Town Council Votes 3.2% Real Estate Tax Increase

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

June 4, 2013

Cape Charles Town Council voted last night to raise real estate taxes 3.2 percent over last year. The new tax rate is 27.6 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value.

The tax is expected to generate some $1.07 million in revenue, based on collecting 95 percent of tax owed.

Council voted twice on raising the tax rate. The first vote raised the rate to the amount needed to receive the same amount of revenue as last year.

Town property values dropped 35 percent this year from the previous assessment made in 2008. If the tax rate were the same as last year, Town revenues would decrease by almost $300,000.

To obtain the same revenue as last year required an increase from last year’s 18 cents to a rate of 26.7 cents. All Council members voted for that increase.

The second vote was to increase the tax rate an additional 3.2 percent, to 27.6 cents. Four Council members voted yes: Steve Bennett, Tom Godwin, Joan Natali, and Mike Sullivan.

The two council members voting no were Chris Bannon and Frank Wendell — but for opposite reasons.

Wendell said he was voting no because he favored cutting spending instead of increasing taxes.

Bannon, on the other hand, voted no because he didn’t believe taxes were high enough. “We’ve never had money in this town. We have nothing in our contingency fund,” Bannon noted to justify his contention that taxes should be raised the full 8 percent advertised for the public hearing. [Read more…]