Transcription
[1967? due to mention of proposed 1968 budget - ST]
Dumfries Ponders: Too Soon for 'Great Leap
In 1859, when the town of
Dumfries was in need of revenue,
townspeople signed up
to donate a day's labor, a cord
of wood or other services to
help reopen the silted Quantico
Creek channel to waterborne
commerce.
But the effort fizzled out,
town history buff James Bishop
recounted.
On Monday night, with Bishop
among the spectators, the town
was at it again -- trying to
find new revenue.
Dormant since the late 1800s,
the town was revived in 1961.
It ballooned eight times in size
(to 1 1/2 square miles) through
annexation Jan. 1 and has grown,
in the opinion of the town
fathers, to the point that they
should be providing its approximately
1,300 citizens with more
services.
***
The council drafted its first
budget, totaling $22,568, for the
year 1968, and proposed some
added tax sources to balance it
-- namely a 20 - cents -
per - assessed $100 real estate
tax which would raise $4,400;
a gross-receipts business lincense
tax which would bring in
$3,623; and a bank stock tax
producing $800.
"What we are trying to do
is make a little progress,"
Mayor Edward Fraley explained
at Monday's public hearing on
the proposal. "We can't do but
so much with the money that's
coming in."
Some townmen in the
audience were skeptical. Eddie
McGlothlin, noting a provision
for a two-man town police force
to patrol and enforce town ordinances,
asked whether the town
had any ordinances.
***
"Right now we don't have
any town ordinances to speak
of," Mayor Fraley replied. But
he said the council planned to
pass some.
Daniel Bondareff, a supermarket
owner, questioned
whether town, which gets
office space rent free from the
Dumfries Sanitary District,
should go into a proposition
of buying its own site (a $10,000,
17,000 - square - foot
tract next to the Sanitary District
building and owned by Warfield
Brawner) and setting up
its own office.
"For economy's sake, if
nothing else, the town perhaps
should grow first before it takes
big leap forward," he argued.
***
But the hottest fire was
aimed at the proposed business
license tax. Mitchel P. Raftelis,
a Quantico councilman brought
in for advice by the Dumfries
Council, said the tax source
was used by most Virginia
towns. Each $100 in sales gross
would be taxed 20 cents, up to
a tax limit of $200. Professional
men would pay flat fees.
Bondareff said the tax would
discourage new business from
coming into the town. Others
suggested it might even drive
out existing business. Roy Elrod,
a Dumfries-based building
contractor, put it very bluntly
as far as his own business is
concerned. "This is not a
threat; it's a promise: the day
there is a gross receipts tax,
we will cease to do business in
Dumfries."
From Bishop, at this point,
came a skeptical observation.
"If I know business people, they
are not going to leave any place
where they can make money,"
he said.
***
Elrod said the gross-
receipts tax had no relationship
to actual profit and was "the
most unfair means of raising
revenue." Like Elrod, though,
Bishop reasoned that a real
estate tax, [?]
would be [?]
[businesses?] -- [?]
-- "if you [?]
Business [?]
carries a [h?] [?]
pay larger [?]
Several [?]
similar [?]
they'd go [?]
profits, [o?] [?]
tax -- [or?] [?]
But they [w?]
gross-sale [?]
[Ferlazzo?], a [t?] [?]
as [member?] [?]
William [B?] [?]
saw [merit?] [?]
graduated [?]
[?cense?] rate [?]
[Ferlazzo?] [?]
feeling [that?] [?]Transcriber
Adam KitchenLanguage
English