Gainesville Supervisor Pete Candland-R reaffirmed his commitment to lowering property taxes at a town hall meeting at Bull Run Middle School on Mon. April 16.
After presenting a “Gainesville Heroes Award” to the Heritage Charity Classic, Inc. for their charity work, Candland introduced his proposal of reducing the advertised tax rate to a proposed $1.172 per every $100 of assessed value.
The advertised tax rate for 2013 is 1.215 percent for every $100 assessment. That is not an increase from 2012’s tax rate, although it has been adjusted for inflation.
In Candland's address at the Town Hall meeting, he said he would not vote for the adjusted tax rate because, as resident's assessments rise so will tax bills.
With real estate rebounding in the Gainesville District, Candland told the audience, that in a five-year period residents could find their taxes bills increased by 20 percent. Therefore Candland said he is opposing any kind of tax increase.
Moreover Candland said many of his constituents have told him they cannot afford high taxes due to the economic slowdown and personal hardships.
After his opening statements, Candland invited a group of citizens to speak to speak on various aspect of lowering taxes.
The first speaker, Jennifer Georgia, a nurse and a mother of five, who home schools her five children spoke out against, “Special interests” and “lobbies for tiny minorities,” and “educrats,” driving up education cost in the county.
While Georgia opposed Prince William County Schools' $1.2 billion budget, she estimated that the system systems now spends $15,000 per student, when Prince William actually spent $9,852 per student in 2012. Only Spotsylvania and Stafford counties spent less. She also said that lower class sizes make a significant difference in the quality of education, and sighted that private school students score better on standardized tests. But Prince William teachers in the audience argued the logic of her assumptions.
During the opening speeches, other speakers echoed Candland’s fiscal philosophy. Bruce Gair, a retiree, explained that many Gainesville residents are on fixed income. He said there are not many job opportunities for him, except being a “greeter at Walmart.”
Three business professionals: Jeff Bergman, Josiah Hunter and Scott Abel, spoke about the need to bring more businesses to Prince William. Because the commercial rate in the county is the same as the residential rate, taxes may be a disincentive for businesses to move to Prince William.
Candland, who spoke next, promised to keep taxes low, especially when gas prices were so high.
“I will not support a budget that increases the average tax bill for Prince William County citizens. I will fight to keep our taxes low and make sure that taxpayer money is spent wisely,” Candland said.
When citizens from the audience had their turn to speak, many spoke about the need to fund the education system and the teachers. Teachers spoke about the financial hardship of not receiving their step-increase for multiple years, while trying to afford to live in the Gainesville District. They also talked about the difficulty of teaching in a school district with the highest class sizes in the Commonwealth, noting that it would take money to hire more teachers and thus decrease class sizes.
But teachers and fiscal conservative, who spoke, all seemed to agreed that classroom teachers should be the priority for school funding.
One Gainesville District resident called the Kelly Center a “golden palaces," among other names. He also suggested the teachers hirer the administrators, and then put them in the trailers, rather than students.
Candland, whose wife is a certified teacher, said he supported the step-increase for teachers. However while he can support teachers as a citizen, only the elected School Board members vote on teacher salaries or how to spend any of the school board funds. Voting to lower the tax rate; however would directly impact schools due to the revenue sharing agreement.
However, a few Prince William teachers within the Gainesville District hoped they could persuade Candland to fund the $1.215 advertised tax rate, so that more funds would not need to be cut from the school budget as it stands.
Candland responded, “We have fantastic teachers here in PWC. They’ve made their case very powerfully.”
While Candland appeared to remain firm on his stance for lower taxes, he thanked everyone for attending, and she he wants to hear from all of his constituents, whether they agree with him or not.
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