By: Lee Cronin
Well, congratulations to Albemarle County—yet again, you’ve raised real estate taxes without raising so much as a single finger to provide actual services in return to the many whose labors you take from.
Quite the magic trick. My family has resided in this county for seventy-five years. That’s three generations of dutifully paying into your ever-bloating coffers—yet, what have we received in return?
Let’s break it down for the folks in the back:
In 75 years, the county has never supplied a single drop of water to this property. Not one. The only water I’ve seen is that which God causes to fall from His sky—water which you once had the audacity to try to tax. Rain…from God! That’s not public service, that’s public satire.
And sewer? You must be joking. Not an ounce of it processed by the county. We’ve had to handle that ourselves, year after year. Want to guess who doesn’t pick up the trash either? Yep—still the county. That’s another private service we pay for on top of the taxes you hike with Olympic frequency.
Now let’s talk emergency services. In three-quarters of a century, we’ve never needed the fire department. Not once. And based on state-level statistical abstracts, the odds say we probably never will. As for the police, the only time we’ve ever seen them was when they handed out a speeding ticket after MADD pressured the speed limit on Route 20 down to a grandma-paced 45 MPH. Riveting use of resources.
Schools? Ah yes—the crown jewel of county “services.” If by services, you mean trauma factories. Being a student was an exercise in surviving bullying, bureaucracy, and apathy. Being a parent? That was a whole new horror show. Declining academic performance, regular scandal, and enough cover-ups to qualify as a cable drama. And yet, I’m expected to continue funding this slow-motion train wreck?
Which brings us to today. With the new tax increase, I now pay daily what it would cost me to enjoy a McDonald’s Big Mac combo. And you know what? If I actually bought one every day, I’d at least get fries, a soda, and some artificially sodium-induced happiness. All I get from the county is a semi-annual bill and the privilege of being completely ignored until it’s time to fork over more cash.
So cheers to Albemarle County—for being the only place where you can be taxed like royalty and treated like you’re on your own homestead frontier. At least the combo meal doesn’t pretend to be a public service.
Sincerely,
Your eternally taxed servant
This editorial really hits home with me. Now, full disclosure, I live in eastern rural Albemarle by choice. That said, I’m paying the county an ever increasing chunk of money for the same lack of commensurate services year after year. This year was particularly noteworthy given the double whammy of an increase in both assessed real estate value (my property value magically increased 12% ) and real property tax rate. The grand result was a 17% increase in tax due.
Now, I accept my obligation to pay my fair share of school funding (I had 4 kids and have 5 grandkids in the school system). But other than that, I don’t receive much else in the way of services compared to the taxpayers living in the urban ring around Charlottesville and out towards Crozet. My road is a patchwork of random, half-baked repairs, no water, no sewer. Police, fire and rescue services are, at best 20-30 minutes away. Should I need police protection, they’ll only arrive in time to evaluate what happened and write a report on it. If my house catches on fire, they’ll only arrive to wet down the smoldering debris in the basement. If I have a cardiac arrest, EMS will only arrive to “call the code”.
Again, it’s my choice to live out here so I understand what tax supported county services are and are not available to me. What I don’t understand is why I have the same tax obligation as those who DO receive the benefit of the services that I subsidize but DO NOT receive. Albemarle needs to adjust it’s tax assessments to reflect this blatant inequity.