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Culpeper residents will get a break on personal property taxes Date published: 9/2/2009
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
Sagging new car sales have hurt the automobile industry over the past year, but Detroit's loss will be the taxpayers' gain. Yesterday the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors voted to up the county's personal property tax relief from 35 percent to 39 percent for this fiscal year. The action will mean that vehicle owners will be paying a bit less in personal property taxes because there are more older cars out there and they are worth less. "The overall value [of vehicles in the county] has decreased by 14.6 percent," said Commissioner of Revenue Terry Yowell. Again, this is a good-news, bad-news scenario. "It's good for the taxpayer, but it's bad for the personal property tax fund," said Supervisor Tom Underwood. That fund is down about $500,000 from its original projection, according to County Administrator Frank Bossio. However, this figure is offset by a $500,000 increase in real estate levies, he added. But not all those real estate taxes have been collected. Treasurer David DeJarnette reported that as of July 1, about $1.1 million in real estate taxes were delinquent. In addition, about $2.7 million in personal property taxes were still owed from last year. Since July 1, about $500,000 in combined outstanding real estate and personal property taxes has been collected, but $3.3 million is still owed. DeJarnette said the county figures to get most of the real estate taxes eventually, but collecting personal property taxes from people who have left the area is a tougher job. The treasurer said the current problem is not that unusual. He said figures from the past 26 years show an average delinquency rate of about 7 percent. The current rate, amid the worst recession in 70 years, is only 7.5 percent. "We've found that the delinquency rate tracks very closely to the jobless rate," he said. Also during yesterday's morning session, Bossio told the Board of Supervisors that during preliminary talks with town staffers, a referendum seems likely to be held to determine whether town water and sewer infrastructure will be turned over to a regional authority. He added that those talks seem to indicate that the town would rather just incorporate smaller, commercially developed parts of the county than one large chunk of territory. The county has suggested giving the town land in exchange for its participation in a regional water-sewer authority. A meeting between the two government bodies will be held later this month to try to work out such a plan. Donnie Johnston:
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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