From a neighbor:
Help raise money for
by EATING PIZZA!! That’s right!
Here’s what you do:
Come to CiCi’s
7516 West Broad Street
on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10,
from 5-8 p.m.
and mention your school at the
register.(Tell your friends and family to do the same) Enjoy all the pizza you can eat!
CiCi’s will donate 15% of your net sales back to
your school. Raising money has never been easier!
So, bring a friend and enjoy all the pizza, pasta,
salad and dessert you want!
(Don’t forget that the meals tax is much smaller in Henrico County, since it does not have to support Center Stage.)
The 1/2% meals tax passed by the City Council for CenterStage was confiscated by Mayor Wilder and put into the general fund.
True, but now up to half a million comes straight out of the CIty annual budget goes to Center Stage.
Remember, from SaveRichmond.com:
The city’s meals tax rate remains one of the highest in the region.
This, despite assurances from City Council in 2003 that the rise in the meals tax would be a “temporary” hike. The money from this regressive tax — which disproporately affects low-to-middle income people — went to fund a performing arts foundation that used the money to fund a multi-million dollar hole in the ground. A city auditor later determined that city council basically wrote the private foundation a blank check, and did not adequately define how it could spend the people’s money.
This is also a tax that is paid by visitors and non residents allowing outsiders to help support everything from sidewalks to CenterStage. As a low to middle income person, most of my meals come from the refrigerator, but I’m glad to see upper income folks spending their disposable income up in the abundance of locally owned restaurants all over Richmond. Fortunately we don’t have any CiCi’s pizza inside the city limits.
Do you have anymore quotes from SaveRichmond?
We have covered this ground before-
http://www.vagreenparty.org/richblog/?p=18
If we are so fortunate, why do we have to rely on fundraisers at places like Cici’s Pizza outside the City limits for our schools?
Why do I have people coming up to me at restaurants, asking me if they are outside City limits to see if they can afford the meals tax on their sandwiches?
If the “upper income” folks are so willing to spend their disposable income, why does Center Stage need an annual public subsidy while our schools are still illegal under federal ADA law?
And while we are at it, why are we publicly subsidizing Center Stage, a PRIVATE entity, in the first place? Its not returning any of the over $25 million sunk into it already.
And yeah, I can quote sources besides SaveRichmond.com:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n47_v28/ai_15913812/
From Nation’s Restaurant News:
“To illustrate how serious the meal tax problem is, restaurants in Richmond gross an average $100,000 less annually than they do in the rest of the state,” the VHTIA’s Mitchell said.
The meal tax problem gets worse during the holiday season when restaurants are bidding for parties and banquets, noted Jack McNamee, operations director for The Tobacco Co., a high-grossing downtown Richmond concept.
“When you’ve got a group of 100 or 200 people, that meal tax becomes the deciding factor in the sale,” McNamee said.
Do you have anything more recent than a 15 year old restaurant industry trade article?
Since CS is receiving $500,000 in general fund money, the bulk of the tax collected must be going towards other things like two million dollar cement silos.
Virginia Beach is taking in approx $45 million a year from meals taxes. Richmond may be less, but if you want to repeal the tax be prepared to cut 20 or 30 million (maybe more) from the city budget. I’m glad that at least part of that is paid by non residents.
Source for VA Beach tax revenue.
Last time I checked, Richmond is not Va. Beach (and I probably would not want to live here if it was). Richmond will continue to collect less in meals tax money, and will still be a regressive tax on its own residents.
I would love to know more about Center Stage finances, but their crooked deal does not allow FOIA, despite the public subsidy, and despite the demands of citizens.
Let me know when all that tourist money starts paying for school renovations instead of the latest Broad Street ego palace. I hear the vultures are circling the Coliseum right now.
Of course you didn’t respond. Let’s say Richmond collects half what VB does, 22 mil. How would you replace that revenue in the city budget?
For starters, I would take back the millions in CIty and State taxpayer money that Center Stage has leeched off the City.
But the fact is that in this economic environment, RIchmond is going to have to deal with a substantially reduced City budget no matter what.
It might be better off by cutting regressive taxes and fees, letting downtown be downtown without all the corporate welfare, and investing in schools to draw new, productive residents and businesses.