Tax Me? Tax you!

Making ends meet is a difficult thing for the homeowner and also apparently for the City of Colonial Heights. Recently, City Council was toying with the idea of increasing the city’s real estate tax rate in order to pay for some “needed” expansions and improvements.  It sure would be nice if I could just go up to my employer and tell him or her that I needed a new car, or some extra work done on my house, or a new Bose Wave radio and in order to pay for them they need to pay me an extra X amount per week.

In truth, I would have to worry more about keeping my job no less getting the “needed” raise.  They pay me my salary and guess what?  I have to make sure I can live within it.  If my bills, or wants, are more than I bring in, I have to find other ways to make that happen. I have to live within my family budget.  If I don’t have enough cash flow, I can address several options:

1.  Put the wife to work.  Nah, we already have the two income deal going on.

2.  Cut down on other “necessaries.” Well maybe that doesn’t get it because we are addressing “lifestyle” stuff.

3.  Bring in more money.  That amounts to part time jobs and side work of all kinds.  Also, it means we have to do some do it yourself (DIY) projects instead of having real professionals come in to do it, think painting, flooring, minor plumbing fixes, etc.

In truth, the put the wife to work option was never a problem.  She is a hard worker and doesn’t mind, I think, pulling her share of the load.  We like the lifestyle we have and that requires a double income. So option one is a non-starter for us.

Cutting down on other “necessaries” hasn’t proved to be much of a good idea with us either.  We have made some moves one way and another to cut our costs as the past several years have impinged on our income.  For her, she had gone eight years without a raise.  Just recently, my company rebid the contract I work under which resulted in a five percent cut in my pay; I still get to keep 95 percent of it, minus the pieces paid out in taxes to the federal government and the state.  So, we have made strides at cutting down on our monthly expenses.

Bring in more money.  This is a difficult proposition since most extra money requires some kind of extra work.  For me, that isn’t too much of a problem.  I have worked multiple jobs for about as long as I can remember.  I blame it on my father, who often worked three jobs while we Breidenbach kids were growing up.  And now, I find myself in much the same position.  This column/blog is proof of one of my ways to bring in more money, along with the stories I write for the paper and the pictures I take for the paper.  I also use my camera and photo skills to bring in extra money by providing photographic services for different people and groups.  My wife used to have second jobs while the kids were young, since money was in great demand at the time.  But like anything else, times change and she no longer has to work extra jobs—mine do fine in providing the little extras that make life in Colonial Heights seem a little bit better.

So that’s how my family handles budget shortfalls and the city could do much the same.  Here is a look at how those three options might play out for them.

1.  Build more housing and get more people to live in the city. Okay, there really isn’t much more room to build houses, so this option is likely a non-starter.

2. Cut down on other “necessities.”  During the past downturn in the economy the city was proud to be able to keep all of their people working, meaning no one was fired or let go. It was a big deal to administrators as they didn’t have to face drastic measures.  Yet, most other municipalities in the Commonwealth did resort to layoffs.  And, this proposal supports increasing staff, so cutting other staff probably doesn’t make sense anyway.

3. Bring in more money. Well that’s what the potential tax increase is intended to do. But there are more ways to bring in money besides digging into the pockets of residents and home owners.  Many other jurisdictions bring in extra money simply by posting law enforcement on the Interstate highways that run through their land.

Virtually every county south of Colonial Heights posts traffic control officers on both I 95 and I 85. Don’t think so?  Take a nice little drive to South Hill or Emporia and there is always a police presence and they are always pulling someone over for speeding.  My cousin, who used to be a police officer for Greensville County, told me they always have a presence there and that there is an expectation of tickets being written whenever an officer is working the highway.

Now, take a look at Hopewell and I-295, or the million dollar mile as it has been called. Only a very short piece of 295 runs through Hopewell’s jurisdiction, but the city has learned that they can capitalize on speeders there virtually all day long.  Have you ridden on that section of the highway?  Hopewell has nearly a constant presence there, and the city reaps a huge reward for it.

My feeling is, if the city needs that money so badly, why not look there for a boost?  We have a perfect place to do so between the South Park Mall exits and the Temple Avenue exits.  It is a cash cow in the waiting.  Doing something like that makes more sense than digging into the pockets of the citizens, again.