Those fuckers keep reeling me in each year with their functional schools, emergency services who answer the phones, and tax rebates. Why I own a house in the city is getting harder to answer

They would do much better by investing that money in the community rather than buying everyone a case of beer with the credit. Political move.

I loose a little sleep every night knowing that if my house were about 100 yards to the north of where it is I'd be in Henrico instead of the city.

Currently a week behind on trash collection, and yet my property tax bill went up again from last year.....

I just wish Henrico was more walkable

It is getting very hard to defend how the city manages its finances. There is respect in staying and help solve the issues, but this has been going on for decades. At the heart of the cause is the "independent city" setup Virginia has. Then that is exasperated by poor management and corruption. No county is perfect, but next to each other, it's clear who is "better run". If you have the means + If or when you have children, the decision to stay is very hard.

Keeps me busy as a Realtor, happy to help anyone move. I wont judge your decision.

Holy fuck. Your case of beer costs 73.40?

>Political move

They are investing in the schools. I can say that with 100% certainity. There is always a debate on how much is enough but a well run county will only take what they need.

If they only increase taxes, there is no room for an increase when it's really needed.

That's for the people of Henrico to decide, and I guess the current leadership believes the people would rather have the money back.

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They are adding more sidewalks and bike lanes. Not enough, but more.

Yea really, pay teachers more

I agree. It sucks, but there’s we are at. I leave the city daily for the majority of my services. I only wish there were more neighborhoods in the Glen Allen HS area. There is a lot near Innsbrook but not my thing.

I like living in the city, it's worth it but I would love if city government went away and we became part of Henrico

But city government sucks because of the people that we vote for or don't vote for we are the ones that have to change it

I mean this tax credit is nice but it's almost nothing. It's not that enticing.

I miss the city. I live in Henrico and I have to drive to do anything. Not a fan.

Unlikely to happen but it is called "reverse annexation".

I believe this would be a radical but proper solution to this issues of the City. Return land to Henrico and Chesterfield, then give the remaining part of the city to Henrico.

Alternatively, the City could start to annex the County which was the normal progression till the 70's (I believe) when they took part of Chesterfield with a dubious purposes. They were blocked from taking more land in the future.

This system can't be frozen, it needs to expand or be disbanded. The worst case is what we have now.

It's not the amount of money. It's the whole attitude of "hey, guys who voted us in. We're managing your county so well that we don't need the extra funds brought in by crazy house prices so we're giving it back to you."

$73 or $173, neither is enough to make a significant difference to a household. But the aggregate for the county would make a big difference.

It's like getting a very small tax cut that you barely notice.

Its more the fact they can run things effectively with the money they get vs City of Richmond who is always looking to raise taxes and we get 2nd world country services.

We also have a 41% higher tax rate as it is to Henrico County so yeah this individual refund ain't much but that plus lower taxes plus better services. That adds up big time

This is the big thing holding us back.

Yep. It's a suburb though. Suburbs are always more car dependent and boring than a city.

Richmond should transfer ownership of Bryan Park to Henrico to free up some money to invest in their other parks. City park bathrooms are falling into disrepair around Fountain Lake, Forest Hill park, and I don't know if Gillie Creek Park has any facilities..

It’s possible to do both though? Henrico voters just overwhelmingly passed a massive bond measure to improve schools, emergency services, and other community services. The expenses for these projects are already paid for by existing taxes, so there’s no need to keep the extra tax revenue from juiced property values.

Out of curiosity what do you think is the best location in Henrico from this perspective? Looking at houses currently

It has a portapotty by the horsehoe pits.

Yeah that's a problem - portajohns are for concerts and construction sites

Just answering the question about Gillies. No opinion given.

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For a lower income family $73 is a nice family dinner that they otherwise couldn't afford.

Lakeside could be the play over the next 10 years.

Yeah, and Bryan park is being neglected by the city too.

Lakeside is GREAT. I can walk to a farmers market- ride my bike to another one- and I have restaurants, a brewery, a couple great dive bars, and Lewis Ginter within just a few minutes. I’ve also got great interstate access.

And you can sell your plasma there to help with the insane housing costs!

Yes, we’ve got that too! And sadly the parking lot is always super packed.

The "is this a CVS" switcheroo gets me every time.

We already have a pretty vibrant county, but thanks for your concern.

Seconding this, Lakeside is a pretty great transition from the city to the suburbs.

It’s an election year.

Love this thought and totally agree that we're worse off with things in a stalemate where nothing budges. Our system as designed would not have been created as-is had annexation been off the table. Returning the power to the city on the other hand would seem fraught with a lot of bad outcomes that wouldn't produce a net positive for the region.

Texas cities still rely on a certain level of interlocal agreement akin to Virginia's setup to provide/exchange services but they still differ in major ways that put more goodwill into the interlocal pot like independent school districts.

I've always thought a certain change with schools could be another way to increase the interlocal chemistry here too but that could very well prove too toxically controversial by itself.

While I've definitely imagined Henrico and Richmond somehow finding their way to a consolidated city-county configuration as a remedy to our situation I've never considered the potential of returning some of the annexed city and how that may play in the public discourse. Even if it were left up to a specially drawn district and stay or go were put to a vote it may offer an agreeable path to a Richmond City of Henrico County transition.

I could probably google it but what do local governments do with the extra revenue they got from our bloated property tax bills? I went from paying 2k to nearly 4k in under 2 years.

I wonder what the expense involved in these rebates is for the county offices involved. Sending out lots of small checks is a dubious use of limited resources in the mind of this former public servant.

So you'd rather both pay higher real estate taxes and get no rebate?

Yeah, that makes logical sense. You're getting hosed by Richmond City at both ends.

Edit: I'm always amazed when I edit a comment I just made on a 13 hour old comment and the butthurt OP has already down voted it within 30 seconds. Do you people just live on Reddit?

I live in Henrico. I'm just saying it's almost nothing. We pay for it in other ways like always having to drive places and little to do.

My bad

I send my trash and water payment to a third party payment processor. Maybe they handle fund disbursements as well.

Well for City of Richmond, Mayor Stoney got us a new REAL bumper sticker to replace the RVA ones, and I think they filled in a few potholes in Windsor Farms!

(/s)

Henrico will not hire me to teach in their schools as there's a teacher shortage. Yeah OK

For sure, I thought that went without saying. Last time I was there the bathrooms were locked with portajohns on the outside available. (no signs of construction activity though)

yeah. I don't think it will happen but would be great.

probably lakeside. Maybe the bit right by the shopping center in Tuckahoe off Forest.