Levar Stoney, the mayor of Richmond and the council members of the city proposed a 5-cent one-time tax rebate for the property owners of the city. This initiative is equivalent of the current rate of taxes of a dollar and twenty cents is getting cut down to 1.15 USD. This rebate apparently is going to be funded by the budget surplus of eighteen million dollars in the city’s budget.
No as per the proposal, houses with 350k USD of assessed value and 4.2k USD of tax bill will get a one-time rebate of a hundred and seventy-five dollars. As of now, if this new tax rebate proposal gets approval of the council, the rebate checks will be sent to eligible persons this year.
This proposal apparently is also sponsored by Andreas Addison, Katherine Jordan, Michael Jones, Anne-Frances Lambert, president Cynthia Newbille and Stephanie Lynch. However, currently, the city cannot cut the tax rate completely depending on the needs of the city and in uncertain economic times.
Tax Rebate Proposed By The City Council
Stoney said that reduction of each penny in the real estate tax will be equal to almost 3.5mn USDs losses that the city has to bear. Thus, such reductions will reduce the capacity of the city debt and will create problems in building any capital projects. It will also reduce the capacity of city debt wven further.
For a long-term solution, Levar Stoney, the mayor has said that he wants approval of the general assembly to freeze these rates for the long-time residents of the city.
He said that they will talk with the General Assembly to allow his city to offer an occupation program for the long-time residents of the coty. He thinks this will improve the lifestyle of the city.
