A landmark event, last year’s unanimous budget vote came from weeks of work sessions and intentional consensus building among supervisors. But though supervisors have had numerous budget discussions for FY17, their deeply-rooted beliefs seem unlikely to distill into a compromise path forward by April 20, which is when the Board intends to make its final decision.
“You can’t continue increasing the tax rates every year. You just cannot continue to do that,” said Supervisor Don Weaver when County Administrator Steve Nichols said that county staff recommends setting the FY17 real property tax rate at 91.4 cents or 92 cents per $100 valuation. The current tax rate is 89.9 cents.
“I really think that we should stay at 89.9 [cents] this year,” said Supervisor Trish Eager. “I think it’s a bad precedent for the public to see that taxes go up every year. There’s no ending.”
Supervisor Mozell Booker disagreed. “I will not support 89.9 [cents],” she said. “We can’t start cutting services for a few pennies.”
Chairman Mike Sheridan did not express an opinion on the tax rate. Supervisor Tony O’Brien was absent.
