Second jobs

More baskets, more eggs, less pain

The current economic downturn affects everyone. The financial sector meltdown has hobbled the very affluent, often the sole segment of society most insulated from fiscal turmoil.

Local government is caught in the crossfire.

Goochland County is not immune from any of this grief. For many years we coasted along on ever-rising property values to fund county services as though the good times would never end. Although the county boasts the lowest tax rate in the region, 53 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, burgeoning assessments translated into significantly higher tax bills for most landowners. While some tout our low tax rate, others find the burden hard to bear.

The supervisors seemed to be operating on a whistling past the graveyard fiscal planning system falsely assuming that there was no end to rising land values. This year, they are getting a very rude awakening as the latest assessed valuations, expected to be mailed out after the first of the year, will fall drastically across the board for the first time in recent memory.

As the county scrambles to provide core services with less revenue, the absence of a clear vision for Goochland, and the consequences of that deficiency, is coming into unpleasant focus.

County officials have compared balancing the county budget to that of a household. When times are tough, you just cut back and things will be all right. When things are very tough, however, many people look for a second job.

Economic development should be the county’s second job. In good times, it provides money for extras, in hard times, it keeps food on the table and pays the light bill.

If the board really wants to keep the entire county very rural, it needs to have the courage to inform citizens that property taxes will continue to be the primary revenue source for all county services.

Then, if residents want excellent schools, law enforcement and other services including well-staffed career fire-rescue, all landowners will pay for it, not just the rich folk on the gold coast.

Don’t expect this to happen any time soon. One of the great things about living in Goochland is the accessibility of our elected officials. Many return phone calls and answer emails. Because of this, they take lots of heat about tax increases. People who would never bother to phone or email elected officials at the state or federal level happily buttonhole supervisors to complain about higher taxes.

Meanwhile, the supervisors pretend to favor economic development yet put measures in place to hobble landowners who would like to bring business to the county.


Development per se is not evil. Indeed, in some areas, like the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, the county should be joined at the hip with the landowners to attract business. Instead, the county has taken an indifferent, if not hostile, stance toward some major landowners. The result is that West Creek looks more like a nature preserve than an economic engine generating tax revenues and jobs.

Last week, the board approved the intent to prezone some parcels of land near the Oilville Interstate 64 interchange and create a service district there to provide water and sewer infrastructure. No county funds would be spent before significant commercial development exists and the landowners chip in with a substantial cash payment. An ad valorem tax to help pay for the utilities will also be levied on parcels inside the district.

Proposed wastewater facilities will be self-limiting to prevent development from creeping into the rural areas.

The concept will spend about the first half of 2010 working through county processes, but, at long last, the county is going in the right direction.

The real question is why were steps to provide utility service at Oilville not taken a decade ago? Indeed, the county’s Industrial Development Authority, now the Economic Development Authority, funded feasibility studies that were presented to the board twice, 10 and six years ago. Both studies were dismissed out of hand.

It is very hard to comprehend why the county did not plan for development at each I64 interchange when the road was first built. Plans need to be made now to identify and craft strategies to encourage creation of commercial nodes at the interchanges so the county can capture revenues from vehicles riding down the interstate. The jobs those businesses will create are also badly needed.

When the board approved the latest iteration of its comprehensive land use plan it had no trouble including an eleventh hour provision to permit relatively dense residential rezoning in the vicinity of the Shannon Hill interchange. Yet nothing was added to encourage commercial development there beyond general blather that the area is suitable for commercial use.

Right now, there is no development at all near the Shannon Hill interchange. Given the economic activity underway at Zion Crossroads, that could change quickly once the economy recovers. Will Goochland be behind the curve and miss out on commercial revenues that could provide more revenues for schools and other vital services again?

As the supervisors agonize over revenue shortfalls resulting from shrunken property values and resulting budget cuts, they need to look eastward and emulate Henrico whose commercial and industrial tax base help ease the pain in hard times.