Letter to the Editor: Dedicated Meals Tax Is a Bad Way to Govern

Thursday, October 2, 2008

It has already been pointed out that the proposed meals tax on the Nov. 4 ballot would hurt Loudoun County families and damage our hospitality industry. What has not been discussed is how dedicated funding schemes, such as the proposed meals tax, contribute to poor governance.

Proponents of the tax point out that the revenue is pledged to education. At first glance, that seems to be a great idea — a source of taxes that will support education without competition from other community needs.

That lack of competition is exactly the problem. Our supervisors are being paid to prioritize the competing community needs and then to allocate limited tax revenue to ensure that the most essential needs are met, while lesser needs, or even luxuries, are either funded at a lower level or not funded at all.

“Dedicating” a specific tax to education short-circuits the budgetary process and does not ensure that our taxes are wisely spent on our most important needs. Things change over time. While school construction may rightly be our highest-priority need this year, that may not be the case five years from now.

In addition, a “dedicated” revenue stream upon which a specific program develops a dependency can change. Consider the state gas tax, dedicated to transportation. While the gas tax created surpluses decades ago, it can’t even cover projected maintenance costs now. Nevertheless, some politicians in Richmond insist that they cannot spend money from the state’s general revenue on transportation, and that if more money is to be spent on roads, the gas tax will have to be raised. They claim this despite the gridlock that has afflicted Northern Virginia for years. The “dedicated” aspect of the gas tax allows them to abdicate their responsibilities to Virginians and fund their pet projects instead of state needs.

The current Board of Supervisors should not attempt to tie the hands of future boards by “dedicating” specific revenue, such as the meals tax, to a specific program. This is simply a cynical method of using education to make the passage of a brand new tax more politically palatable.

Voters should say no to the meals tax on its merits, and contact their supervisors to insist that all our spending go through a proper budgeting process based on prioritized needs.

Patricia Phillips, Sterling

Tagged: Letter to the Editor, opinions

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