By Sarah Vogelsong
CP Reporter
Complaints from residents over late filing penalties for personal property taxes on new vehicles purchased during the year sparked heated discussion among county supervisors at both their Dec. 2 and Dec. 9 meetings.
The issue, first raised by Western Caroline representative Jeff Black at the Dec. 2 meeting, came under consideration as a result of what Black described as a half-dozen complaints from residents in his district. One resident spoke on the matter at the Dec. 9 meeting.
Caroline County requires all residents who have purchased “new tangible personal property” to file an annual declaration of that property with the Commissioner of Revenue within 60 days of the purchase so that proration—or the calculation of the tax payment according to the particular number of months during the year that an individual owned the property—can be applied.
If residents do not file their declaration within 60 days, they are subject to a filing penalty of either $10 or 10 percent of the tax owed, whichever is higher.
In certain counties, the Department of Motor Vehicles notifies the Commissioner of Revenue of an individual’s vehicle purchase, whereas in Caroline, residents are responsible for notification themselves.
“It seems like people aren’t informed,” said Black. “A lot of these people that have been caught with the fine … are outstanding citizens.”
Black recommended that the Commissioner of Revenue’s Office send out postcards, at an estimated cost of $4,200, to individuals who have purchased a new vehicle during the year notifying them of their obligation to file the declaration and pay the tax.
But Commissioner of Revenue Sharon Carter stated that residents were already notified of the obligation in language on the back of their personal property tax bill sent out every February.
“I can’t send it out anymore than we send it out now,” said Carter. “It’s on the back of their form every year. We advertise it every year.”
Black argued that it wasn’t reasonable to expect residents to remember the notice if they purchased a vehicle months later.
“It’s the principle of it,” he said. “People just don’t know.”
The supervisors split sharply over the issue, with Reedy Church Supervisor Reggie Underwood stating, “If you follow the law, then you’re in compliance. It’s real simple. How can you say you don’t have notice? Why should we do something different?”
“We should not be making money off fines,” Black shot back. “It should not be a revenue stream for us in Caroline County.”
The vote to send out postcards and appropriate $4,200 for the effort initially failed 3–2, with Underwood, Port Royal Supervisor Calvin Taylor, and Chairman Floyd Thomas opposing. Madison Supervisor Wayne Acors was absent from the Dec. 2 meeting.
However, after Thomas pointed out that Black could only make a motion for reconsideration of the issue in the future if he voted on the prevailing side, Black changed his vote, producing a final split of 4–1.
Unsurprisingly, at the Dec. 9 meeting, Black moved for reconsideration of the penalty, sparking another discussion that covered much of the same ground addressed the prior week.
“Since we’ve gone to a new process for assessing personal property and most people aren’t familiar with it and don’t realize that we are actually doing assessments as they buy vehicles, I think for some period of time, we do need to educate folks on the new process,” Bowling Green Supervisor Jeff Sili argued.
Nevertheless, the opposing bloc held firm.
“The reality of this is that we set a process in place to ensure that people knew when their money was due,” said Underwood.
Black’s motion to reconsider failed 4–2, with support coming from only Black and Sili.
In other news from the Dec. 9 meeting, Sean Nelson from the Virginia Department of Transportation provided an update on the pending bridge work on Route 722 (Nelson Hill Road) and Route 606. The supervisors previously indicated that they would not be in favor of completely closing the bridges down during construction because of the hardship that would be caused to county residents by long detours.
Nelson reported that closing the bridge on Nelson Hill Road during work would reduce the time of construction by 150 days, from 225 to 75, and would save the state $754,000. The closure would create a five-mile detour.
Closing the bridge on Route 606 would cut construction time from 225 days to 90 days and save the state $863,000. A 20-mile detour would be produced by this closure.
The other option is to leave one lane of each bridge open during the period of work.
Construction is not slated to occur until 2016 at the earliest.
Although the supervisors made no decision on the matter, Thomas indicated that the Board might be leaning toward closure of the Nelson Hill Road bridge during construction and only partial closure of the Route 606 bridge.
Finally, the Board briefly discussed a request from a hotel owner in the B-1 business district of Carmel Church to amend the zoning ordinance to allow an “extended-stay hotel” as a permitted use. The supervisors decided to allow Planning Department staff more time to examine the matter and then bring it back to the Board for consideration.