Meals tax proposal attacked

SCOTTSVILLE — Scottsville business owners spoke out against a proposed increase in meals tax during the Town Council’s public hearing Tuesday night.

“It just seems like [the council is] nitpicking and trying to find ways to grab money without even thinking about it,” John Keaton, owner of 330 Valley St., said during the meeting.

The problem with the proposed increase isn’t how much it’s being increased — from 4 percent to 5 percent — but with the public impression, Keaton said. Keaton and other restaurant owners said that they hear complaints about the current taxes from their customers daily.

“Just the word ‘tax’ scares people away,” Keaton said.

All three restaurant owners who spoke at the meeting harped on the council for trying to take money from area businesses with the tax rather than bring money into the town through pro-business policies, such as tax decreases or incentives.

The council enacted a 10 cent per-pack cigarette tax last week.

At Fridays After 5:45, a weekly event held by Scottsville just a few blocks from town government offices, the emcee called for a boycott of local businesses that sold cigarettes, according to one speaker at the meeting.

But the council has to drum up money somewhere. The town will finish the 2009 fiscal year $35,000 in debt, said Clark Draper, town administrator. A possible meals tax increase has been on the table since March. The proposed tax and budget for fiscal year 2010 will be voted on at a special council meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Twenty-two percent of the town’s revenue, the largest percent of money to come from any one source, comes from the current meals tax. The proposed fiscal year 2010 budget shows an anticipated increase of about $14,000 with the increase of one percentage point. Some residents at the hearing, however, said they do not think the meals tax hike will truly address the town’s budget issues.

Scottsville will continue to have problems balancing its budget until it enacts a property tax for the town, one speaker said. Town residents currently only pay real estate tax to Albemarle County.

The proposed fiscal year 2010 budget shows a 48 percent increase from the fiscal 2009 budget, from $426,080 to $630,804. That percentage is inflated by a $145,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to construct a building to hold the town’s Farmer’s Market, Mayor Stephen Phipps explained.

While some town residents don’t like the new cigarette tax and oppose the proposed 5 percent meals tax, Phipps said the town government has cut costs as much as it can.

“We’ve cut as far as we can cut without cutting personnel,” Phipps said.

No one spoke out on a proposal to raise the vehicle decal fee from $25 to $30. The council is expected to vote on the measure on Tuesday, as well.