Voices: A meals tax in Prince William doesn’t make sense for hurting families

Tim Parrish, Prince William County GOP Committee chairman, spoke to the Board of County Supervisors during its meeting on Feb. 16, 2021, and urged County Executive Christopher Martino to table talk of enacting a new meals tax that would be paid by people who dine at county restaurants.

I’m here tonight to talk about this tax proposal coming down the pipeline.

I would certainly like to put this in your minds to not support a tax increase. We dealt with this last year. I was the young black guy on the camera who said, “smack dab in the middle of a pandemic; you’re going to raise taxes.”

It’s been veiled as a property assessment increase. I got it. It’s a tax. But the meals tax is what is really perplexing to me.

From this Dias, we’ve heard about food deserts, and we’ve heard about food insecurity, and it makes me wonder how in the world could you say people lack this thing, food and/or meals, and implement a meals tax at 4%.

Mr. [Christopher Martino, Prince William County Executive], I get it. You’re one of the highest-paid people in the county. You make five hundred times more than the median income in the county.

So I can understand why you would, first thing, go to a meals tax on this. I’m a business person. I understand that.

But it doesn’t make sense for the people who live in this county who, in reality, are hurting that can’t figure out how to pay their bills. I remind you about the global pandemic, and I think the prevailing question is, where is this money going. You can’t tell me it’s going to the schools, because the schools are closed. And you can’t tell me that it’s going to [expand] the courthouse because that would be asinine. In the middle of the pandemic, the last thing people care about is expanding the courthouse to make it bigger.

And please, for the love of God, don’t tell the people of Prince William County it’s going to build parks and [recreation], to build a new boat ramp because people are sitting at home right now trying to figure out how to feed their kids, they don’t give a flying flip right now about a new boat ramp, or a new park, or trails, or any of that.

They want to know how to feed their kids, and so, 10% of a meals tax, when we talk about food insecurity, is a bit ridiculous. So, I would ask [Martino] go back with your staff and figure out a way to fund all of these programs, present something different to the board.

There’s a lot of smart people up here that would entertain another way instead of imposing a new tax on people in this county.

If approved by the Board of County Supervisors either this spring or next, Martino’s new tax could take effect on July 1, 2022. The tax, expected to generate $24.5 million to hire more county government employees, and to fund schools, would come as part of a $1.4 billion budget for the fiscal year 2023.

The lack of the tax has been credited with the explosion of restaurants the county has been, especially at Potomac Mills mall, over the past 30 years.