This Election Day, November 3, there will be a local referendum asking whether there should be a one cent sales tax imposed on certain items to generate funds for improvements to public schools in Northampton County. The purpose of the meeting is to kickoff an organized effort to support the passage of this referendum. The meeting is on August 12, Wednesday, at 6:30 PM in the Northampton High School cafeteria.
Another tax? The School Board and the Board of Supervisors have known about the high school and issues in the school system for over 30 years. Now, they act like its a big surprise! What have they done to put money aside and prepare for what they knew was going to eventually happen? When cities and county’s across the state saw a reduction in land and rel-estate value, the cost of taxes on heir properties were reduced. Northampton County’s response was to raise the tax rate and stick it to the land owners! All this county is worried about is raising taxes and not offering a damn thing to the citizens! Don’t approve any business opportunities that would offer jobs and help broaden the tax base, run existing business out of the county, and don’t support the ones that stay. Best thing a land owner here could do is move away!
Preliminary US census data indicate a probable five per cent decline in Northampton County’s population from 2010 to 2020. So Northampton’s elite propose a selective one per cent sales tax increase on selected items to accommodate a surely decreasing number of public school students in Northampton. All of us should be mindful of the late economist Herbert Stein’s aphorism: When you tax something, you get less of it. I.e., Northampton’s population will continue to drive to Accomack or even farther north, or across the Bay Bridge Tunnel to shop for less expensive and more abundant goods. If this statement were not true, what is the reason for the enactment of periodic sales tax holidays? More and more it appears that all levels of the Commonwealth are trying to convert Virginia into a larger appendage of the People’s Republic of Maryland.
Make better use of the money and facilities you already have! No more taxes, quit throwing money at schools, that is NEVER the answer.
Wrong direction…
The county representatives and administrators, should immediately undergo an observable third party LEAN process, with the goal of a net 20% general & administrative cost reduction. They should not have their hand out to the overburdened taxpayers, until they have publicly proven, that they have eliminated all waste, fraud, and, corruption…
Begin with a flat 20% cost reduction goal. No excuses.