Property Taxes

There are historic reasons why local governments fund most of their operations through property taxes and variants thereof (like taxes paid upon transfer of property), but does anyone really think it is a sustainable, long-term revenue source?

Continuing its budget review sessions the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors last night heard from 10 county departments, some concerned about the struggling real estate market and its affect on the cash-strapped bureaucracy.

Circuit Court Clerk Gary Clemens told supervisors that the number of home foreclosures processed by his department "is not a pretty picture."

Between 2000 and 2006, his department handled 476 deeds of foreclosures, Clemens said. In just January and February of this year, the circuit court has processed 184 foreclosures.

Clemens projected that the court will handle paperwork for more than 2,000 foreclosures by the end of the year. - Leesburg Today

Foreclosures cost the county money to administer, thus turning property transfer from a revenue-positive transaction to, in some cases, a revenue-negative transation. With the dependence of the county on property taxes, the spike in foreclosures is a double whammy on the budget.

There has to be a better way to insure stable and reliable revenue for the county.