Citizen Critiques BOCS Chairman Stewart for Tax-Negative Development

Ralph Stephenson, member of Prince William Citizens for Balance Growth, criticized Prince William Board of County Supervisor Chairman At-large Corey Stewart (R) for tax-negative growth in his Letter to the Editor.

Tax-negative growth is when what developers pay in proffers and the homeowners pay in property taxes amounts to less than the amount the jurisdiction spends on services on behalf of that home. Having too many tax-negative dwellings in a jurisdiction leaves the local government with a deficit. In this situation, elected officials can raise taxes, reduce services, or not increase services to meet the needs of a growing population.

During a joint session of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and School Board last Tuesday evening, Stewart mentioned residents may prefer to pay more in taxes to afford to reduce class sizes and pay for other necessary county needs such as infrastructure.

While Stewart claims his comments were misconstrued, they evoked a strong response from citizens.

Read Stewart's explanation of how he would rework the five-year plan, and why he supports residential development here.

In his letter to the County Board of Supervisors that appears below, Stephenson takes issue with raising taxes in conjunction with negative tax growth.

Last week, when Bristow Beat asked County spokesperson Jason Grant about tax-negative growth, he said it is very difficult to quantify or measure.

“There is no ‘break-even’ price defined in Prince William County. That would require an extensive study and agreed upon rationale,” Grant said.

Still, just because tax-negative growth is difficult to measure does not mean it is not occurring. While some may say that raising taxes is the appropriate way to handle a shortfall, others ask why development was proliferated when the result was not advantageous to the county from a tax revenue perspective.

The following is a letter Ralph Stevenson sent to members of the Board of County Supervisors. The letter does not necessary represent the views of Bristow Beat, its affiliates, sponsors, editor, publisher or contributors. 

Chairman Stewart:

In 2006 you strongly opposed Brentswood (the predecessor of the pending Stone Haven and Prince William Station residential developments.) You pointed out then and for a year or so afterward that "when we approve large developments, we are essentially approving a tax increase" and that the county's housing boom has "hurt the average person". (See: attachment and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f8XDSKrNzs). BUT NOT LONG THEREAFTER YOU REVERSED COURSE 180 DEGREES AND BEGAN RELENTLESSLY CHAMPIONING RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPER CAUSES, including Avendale and Stone Haven, as well as a major change in direction beginning 2009-10 by the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) on land use that seemed to allow development virtually "anywhere, anytime" and allowed fast-tracked approval of developer land use requests. (See: http://pwcbg.org/SupervisorPositions.html#FastTracking)

You also talked in 2007 about how you'd been "socking it to the development community." BUT NOT LONG THEREAFTER YOU BEGAN AGGRESSIVELY SEEKING DEVELOPER MONEY. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f8XDSKrNzs). At last count you'd received $759,841 from them. (See: http://vpap.org).

AND NOW, per the 11 December 2014 InsideNova report below, YOU NOT ONLY HAVE APPARENTLY LOST INTEREST IN RESTRAINING TAX RATES, BUT ARE BLAMING COUNTY BUDGET SHORTFALLS, PARTICULARLY SCHOOL SHORTFALLS, ON PW COUNTY TAXPAYERS' RELUCTANCE (AND INABILITY IN MANY CASES) TO PAY HIGHER TAXES. In so doing, you have truly retreated to one of the last refuges of political scoundrels: If only the taxpayers were more generous and the government had more and more money, everything would be so much better -- and we wouldn't have overcrowded schools, etc. Apparently, taxpayers paying 30-40% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes and fees is not enough for you. I'm sure it's very frustrating to you that taxpayers are hesitant to give you more money so you can: cover up your own policy mistakes of the last 5-6 years, keep giving indirect subsidies to residential developers, and in turn receive more and more campaign funding from developers to further your faltering statewide political ambitions.

It's interesting that in recent years you have not publicly made mention, in fact have assiduously avoided any mention of the main reason for overcrowded public schools (and roads, for that matter): consistently tax-negative residential development, caused by you and your predecessors' pro-residential developer policies that simultaneously overcrowd and underfund both schools and roads and neglect tax-positive commercial development. (For more info, see: http://pwcbg.org/SupervisorPositions.html#Proffers and http://pwcbg.org/MediaReportsOnBalancedGrowth.html#Reports .)

Note that early next year Prince William Citizens for Balanced Growth (PWCBG) plans to release updated 2015 budget figures on tax-negative residential development. While a few numbers will change, we expect that the basic story will remain more or less unchanged: The breakeven value of new houses (where taxes received from the house equal the cost of government services incurred by the house) has been about $450,000, while the average new house sells for about $330,000. That leaves a tax gap of $120,000 multiplied by the current tax rate of 1.25%, meaning that on average each new house built has been $1,400-$1,500 tax negative per year. While tax rates change and it looks like the average house is selling for a bit more now (though that trend could reverse if the percentage of townhouses in new housing rises), the breakeven value has also risen. So we expect that the tax gap will remain similar, likely resulting in at least a $1,200 tax deficit per house per year.

Highly overvalued developer proffers of empty and often worthless land do not help much in reversing the tax-negative trend. (See Word attachment above.)

In other words, OVERALL, RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY IS OVERWHELMINGLY TAX-NEGATIVE, AND THAT REALITY DOES GREAT HARM TO TAXPAYERS, SCHOOLS, ROADS, QUALITY OF LIFE, AND THE VALUE OF EXISTING HOMES. Let me remind you that this is the very point that PWCBG has been making to you and the rest of the Board of County Supervisors for almost nine years now. Surely you could not have failed to hear us all those countless times during that period when we've spoken to you directly in person at BOCS meetings or, along with hundreds of citizens, sent e-mails to you reminding you over and over again of all this. Or perhaps, more to the point, YOUR DESPERATE PLEA BELOW FOR HIGHER TAXES CONCEDES PWCBG'S POINT, IN A BACKHANDED, PERVERSE WAY.

Compounding folly on top of folly, county officials such as you continue to advocate more and more of this tax-negative, taxpayer-subsidized housing -- even though there are still ~30,000 approved-but-not-yet-built houses and no housing shortages in the county.

Nor have you or the School Board mentioned the $37-38 million dollars diverted to the school board's Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center and other frills that were funded even before the basic needs of schools were met.

Your political "principles" change so quickly and so radically that you're giving me political whiplash. Let's hope that your next change is either in the right political direction once and for all or to the political exits.

Ralph Stephenson

Prince William Citizens for Balanced Growth

Read Corey Stewart's response to tax-negative growth and his discussion with the School Board here.