of last year will increase.

She places a kind and pretty face on the difficult job that the city council has set her to, yet the ugly fact is that the council and city manager drive this issue for their own objectives.

This is not to say that they directly drive the markets that set our assessments, but they could if motivated, make this issue revenue neutral or less burdensome if they choose to.

Unfortunately, just the opposite has occurred, which has allowed for easy spending by the city manager to meet the political needs of certain members of the city council.

This unfair issue has gone on for too many years and should end this year with a real reduction in our real estate tax rate of at least eight cents per hundred of assessed value.

Even taking such a reduction would leave our hard spending council and manager with a large increase over last year for more spending across the board.

With an expected assessment increase this year of about 15 percent or more, the pain for anyone who owns real estate in our community has become an increasingly difficult burden.

The bankrupt thinking that somehow the citizens are richer by such assessment creep and can pay more and more, must end.

With pay raises limited across the board at 4 percent or less for most of us, such increase in assessments and the resulting taxes they are linked to, continue to eat away at our incomes.

The effect that this issue is starting to have on the quality of our lives by siphoning off discretionary income to service these unending increases in the real estate taxes, is a real burden.

These facts are known by our Council, yet there has been a concerted effort to keep the gravy train chugging along at full steam, to keep up spending rather than control it.

The limits inherent in the funding mechanisms available to local government have made the situation of assessment growth a convenient excuse for city councils to grab all they can from this income stream.

Even though this sad and painful story might be understood, it is difficult for the informed observer to comprehend how almost all of the local city councils except our own, can seriously look at some reduction in the tax rate. Last year the excuse of the state budget fiasco was used to forestall any reductions, yet spending was at an all time high anyway.

This was even rubbed in further, when the city’s own financial advisors explained in depth to city council and senior city staff, that they could even plan to borrow $18million each year for the next several years.

With such news they just lapped it all up and planned for even more spending.

As such, it is well past time for this issue to take center stage in the political dialog of our community.

A full understanding of these excesses can be recognized, when just last year the city manager found millions of dollars for new emergent spending like the Cultural Arts Center, the Planter’s Club, the Obici Property and more.

There is so much money floating around due to these excessive taxes, that spending can be done at a whim and at significant levels.

This monetary opiate is going to be hard for council and especially the city manager to quit, but we must demand that they go &uot;cold-turkey.&uot;

It is time that this issue be resolved and before the new operating budget is formed, so that spending can conform to the limits of a reasonable tax rate reduction plan.

The tax rate should be set to control spending, rather than used as an excuse to spend more and more…

Roger Leonard is a Suffolk businessman and regular News-Herald columnist. He can be reached at RogerFlys@aol.com

Roger A. Leonard

575 North Liberty Springs Road

Red Squirrel Ranch

Suffolk, VA 23434

(757)986-3335h // (757)539-0600w

rogerflys@aol.com