Hanover Residents: Raise Real Estate Taxes or Reinstate Proffers?

One of the first acts of Hanover’s all Republican Board of Supervisors nearly 4 years ago was to eliminate proffers for developers. Since then, the same board has approved a number of high density / low income housing in the area despite vocal opposition to this type of growth. And with the per pupil spending around $10,000 to $11,000 (perhaps more for 2015-2016 school year), the citizens of the county have a decision to make. As developers line their pockets building more and more housing units, without proffers to offset the cost of services such as Police and Fire, something has to go unfunded, or we must raise taxes.

Our schools have fallen into disrepair and we have no choice but to spend money to protect our investment in these structures. The HVAC (heating and cooling) systems are old and not working as they should, roofs are leaking (see the video below of Lee Davis High School earlier this year.)

And our cash reserves are have fallen to an unacceptably low level because this money has been spent on other things in order to keep from raising taxes. But those days are fast coming to a close. And taxes, fees, and other ways of taking our money will be increasingly common during the next 4 year term for the new board.

And the questions we need to answer is will we continue to line the pockets of developers and builders at the expense of our schools? Or will we reinstate proffers so that these developers will have to pay for some of the impact of the multitude of new housing they are building?

Looking at the donors to the current Board of Supervisors and Candidates on VPAP if you exclude donations from political sources, all 5 of the members running for re-election received the largest amount in donations from the Real Estate and Construction industry (for all years). And with the easy time most developers have gaining approval for their projects as well as the elimination of proffers, the developers have gotten what they paid for in Hanover.

And the taxpayers are the ones coming up short.

The tax hikes are coming folks. You can’t sell the county government to developers and not expect to pay for such a mistake.

Call your supervisor and demand that they reinstate proffers immediately. And consider voting only for candidates who promise to fight to reinstate proffers and the Cronyism in Hanover County.