Anonymous wrote:The strange thing is all the democrats on TV are complaining about income inequality, but here they are pushing one of the most regressive taxes possible. Strange.

The meals tax is offsetting the lower business taxes and regulations that republicans put in place to attract companies. Unfortunately their share of the County budget has been going down. It's also offsetting the additional cost required to educate the increase in FARM and ESOL students. This has been the main driver for increases in education.

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There are plenty of classists in the democratic party. And the people I'm talking about leave after a few years, so they aren't included in the count for very long.

What? Leave what after a few years? And you forgot racists. You meant to say that there are plenty of racists and classists in the Democratic Party. But we all knew that, right? You're just getting around to admitting it.

Should probably admit that I'm neither a democrat or a republican. I don't see this as a party issue.

You didn't answer the question. Doesn't matter what party you are or aren't part of.

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There are plenty of classists in the democratic party. And the people I'm talking about leave after a few years, so they aren't included in the count for very long.

What? Leave what after a few years? And you forgot racists. You meant to say that there are plenty of racists and classists in the Democratic Party. But we all knew that, right? You're just getting around to admitting it.

Should probably admit that I'm neither a democrat or a republican. I don't see this as a party issue.

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Anonymous wrote:All for the meals tax. Let the apartment-living ESL and FARM families contribute something toward the cost to educate their kids when they go to McDonalds.

Do you understand economics? Taxes are paid on apartments and rental units, but by the landlord. The landlord passes those costs onto the renter. So the apartment living ELS and PARM people are indirectly paying realestate taxes

Not the pp, but you obviously don't understand economics. Landlords charge what the market will bear, which is a function of supply and demand. They don't merely pass on all their costs.

I teach economics, you clearly would have a problem in my class.

Yes, they charge what the market will bear. But. When it's an across the board cost that affects all suppliers equally, there is no competitive advantage to apply downward pressure. So in this case the market reacts to cost increases by reducing the quantity available until there is equilibrium. Prices will go up, though some of the cost may be absorbed in other manners like increasing the density of tenants in rental housing.

The renters will pay, it's a very regressive tax.

First, the tax rate does not affect all suppliers of rental housing equally. People pay taxes differently depending on their assessments, where they live, age and condition of the homes. People rent many different types of dwellings in many different areas which affect the price. Laws prohibit increasing the density of tenants in rental units, so the population in each unit doesn't change because of taxes. Eventually people do stop building if there is no market, but as we've seen with the commercial office vacancy, that often happens AFTER the vacancy rates become very high. In fact new commercial offices are still being built, it's just some other offices are sitting vacant and assessments on them are going down. So there hasn't been a reduction in quantity of commercial property. Commercial properties are just paying less per square foot now than in years past. This is partly why the residential real estate tax rate has increased so much. The meals tax is partly needed because the commercial tax income is going down. The percentage of the budget from residential real estate over the past 10 years has been increasing.

The strange thing is all the democrats on TV are complaining about income inequality, but here they are pushing one of the most regressive taxes possible. Strange.

There are plenty of classists in the democratic party. And the people I'm talking about leave after a few years, so they aren't included in the count for very long.

What? Leave what after a few years? And you forgot racists. You meant to say that there are plenty of racists and classists in the Democratic Party. But we all knew that, right? You're just getting around to admitting it.

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Anonymous wrote:All for the meals tax. Let the apartment-living ESL and FARM families contribute something toward the cost to educate their kids when they go to McDonalds.

Do you understand economics? Taxes are paid on apartments and rental units, but by the landlord. The landlord passes those costs onto the renter. So the apartment living ELS and PARM people are indirectly paying realestate taxes

Not the pp, but you obviously don't understand economics. Landlords charge what the market will bear, which is a function of supply and demand. They don't merely pass on all their costs.

I teach economics, you clearly would have a problem in my class.

Yes, they charge what the market will bear. But. When it's an across the board cost that affects all suppliers equally, there is no competitive advantage to apply downward pressure. So in this case the market reacts to cost increases by reducing the quantity available until there is equilibrium. Prices will go up, though some of the cost may be absorbed in other manners like increasing the density of tenants in rental housing.

The renters will pay, it's a very regressive tax.

Anonymous wrote:I don't even understand why conservatives or Republicans live in Fairfax County. You have a whole state who wants you. Leave our blue part alone or just know yes, you will be taxed to fund YOUR child's education and deal with it.

