Planning Commission Favors Tourism Tax Breaks

By WAYNE CREED
Cape Charles Wave

June 8, 2015

Cape Charles Planning Commission on June 2 again grappled with the details and implementation of Tourist Zone incentives which it hopes “will foster the town’s development, maintenance and expansion of commercial, tourist and industrial businesses engaged in the tourism industry.” Currently, the entire area of the Town of Cape Charles is designated a tourism zone pursuant to Virginia Code.

To qualify for a tax break or incentive, according to Town Planner Larry DiRe, a business would have to make some form of verifiable capital improvement. The difficult part is coming up with actual dollar figures to be applied. “This all seems OK so far, but we really need to nail down the dollar amounts,” said Planning Commission member Joan Natali.

Commission member Andy Buchholz said, “We may want to look at a tier-based system based on net sales totals, and cap it based on that. The little guy doesn’t have that much capital — this would make it more fair for everyone, to put it on a scale so that everyone gets something instead of just helping out the big guy.”

“Is there going to be a gross cap on this,” asked Commission member Dan Burke. “I mean, how much is the town going to be in this for? What will the obligation be?”

“When you look at the big picture,” said Buchholz, “what we’re really talking about here is a big thank you to business for bringing revenue here. If we’re out some percentage, if you look at the amount of revenue that will be generated, it will more than wash out.”

“This really is to help the little guy — the little guys are the ones that make up this town,” said Natali. [Read more…]

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