4 percent

By Published by The Editorial Board

Published: July 1, 2008

It took three consecutive elections for the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors to finally convince voters to approve a meals tax. But it didn’t take long at all for the supervisors to dedicate meals tax money to pay off the debt to modernize Pittsylvania County’s schools.

Today marks the first day for the county’s meals tax. The tax could generate approximatley $500,000 per year for Pittsylvania County, although that’s just a good guess at this point.

It’s surprising that the Board of Supervisors didn’t just give up on the meals tax after the first or second try.

The meals tax was rejected by 70.8 percent of county voters in 2005 and 56.1 percent in 2006 before winning with 54.4 percent last fall. The meals tax shared space on the crowded local ballot with the largest school bond in county history — a $70 million package of projects for the high schools.

The meals tax will be levied on prepared, ready-to-eat foods, not groceries. Pittsylvania County’s 4 percent meals tax rate is less than the meals tax in Danville (5 percent) or Martinsville (6 percent). If Danville’s experience with the meals tax plays out in the county, it won’t hurt restaurant sales at all.

In fact, Danville’s restaurants have as a group continued to see strong sales growth — even during the past few rocky years.

That has inspired a local joke about the popularity of eating out: A woman tells her husband the world is going to end in a few hours. The husband’s response? “Do we have time to go out and eat?”

But there was nothing funny about the financial straightjacket the Board of Supervisors found itself in. Virginia law severely limits the kinds of taxes a local government can raise, and counties have even fewer choices than cities. Even on the meals tax, a county’s rate is capped by Richmond at 4 percent, while cities and towns can charge what they want.

For years, those restrictions put a strain on local government finances — and led to an overdependence on property taxes. That, in turn, angered property owners, who constantly complained about having to carry the burden of funding local government services.

With the $70 million high school bond referendum on the ballot last year, the supervisors needed another way to raise money. They finally got it — after three tries.

Pittsylvania County’s meals tax is a welcome step toward shifting the burden of funding local government services away from property owners.