P. E. Supervisor Gantt is Unable to Convince Board to Lower Airplane Tax Rate

By Wilkie Chaffin, Southside Messenger Staff
Prince Edward County Supervisors held a particularly long regular Board meeting on September 10, 2013.  Much of the time was spent on the topic of having a lower personal property tax rate for airplanes ($.50 per $100 of the value of the property) than for other personal property ($4.50 per $100 of value.)  There were two public hearings related to this airplane tax question.  The first public hearing was about whether to change Chapter 70 (Taxation) of the Prince Edward County Code to allow different tax rates for different classifications of personal property in the county.  The citizen speakers did not directly comment on this question, and this Code change passed.  The second public hearing was whether to define airplanes as a separate classification of personal property and to set the personal property tax rate at 50¢ per hundred dollars of the wholesale value of the airplane.  At the present time, there are three classifications of tangible personal property:  Motor Vehicles, Business Furniture & Fixtures, and Heavy Equipment.  All of these classifications are taxed at a rate of $4.50 per $100, including airplanes, which are considered to be motor vehicles.  Supervisor Don Gantt was the primary Board proponent of the change to lower the airplane rate, arguing that Prince Edward is much higher than most localities, including Cumberland, which has the 50¢ per $100 rate.  Several times he mentioned the fact that the Prince Edward rate is nine times as high as the Cumberland rate.  The Farmville Airport is located in Cumberland County.

There were more citizens who spoke against the rate reduction than spoke in favor of it, although the total number of speakers was not large.  The opponents of the change generally argued that it was unfair for car, boat, motor home, etc., owners to pay nine times the tax rate that would be paid on an airplane of the same value.  One proponent of the change, who did not own an airplane, said that lowering the rate would be an important economic incentive for businesses to be developed in, or move to, Prince Edward County.  Supervisor Pattie Cooper-Jones suggested that if this change were made, then owners of boats or other types of motor vehicles might be encouraged to ask for a similar reduction.

The Board discussion of this question did not flow smoothly.  For example, Supervisor Pete Campbell questioned whether this change could be made since the proposed tax rate, 50¢, was not given in the newspaper advertisement for the public hearing.  The discussion was halted at that point while an attempt was made to find a copy of the newspaper ad.  County Attorney Jim Ennis later said that this question did not matter, since the newspaper ad referred to the County website where the 50¢ rate was mentioned.  Then the question was raised about a policy to lower the assessment values for airplanes.  Both Mr. Ennis and Commissioner of Revenue Beverly Booth suggested that Supervisors did not have that authority.  At this point, Mr. Gantt suggested that the assessment procedure might remain at 100% of wholesale value, with the existing tax rate of $4.50, but that Prince Edward tax airplane owners on less than the assessed value.  In particular, he suggested that a plane less than ten years old be taxed on the full value of the plane, while a plane more than ten years old be taxed on 20% of the new plane value.  There are other localities which use this type of approach.  This would be equivalent to a $4.50 tax rate for the first ten years and a $.90 tax rate after that (.20 times $4.50).    Both County Administrator Wade Bartlett and County Attorney Ennis recommended that the Board not take any action on this question until there was time for further research on the matter.  Mr. Gantt was not convinced that a delay was needed.  About this time, Supervisor Howard Simpson made a motion to table the matter until the time of the preparation of the next County Budget.  Mr. Gantt made a substitute motion to table the question for only 30 days.  Both motions failed on votes of four in favor and four against.  [On a tie vote, a motion fails.]  Then Mr. Gantt made a motion to advertise for a new public hearing on whether to tax airplanes on the Blue Book wholesale value at a rate of 90¢ per $100 value.  After a short discussion, Mr. Gant apparently withdrew this motion.  Next, Mr. Gantt made a motion to set the rate at 50¢.  This corresponds to the same suggested change in the ordinance for which the second public hearing had been held.  This motion also failed by a vote of four to four.

At the present time, there are three planes housed in Prince Edward County.  There are no Prince Edward landing strips that are asphalt covered, but there are a number of grass strips.  The two longest grass strips are in the Abilene Community and in the Leigh District.  Taildragger airplanes, which have a small wheel under the tail of the plane, are well suited for landing on grass.  Airplanes with tricycle gear have one wheel in front and two wheels near the center of the plane.  These are more suited for landing on asphalt strips.  At the present time, the change in airplane tax rate in Prince Edward would have little or no impact on owners of tricycle gear planes, including Mr. Gant, because of the lack of asphalt strips in the County.