7th District Meeting set for June 27
The next 7th District Community Meeting is going to be held on Saturday, June 27, from 10AM-noon, at the RCAP BUILDING (CAPUP) (right at the corner of Coalter & Oliver Hill Way). Agenda items include:
- Your Storm Water Assessment Fees and how they work” presented by the Public Works Storm Water Team
- Healthy Communities: Mr. Derek Battle, Liaison for Healthy Committees, Bon Secours-Richmond Community Hospitals
For more information-please contact Sam Patterson-Council Liaison at (804) 646-3012 or Sam.patterson@richmondgov.com.
Aw yes….the new storm water assessment fee. The same fees that have, for years, jacked up your water and sewer bills is now presented to you as yet another fee!
As a taxpayer, the real problem with this is that it is NOT deductible on your personal tax returns. The City has gone the path of least resistance and started levying fees on everything to get around the “tax exempt†status of those that should be paying their fair share. (VCU, state office buildings, non-profits, etc)
From utility fees to car decal fees, the taxpayer gets hit up-but it’s not a “taxâ€- it’s a “fee”…..get it?
The misleading part of this whole charade is that the “real estate†tax rate is kept artificially low to make the City look good compared to the counties. Fees don’t show up as taxes, but they sure are mandatory. In the end, the taxpayer gets screwed by losing these deductions on their federal and state returns.
You can bet the money will never be “fully” spent on ‘drainage and water quality improvement’ as it is promised. (A social security-like lock box anyone?) It will be co-mingled with other funds like roads and curbs. “We have this new street we have to build-let’s use part of the storm water assessment fee to pay for the drainage under the road”.
I hear a “view tax”, I mean “fee” is in the works for houses and properties that have a view. The money for this would go towards buying up land to “preserve the view”. I wonder how much blind people will need to pay?
Sigh.