Singing the budget blues

If there is ever a “good” time to talk about taxes, this certainly isn’t it.

Perhaps in January and February, when excited filers wait anxiously for their W-2s, immediately fill out the forms, and run to H&R Block for their refund-anticipation loans. Maybe then you could have a discussion that wouldn’t immediately lead to grumbling.

But not this week. Not for those of us who wait until the last minute to write our checks to Uncle Sam (just so the government can turn around and write checks back to us next month — government efficiency in action) or, better yet, we file extensions and continue our procrastination for a few more months.

This time of year, taxes are taboo and not within the boundaries of polite dinner conversation. Unfortunately for our local governments, this is the time when budgets and potential tax increases do come up. So, the result is that low grumbling you’re probably hearing from your neighbors’ houses when they pick up the paper each morning.

When Tom Huggard took over as interim town manager, he did Culpeper a great favor. He served in a similar position in Maryland earlier in his career, and he came knowing the personalities of his new bosses — it hasn’t been long since he was a member of the Town Council himself.

With a few notable exceptions, Huggard has been able to keep a low profile in the new post. He’s been working hard to maintain town operations, while at the same time he’s aware that he’s just there to keep the desk chair warm for his eventual replacement. When that day comes, it will be a second retirement well earned.  But in the past few weeks, Huggard has moved to the front of the newspaper as captain of a ship heading into uncertain financial waters.

Fortunately for the captain, he won’t be on the ballot next month because some increase in taxes seems inevitable with current budget projections. But Huggard did throw his former colleagues a life boat when he gave them several options for making up the shortfall.

The town’s proposed FY 09 budget came in at $85 million when Huggard presented it to the council. The budget includes cost-of-living raises for town employees (with some merit raises as well, which seems appropriate since the town should be trying to keep the best employees we have left) and increases in the costs of running day-to-day operations (power, wastewater treatment, trash collection, and snow plowing, for example).

All this comes because of the rising cost of oil, and a shortfall from meals tax revenues in the current budget.

This budget calls for an increase in revenues of 8.5 percent, and Huggard proposed several ways to reach that number. Increases in real estate taxes, personal property taxes, cigarette taxes, and business taxes are all on the table. Now it’s up to the council, with input from the public, to make the really tough decisions.

One member of council who was noticeably frustrated in last week’s coverage by the reality of the needed tax increases was Vice Mayor Billy Yowell, who chairs the Finance Committee.

Yowell said he’s supported the idea of annual incremental increases to the real estate tax — in an effort to avoid the impacts a larger increase (or increases in other taxes) can have on town residents.

“I have not prevailed,” he told the Star-Exponent. “But I think it is much better to have a penny, half-cent increase rather than what we’re looking at now.”

I support Yowell’s candor and logic. And I empathize with those who will suffer most because previous budgets didn’t turn his advice into action. Hopefully with Yowell and Huggard at the helm this year, the budget ship can pointed in the right direction for years to come.

NOTE: Town Council will hold its first public meeting on the budget tonight at 6 in Town Hall. It’s your chance to let the council know where your priorities lie — or just to let them know that you feel their pain.

James Clements is a Culpeper resident and independent columnist who appears each Monday.
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