Minutes 05/03/1988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1988 Do we currently have.on hand the money to pay for this budget? Yes, we do. But, at this rate of decline how many years will it take to wipe out the total unappropriated surplus in these funds of $4,398,333 after Fiscal Year 1988-19897 Something less than two years, even with the assumption that no increase in expenditures in excess of revenue increases will occur during this period, an assumption which would seem ridiculously optimistic in light of the school s~tuation and other recent history. At $39,000 per 1¢. of increase in the real estate tax rate, just how much increase in real estate tax rate would be necessary to eliminate a $2.7 million decline? 70¢/$100 of assessment or nearly double our current tax rate would be required. That increase would mean a total real estate tax rate of $1.46/$100 of assessment, higher than all other cities in Virginia except Manassas Park, Petersburg and Richmond. We could, of course, obtain the money through garbage fees or other fees instead of real estate taxes, but the end result would be the same; our citizens would have $2.7 million fewer dollars to spend as they saw fit because the City would have spent it for them. Admittedly a number of wealthy people live in Martinsville and others of our citizens have good, high paying jobs. But many, many of our citizens are retired on less than adequate pensions or are employed in modestly compensated. factory production positions. These people simply cannot afford to have the taxes and/or fees imposed upon them by the City virtually doubled. The School people, when they were here before us, made the cogent argument that if we hope to attract new industry and business to the City we must offer quality public education. While I agree with this position, we must, at the same time, not force all the young families with school age children to locate in the County, unless they are already wealthy, because the cost of living in the City is simply prohibitive. Little industry will be attracted to a city, regardless of how good its schools are, if the industry has to pay its employees wages so high that its costs render it non-competitive just so its employees can afford to live where they work. The Council has already voted fullfunding for the School Board budget and has been editorially praised for this action by the Martinsville Bulletin. But, in light of the situation in which we find ourselves, I believe as representatives of all of our citizens, we must require of our City Administration and our School Administration, in the future, a higher degree of management than they have exhibited in the past. And, by management, I mean the ability to do more with less. On C-span the other night, Mayor Wilson Goode of Philadelphia acknowledged that, in a time of decreasing Federal and State aid to cities, this type of management is the challenge of all city administrations today. A similar sentiment was contained in Governor Baliles' letter to Delegate Reynolds dated March 29,