Thanks to All City of Falls Church Businesses

Editor,

Now that all the hoopla over how to slice the “surplus revenue” is decided, I would like to give credit to the little engine that had a major part in the creation of that surplus. So thank you to all the City of Falls Church Businesses and those who support them.

To some in our little city, the term economic development seems to be a bad word, but let’s look at where the surplus came from. In the ordinance passed Monday night, the total surplus was listed as $3,680,433. Specific line items that are directly related to our economic sector are: Business License Taxes, Meals Taxes and Sales Taxes which in total represent $1,622,059 or 44 percent of the surplus.

The largest single line item is Real Estate Taxes, which in large part are paid by the residential population of our city. However, commercial properties pay real estate tax as well and often are assessed somewhat higher that residences. Currently, the Real Estate Tax Rate for commercial property is the same as residential, but there is, lurking in the City’s CIP, a proposal to levy a Commercial Tax Overlay on commercial properties. That being said, we still have to remember that some portion of real estate taxes is from our commercial sector.

Lastly, we have Personal Property Taxes. While we residents moan about the personal property tax on our automobile, RV’s, boats and whatever, a business pays personal property tax on every piece of “business equipment” they own. This includes furniture,equipment, machinery, tools and computer hardware. Then, if the business owns any vehicles, they are taxed also. This all amounts to a considerable contribution from businesses to the surplus in Personal Property Taxes.

I hope this helps to inform our residents of how important a vital business community is to the sustainability of this little city that I and so many others love and are so blessed to be able to live here. I hope all of our residents will join me in saying thank you to all those business people who work hard and long to create and grow their businesses here and enthusiastically welcoming any new business choosing to move or start here.

Gary LaPorta

Falls Church 

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