Let’s eliminate BPOL tax, build more schools in Prince William County

Opinion

It’s a consistent, bipartisan complaint in Prince William County – residential real estate taxes are higher than they should be because our commercial tax base is too small. 

Yet, despite this widely-held sentiment, the problem remains.  There is a way forward, however, if we dispense with appeals to narrow ideologies and focus on decisions that aid responsible expansion of our commercial sector. 

To start, we need to eliminate or rapidly phase out the Business, Professional, Occupational, License (BPOL) tax.  Many criticize the BPOL tax on gross revenues as an outdated and unfair burden on county businesses, whose removal would not only help existing county businesses, but could be marketed to provide a potentially powerful incentive for new businesses to locate in Prince William County. 

Thus far our leaders have been unwilling to eliminate BPOL, fearful of the loss in revenue.  If coupled with other appropriate steps, however, any pain is temporary, and should generate large dividends in subsequent years as the expansion of existing businesses and the arrival of new ones increase the commercial real estate tax base.

We also need to review our regulatory framework for businesses.  Where we deem regulations necessary, we need to make certain we staff government adequately to administer them, for few things are as frustrating to a business owner than doing everything they can to meet regulatory requirements and then having to wait weeks or even months, for approvals.

And we need to consistently reevaluate the suitability of areas in the county we designate for business use, for when we try to entice commercial businesses by marketing areas that are, in fact, unsuited for business, we lose credibility and instead of more businesses, more housing becomes the investor’s option of choice.

To improve our business climate, we also need to make substantial, targeted investments in our infrastructure, particularly our schools.  Local education is a major consideration when companies look to relocate, and the simple truth is that additional desirable businesses will not come to Prince William County when our teachers our underpaid, our schools are overcrowded, and public officials use a “crisis” in the schools as a political sound bite without taking meaningful steps to address the issue. 

Of course we need to appropriately match our land use and infrastructure decisions, but the problem is now far larger than simply slowing down development or generating savings to reduce class sizes by small increments.  Some growth is inevitable – we can promote it, manage it, acquiesce in it, or fight it, but it will occur nevertheless – and at the moment we are already the equivalent of approximately a dozen schools short of what we need. 

While we can and should debate what those new schools look like, we should not fool ourselves about the need to build them.  To address this we need to develop a long-term financing strategy that not only makes better use of existing facilities, but that also looks at using our available debt capacity to help pull ourselves out of the current hole.

Finally, we need to improve the political culture in Prince William County.  Existing businesses suffer, and new businesses shy away, when political disagreements devolve into toxic attacks, or members of our community find themselves vilified for political gain.  We should be looking for and electing leaders who strive to appeal to the very best in our nature, not our very worst.   

My belief, borne out by direct, practical experience as a Mayor, as a senior financial executive, as a small business owner, and as someone who is deeply engaged in our community through numerous nonprofit and civic organizations, is that government cannot and should not try to do everything.  Government does, however, have a responsibility to nurture the conditions under which responsible private enterprise can flourish. 

Earnie Porta served as Mayor of the Town of Occoquan from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2014, and is a candidate for the Occoquan seat on the Board of County Supervisors in 2015.