Despite May 14 being an election day, the La Plata town council had a considerable turnout for a public hearing on increasing the town’s property tax rate.
The tax increase, if approved, would change the property tax from $0.32 per $100 assessment value to $0.35 per $100 of assessed value.
Before the hearing began, Brent Manuel, La Plata’s town manager, stated the case for the tax increase, saying that the increase would help cover La Plata’s operating costs with operating revenues — or taxes — rather than applying fund balance.
There were 16 speakers at the event, with six additional written comments submitted to the council. Another three comments were submitted after the deadline and not added to the agenda.
Lynn Gilroy, a former La Plata councilman, told the current council, “We had to make some hard decisions when we served, and you have to do likewise.”
“We cannot continue to tax the citizens to satisfy our champagne taste on a beer budget,” Gilroy said.
Gilroy finished by expressing a concern that citizens of La Plata could be susceptible to a double hit by county and town taxes, calling it unacceptable.
David Clements, an officer with the La Plata Police Department, expressed overall support for the tax increase.
“The town of La Plata is experiencing exponential growth,” he said.
He cited a study presented to the town council in 2022 that said La Plata would need an additional 20.5 officers by 2024, which would have made La Plata Police Department a 46 officer department.
“As of today, the department is 31 people,” Clements said.
Clements advocated for the increase as it would not just be a benefit to the police department, but to recruiting and retaining quality employees that do things like keeping the town’s water and sewer working.
Jason Posey, another officer, said that he is also a supporter of the tax increases to help retain and recruit quality employees.
“The increase in the tax is about $10 a month for a $400,000 house,” Posey said. “It’s comparable to the cost of a McDonald’s meal.”
Aaron Mosrie, a town employee who deals with code enforcement, said, “People are really, really struggling to make ends meet.”
A number of other town employees echoed his message during the public comment session and advocated against the tax increase to the council.
Anne Lewis, a senior resident of La Plata, was upset with how raising taxes would impact senior citizens already living on tight fixed incomes.
Lewis said that young people are the ones who want to raise taxes and throw old people aside.
“We don’t count anymore, it’s wrong. Taxes are way too high,” Lewis said.
After the speakers finished, Councilman Matthew Trollinger, who was running the meeting in lieu of Mayor Jeannine James being virtual, asked for consensus to proceed with legislation.
Councilman David Winkler voted “no,” while council members Evalyne Bryant-Ward and David Jenkins voted “yes.”
When Trollinger asked James, who was virtually present over Microsoft Teams for the meeting, for her vote, she was quick to share displeasure with voting to proceed with legislation after the large public turnout.
“The record should be held open for another seven days, in my opinion,” James said. “It makes it look like you’re rubber stamping this and just went through the process and are not listening to what the town’s residents have to say.”
“So to go to legislation today is an absolute 100% no. I think it’s disingenuous,” James said.
Trollinger expressed that he was still in favor of moving legislation forward so that the bill could make it to another reading.
“I am in favor of moving toward legislation, so we do have a consensus to move this forward,” Trollinger said.
James then said that there were additional people that she knew could not come to the hearing because of the election.
“Not holding the record open shows the minds were already made up,” she said.
As of now, the tax increase legislation will move to the next reading.
Most Popular
Comments / 0