I don't even understand why liberals or democrats live in Virginia. You have plenty of blue states who want you (Maryland is right across the border ). Leave our red state alone, or just know yes, we will question why you constantly need extra tax dollars when we are already paying so much.

This is not a partisan vote. It isn't republican or democratic platform. There are republicans who support a meals tax and democrats who don't. The Board of Supervisors also didn't vote for this along party lines.

Anonymous wrote:I don't even understand why conservatives or Republicans live in Fairfax County. You have a whole state who wants you. Leave our blue part alone or just know yes, you will be taxed to fund YOUR child's education and deal with it.

is this what liberals mean when they talk about being tolerant?

Tolerance: willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them

^in case you forgot the meaning of the word!

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Anonymous wrote:This tax would hurt poor people. It will make food more expensive and it will cause business owners to cut back hours for employees. If you want more money taken from your salary then why don't you send a check to the county. Nobody is stopping you.

The money is coming from either real estate or meals. There isn't necessarily additional taxation. No one is stopping you from paying more real estate taxes as well.

It is absolutely an additional tax. The real estate tax rate was approved for this year (the sales tax went up last year). The meals tax is for next year.

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Anonymous wrote:All for the meals tax. Let the apartment-living ESL and FARM families contribute something toward the cost to educate their kids when they go to McDonalds.

Do you understand economics? Taxes are paid on apartments and rental units, but by the landlord. The landlord passes those costs onto the renter. So the apartment living ELS and PARM people are indirectly paying realestate taxes

Not the pp, but you obviously don't understand economics. Landlords charge what the market will bear, which is a function of supply and demand. They don't merely pass on all their costs.

Anonymous wrote:Some people's taxes have actually gone down in years. Amazing but true. How many times have you talked to your friends down in southern Virginia about giving back the money they take from NOVA every year? We have to pay for the infrastructure for people commuting from MD and DC to Fairfax. Why not tax them for it?

We have a progressive tax structure. Tax the rich more (NoVa) and give to the Poor (the rest of VA). If you don't like it, advocate for a fair or flat tax.

The meals tax is very regressive. What do you have against poor people?

This is simply a bad tax.

I don't even understand why conservatives or Republicans live in Fairfax County. You have a whole state who wants you. Leave our blue part alone or just know yes, you will be taxed to fund YOUR child's education and deal with it.

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Anonymous wrote:We live in Alexandria City. Currently there is a 4.0% restaurant and food store tax on "foods prepared for immediate consumption". This is in addition to the current State of Virginia sales tax of 5.3%, of which Alexandria collects 1%. Additionally there is yet another 0.7 percent state tax imposed in the localities that make up Northern Virginia.

So for Alexandria it's prepared food tax total of 5%. Add for the State is is 4.3 +0.7 sales tax for grand total of 5%. Think about that!

Due to these onerous taxes, we don't eat out anymore and we don't eat prepared foods. Virginia use to be known for low taxes but it's creeping up not so slowly.

You don't have a vote in this.

Not pp, but so? Is pp not allowed to give an opinion? Pp is speaking about his or her experience with a meal tax. Would you ask him or her to shut up if their post was about how great the meal tax has been????

Umm. Just stating a fact. This person does not get to vote for Fairfax. They can persuade the City of Alexandria to reduce the meals tax if they wish.

Based on the number of people in Alexandria that either send their children to private schools or flee the county for Arlington or Fairfax and purchase more expensive houses due to the Alexandria schools, there's a lot of money being paid to homebuyers in other counties or private schools that could be redirected into higher taxes to improve schools so that more people would just remain in that area. They aren't leaving Alexandria because of the meals tax especially when they are moving to Arlington and Vienna. Alexandria has many jobs within the city and is well connected to DC and Arlington.

Just stating a fact? Well, so was the pp.

It's good that people have choices. That's why people choose to send their children to private school, or move to a different county, because they have that choice. City of Alexandria has a meals tax, but somehow, (in your words) people don't want their children in the public schools. Why is that? Isn't the meals tax making the schools better? Isn't that why we should be convinced that the meal tax is what fairfax county needs?

People don't want to send their children to school there because they are racists and classists. The schools and teachers are fine.

Will you answer the questions, or not?

I have never heard of people leaving Alexandria City schools either to move or go private because of lack of resources. Only because there wasn't enough gifted education or that test scores were low. Which is the direct result of a high percentage of children on free and reduced meals.