Grandfathering those energy-efficient buildings that have been already approved

That’s good news for everyone involved. The County better figure this one out quickly. Thanks for the update Dan.

Dan- How can this be “already approved” when staff is “trying to come up with a plan that will grandfather in owners of energy-efficient buildings whose applications were already approved” Which is it?

make that “houses” plural

Seems to me they BETTER find a way, a lawsuit is not what the county needs at this time. And, this is the kind of issue that could cost someone their place on the BOS.

Fact of the matter is the Spotslvania County BOS were NOT LISTENING to their constituents. Were it not for Debbie Williams’ NOTICE of INTENT to change the tax incentive to qualified and qualifying owners of the tax incentives, no one would have even made it to the August 10, 2010 meeting. Please recall Supvs Skinner and Connors charged Ms Williams, at the meeting, in conducting business, she should have refrained from doing, which necessarily would have left lots of homeowners, business owners and builders out in the cold.

The BOS simply made a unilateral decision to shut the tax incentive down, without any questions, input or long range consequence of the ordinance change because the County was bleeding tax dollars for a promise they made available to the public to bring public and commercial tax dollars to the County.

When the BOS voted down the tax incentive, there was no thought toward grandfathering the “approved list.” It was not until AFTER the vote that “equity” became part of the discussion and have the BOS back-peddle on their intentions to plug a hole and never look back at the consequences of their decision, which has yet to be determined for the long haul.

Simply said, GREEN is out, and “business as usual” is back again, making more promises they can’t keep except at tax payer expense. If GREEN doesn’t count for anything in Spotsylvania County anymore, how much GREEN will ultimately be lost to the County when the invitation to join the County population is not much more inviting than “buyer beware?”

What else don’t we know about how business is being conducted, behind closed doors, in Spotsy, without any accountability to the public interest?

bhaas – “While it can be argued reasonably that a 100%, five year rebate of property taxes is over the top; the BOS DID pass it previously. ”

I keep hearing this “100% tax exemption” phrase thrown about, but it is not the whole truth. The 100% exemption applied only to the assessed value of the improvements, not the land. People on this program still had to pay taxes on the assessed land value. And, since the assessed land value on an improved lot is higher than on an unimproved lot, the county is still getting more tax revenue than it did before these buildings were constructed. The county also gets increased revenues from sales taxes, personal property taxes, etc. from people moving into the county.

The only possible way that the county could actually lose money and claim this program was a financial drain is by people upgrading existing structures in order to qualify. Has that been happening? Because the only people I’ve heard talking about this were all dealing with new construction.

Frankly, the county needs to ensure that anyone who applied for the exemption on or before the 10 August meeting is grandfathered under the changes, in order to avoid a well-deserved lawsuit (ever heard the term “detrimental reliance”?).

For the record:

I am one of the homeowners who constructed an energy efficient (Energy Star certified) home and applied for the exemption prior to the meeting, but have not yet received an approval letter.

If the grandfathering issue is not resolved in favor of those of us who accepted the county’s incentive offer and applied for the exemption in good faith, then I will be one of those people examining my options for legal action against the county.

Considering the high dollar amount of investment some businesses sank into new construction specifically in order to take advantage of this tax incentive, I know that there will be at least several lawsuits, if not one large class action filed against the county.

See what happens when you start asking simple questions of your elected officials and they don’t have a qualified or quantified answer to how they make decisions, much less, act in the best interest of a public constituency that has no clue what’s going on and where accountability starts and spots. It certainly isn’t on a dime.

Keep the questions coming. So far, they deserve an answer, even if it’s a bad one.

GIVEMEABREAK: I have figured it out, much along the same route you took 50 years ago when you joined the company, except I’m not in denial nor wish to pander or prance around poor business agendas and decisions that keep mounting around the moated castle of Spotsylvania County’s oligarchy government.

The issue at hand is about equitable relief for those who were promised something, but NOT SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.

If you don’t want to pay more taxes, maybe that’s something you should have taken up with the COMPANY executives in 2007, BEFORE they decided to renige on a promise made.

Have no idea what MAJORITY you think the BOS have spoken to, but that couldn’t be more than about 20 special interest and stakeholder patrons that meet behind closed doors, by design.

As with your prior blog comments about my participation in government affairs, you are again invited AGAIN to use me as your punching bag if you think that serves any purpose other than to promote your overbearing pretense and arrogance. Since I don’t have your name, nor have any idea who I’m speaking with, or what your stake in obfuscation is, I’ll just refer to you as a “BULLY” who enjoys taking pot shots from anonymous cover.

You haven’t answered my questions, nor those posed by JIM, which are important questions that obviously you are not in a position to answer at this time.

Unless and until you can claim to be anything more than another tax payer, or that you are Spotsylvania County’s spokes person or its constitutional equivalent, we’ll measure your comments the same way we do everyone elses; with caution.

The last person I recall ever saying out loud that “I have lived in the County for over 50 years” was at a Spotsylvania County Planning Commission meeting covering HCOD requirements and how flat roofs have always worked before. The respondent was Hugh Cosner of Cosner’s Corner. Mary Lee Carter was serving on that Commission when Mr Cosner made his presentation. The FLS even took video tape of the peresentation.

But what do I know? I could be talking to anyone in this blog under the guise of anonomyous.

OUR questions remain on the table and deserve answers.

Well Mr. Connors, I have no doubt you did work with staff and others the second time around and grandfathering is the proper thing to do.

Why was that kind of analysis not performed back in 2007 when you first introduced the exemptions? Surely, you understand that these builders and their future customers invested some serious money to allow them to offer and take advantage of those exemptions.

Yes, I understand that the BOS has serious financial issues to deal with today that may not have been present in 2007. However, sir, a renege is a renege and regardless of your valiant efforts to revise, this represents your second effort.

Is tethering against the Terms of Service of mobile phone companies? Which ones allow it?