Opponents of the cigarette tax increase made their presence known with "NO MORE TAXES!" shirts. (Photo by Sarah King)
Monday’s Richmond City Council meeting stretched toward midnight, so heavily attended that security officers stopped allowing members of the public into the chambers just 20 minutes after its 6 p.m. start.
Filling almost half of the room’s seats were residents donning red T-shirts reading "NO MORE TAXES!" on behalf of Philip Morris USA as the council prepared to hear public comment and vote on a proposal by 5th District councilman Parker Agelasto to increase the city’s currently nonexistent cigarette tax to 80 cents per pack.
The proposed tax, which failed on a 6-3 vote, would have generated an additional $5.3 million in revenue for repairs to the city’s 44 schools, which the School Board says will require $31 million. Mayor Levar Stoney’s budget proposes $1.56 million for school building maintenance; in February, the 1.5 percent meals tax increase passed on the premise of providing an additional $9 million a year to borrow a total of $150 million for schools construction.
“Feb. 12 we voted for the meals tax,” Agelasto said as the council prepared to vote and it was apparent the votes were not going to swing in favor of the new tax. “That same evening, the proposed cigarette tax was introduced — that's two and a half months ago ... nearly one quarter of the year has gone by, [and] the schools budget will be adopted within three weeks [and] there will be no additional maintenance money, there will be no additional operational money.”
More than 60 people participated in public comment, and the School Board canceled its regularly scheduled meeting for the council vote (although initially only three of the nine representatives were present alongside Superintendent Jason Kamras).
Supporters of the cigarette tax advocated for another source of revenue for schools. (Photo by Sarah King)
Agelasto was quick to add that the latter conditions are despite a roughly 5 percent increase to the overall budget compared to last year, after taking out for one-time spending, and the capital budget also grew substantially, “but, I’m sorry — schools, tonight, for this elected body, is not rising to the top priority of the city of Richmond; that's the message you'll be hearing shortly by a cast of votes.”
Indeed, the proposal failed. Backing up Agelasto — who admitted shedding tears earlier in the evening, seemingly out of frustration — were 3rd and 4th District representatives Chris Hilbert and Kristen Larson.
Other council members — many of whom favored the meals tax in February — stated their opposition to a cigarette tax, citing a slew of concerns ranging from an increase in tobacco costs creating a back door for illegal cigarette sales to consumers shifting purchases to the counties, which under state law cannot impose such a tax; detriment to small business owners, particularly those already affected by the meals tax that will take effect in July; and the charitable contributions of the tobacco industry.
Richmond is the only major city in the state that does not levy a cigarette tax, and is consistently ranked one of the worst states in the country for asthma in the last decade.
“I know some of you questioned about Philip Morris giving some of us council members a donation — yes, I got a donation, said 8th District councilwoman Reva Trammell, who is also the longest-serving member and represents the district where the company is located. “I was proud to get the donation, and let me say this: the mayor … got $25,000 … damn, that's a lot of money.”
Trammell also cited “all the things Philip Morris has done for the community,” including the 4,000 jobs the company creates for residents in her district and across the city, as well as more than $14.3 million in donations to more than 100 nonprofits.
“I know that they've helped where there's been rebuilding, where seniors in my district didn't have a roof on their homes, they didn't have heat — they came over there and volunteered hundreds of hours to help them,” Trammell said. “Would you still consider taking money from Philip Morris with all the stuff they give to you all? To the schools? To communities? I bet you wouldn't turn it down.”
According to the VIrginia Public Access Project, Stoney did receive a $25,000 donation from Altria Group — the parent company of Philip Morris USA — in January 2017. Former Mayor Dwight Jones received more than $18,000 from the company from 2008 to 2012, according to VPAP.
Other council members who received similar donations include: $500 each to 9th District representative Michael Jones, 1st District representative Andreas Addison and 2nd District representative Kim Gray — all of whom voted against Monday night’s proposal — as well as $2,000 to Trammell and 6th District representative Ellen Robertson in 2016.
Addison, who acknowledged the detrimental health effects of tobacco products, particularly on low-income households, still voted against the proposal, citing “the economic status of how this plan would work.” Addison, at the same meeting, requested more than $300 in reimbursement from Council funds for a SurveyMonkey subscription, in addition to requests for reimbursement for several months of leased office space.
Agelasto struck back in defense of his plan.
“I've got a Dale Carnegie quote: ‘Inaction breeds doubt and fear; action breeds confidence and courage,’ ” he said. “This council during this budget deliberation decided 'OK, we want to give $1.6 million to renovate an additional green space at the RMA plaza that is across the street from Kanawha Plaza that we just renovated,” he said before shifting into a mocking tone: “ ‘Oh, my God, $1.6 million for more green space in downtown corporate area’ — great, that sounds wonderful; I couldn't imagine prioritizing that over schools.”
He then rattled off a few more line items:
- $500,000 for a carport for ambulances, “because they're assets that need to be protected — a carport.”
- $600,000, additionally, to maintain the Coliseum. “Last I heard, there's a proposal [to redevelop that].”$8 million [in the budget] for Stone Brewing to build a bistro, “that they've now said they want to reduce the size of it by a third and possibly not even bring the full amount of jobs we would expect.”
- And a refinanced $8.5 million for the Redskins training camp instead of selling the facility.
“I'm being very honest here, Richmond Public Schools is truly what is holding the city back from being a great city,” Agelasto said, explaining that his wife, a kindergarten teacher in some of the city’s lowest-income public schools, would begin the day by telling her students that her No. 1 priority is "to keep you safe."
“Kids don't feel safe in schools, whether it's gun violence or whether it's the decrepit condition, cockroaches and mice, whatever you want to say, it's not an adequate place for them,” Agelasto said. “My colleagues will do what they feel they need to do, but voting on this is the right thing to do; getting the full plan was the right thing to do, but frankly, inaction has created doubt and fear — in me — because I don't know when this body will step toward action; where is the leadership coming from?”
After the vote during another round of public comment, Adult Alternative Program CEO Kenneth Williams made a plea with Council to allow his program to help with the state of the city’s schools. He cited an example of what his students are capable of:
“The roof was leaking, I mean, [when] we got into that building we had live maggots on the floor, human waste, mice, plumbing pipes were leaking — but from April to September, eight of us contractors, along with Lowe's and Home Depot, we made it happen,” Williams said in regard to maintaining classes despite decrepit facility conditions. “In September, we opened classes; three months later, we were graduating 14 men and four women — six of those are actually employed as contractors.”
Williams said there’s no shortage of interest, either; from the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority alone, the program has more than 100 interested participants.
“We are the only organization in the whole city who is evidence-based, We've done it,” Williams said. “If you haven't taken time to look at the new school building, we have before and after pictures, and our invitation to you is to allow us to come into collaboration with the City Council — we want to get into doing the maintenance in the schools; that would eliminate a lot of your problems.”
