Spending

Alexandria City Council Hikes Property Tax Rate and Car Fees: Taxpayers Lose Out to Higher Spending in 2007

What a Difference a Year Makes!

The vote by City Council to increase the property tax rate directly contradicts statements on tax policy made by City Council candidates in the 2006 election. Read ATU's Press Release Here.

As a public service to the City’s taxpayers, Alexandria Taxpayers United would like to highlight the discrepancies between campaign tax policy pledges and votes cast. Click here to read the PDF report. You be the judge if campaign pledges live up to reality.

Even though last year the City Council adopted a target growth rate for 2008 spending that would not require a real estate tax rate increase, that target was shattered when the final budget was approved.  The City Manager originally presented a budget with some rational budget savings in it, but the Council tacked on more spending in the form of a COLA for city employees (the average full time employee makes over $60K already!) and more spending for the school system.

ATU President Bud Miller was quoted in a Alexandria Times article about the budget tug-of-war between spenders and savers.  You can read it here.


Property Taxes

ATU supports “VOTORS” plan for property tax reform

Alexandria homeowners have watched with dismay as property tax bills have climbed higher and higher with rising assessments, and reducing this burden is a primary goal of Alexandria Taxpayers United.

One proposal for addressing the problem of high property taxes comes from a statewide tax-reform group called Virginians Over-Taxed on Residences (VOTORS).

As an alternative to the “current market value” status quo, VOTORS advocates for an amendment to Virginia’s state Constitution that would provide for an “acquisition-value based” property tax system. This reformed process would:

• Reset property assessment values to those on record a minimum of 2 years prior to passage of this amendment (this sets the base year value);
• Impose a 2 percent limit on the increase in property value assessments annually from the base year until a property is sold, at which time the property value is adjusted to the selling price; and
• Impose a 1 percent cap on property tax rates and requires a state referendum for any subsequent increase to the tax rate cap.

The hope is that with an acquisition-value based property tax system, we’ll strengthen Virginia families, public education, and our economy while limiting the growth in tax burdens. You can read more about this idea and get an estimate on how your property taxes would change under this proposal at http://www.votors.org/home.aspx.

Click here to see a statewide coalition letter of support for the VOTORS proposal.


Assessments

We believe in fostering an assessment system that is transparent, fair, and easy-to-understand. To that end, we provided the Alexandria City Department of Real Estate Assessment with suggestions on how they can improve and expand their website to make it more taxpayer friendly.


Grant and Contract Transparency

In 2008, taxpayers across the country will be able to search a website that lists all the entities that receive federal government contracts and grants. ATU thinks that the effort to bring transparency to spending is so important, that we asked the Alexandria City Council to create a similar website for local taxpayers. 

Click here to read our PDF letter to City Council on the "google-government" concept.

The Examiner released an editorial on 12-28-06 that wholeheartedly backed our call for a transparent grant and contract database for Alexandria.You can read the whole editorial here.

Read the City's comments on the proposal here.


Debt

Despite the ever-increasing amount of tax dollars claimed by Alexandria, the City's debt continues to grow.


State Issues

A coalition of Virginia citizen groups and legislators has come together to introduce the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda – a citizens’ agenda for better state government that protects the properties, incomes, and futures of all Virginians. These 11 planks will need the grassroots support of people across Virginia to ensure our state legislators pass them into law. Click here to access the Freedom & Prosperity Agenda.









Transportation Taxes: Another Alexandria Tax Hike on the Way ALREADY?

The City’s Ad Hoc Transportation Task Force has released a draft of the transportation master plan update. It includes many tax increases; read more about them on page 5 of this document. Keep in mind that the un-elected Northern Virginia Transportation Authority just increased taxes by $300 million in 2007.

Read ATU's response here.


BID Tax Defeated

A Business Improvement District (BID) for Old Town Alexandria, which would have resulted in even more taxes being levied on taxpayers, was recently defeated with help from ATU. The defeat of this proposal is a victory for taxpayers, but the threat of a BID tax remains.

ATU fought against the BID proposal, and continues to oppose any other BID proposal, because:

1. More spending and taxing powers are simply not necessary. Alexandria is already flush with tax revenue. Spending grew 47 percent between 2000 and 2005 (from $356 million to $523 million). Based on 2006 budget figures, spending will have grown by an astounding 59 percent in the city in just seven years.
2. There is no telling what the tax rate might be or how high it may go. Newspapers have mentioned rates from 1 cent per $1,000 of assessed value to $1 per $100 of assessed value.
3. Once this new tax is in place, it will be very easy to increase. Worse, it could allow the city to shift resources out of the BID area especially if the economy turns south.
4. It is simply not fair to force those located in the BID to pay a new tax for services they neither want nor need.
5. Many of the services the proposed BID ought to be covered by the high taxes you already pay to the Alexandria city government.
6. In 2005 the City added $3.00 to your cell phone bills, a 20-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, and a new admissions tax. Do we really need another tax hike?
7. Efforts to augment public services with private resources should be optional, not mandatory!
8. Tourists from around the globe come to Old Town because of its history and because there is always something to do at nights and on the weekends. Is the area really struggling?
9. Will increasing costs for businesses really attract more people to Old Town?

For more information on the BID tax, see this open letter from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) to the Alexandria City Council.

For NTU's press release on the taxpayer victory over the last BID tax effort, see here.