Collect $17M in back taxes before raising taxes Norfolk

Chief Tax Collector

Niccolò Machiavelli, the 15th century scholar and political observer and strategist, identified three types of good government and three types of bad government.

Good government: a monarchy, aristocracy and a democracy. 

 Now the bad.

“…The three bad ones result from the degradation of the other three, and each of them resembles its corresponding original, so that the transition from the one to the other is very easy,” Machiavelli wrote.

So a monarchy becomes tyranny. 

Aristocracy degenerates into oligarchy.

And the popular government lapses readily into licentiousness. (Bear with me, the best is yet to come.)
 
 Now the ugly.

Jr. Tax Collector

Norfolk is on the verge of raising taxes to cover the cost of building schools. At least that’s the popular belief promulgated and promoted by the media. 

Our Bi-Polar on the Bay City Council, aided and abetted by the city’s administration, proposes a bump of two cents in the real estate property, the bulk of the city’s revenues, in addition to other fees.

City Council plays to our emotions – it’s for our children.

City administration plays to our sense of fairness – Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach have raised their taxes over the past three years, so the city’s administration and city council now have a convenient cover behind which to hide.

A hike of one cent is too much, let alone two cents.

Before raising taxes, City Council should find City Treasurer, Tom Moss, the city's top tax collector. If you can't find Moss, find his deputy, Anthony Burfoot, who is also vice mayor. 

Because, Norfolk is owed roughly $17 million in back taxes. You can check the figures here.

Yes, this is the amount of delinquent real estate and personal property taxes owed the city. 

It is the responsibility of Treasurer’s office to enforce the collection of all taxes, levies, license taxes, animal licenses, rents, fees, and all other revenues accruing to the city.

Now the coup de grace.

Two of Norfolk’s most powerful power players, Moss and Burfoot, who are supposed to enforce tax collections for the city so the city can operate, are connected with the now defunct Bank of the Commonwealth, whose top officials have been indicted and now facing criminal charges and who are also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yet we are supposed to pay higher taxes and fees. 

And having two of our top tax enforcers connected to a bank that collapsed, allegedly, because of "creative" banking practices doesn't make me warm and fuzzy. 

Does it you?

Macchiavelli was right.

Norfolk’s democracy has lapsed readily into licentiousness.