Car Tax Bills But No Rebates; White Tooth Diplomacy & Communication; & Credit Card Clean Up

RVA 5x5 - May 2, 2025

No algorithms. No content filters. No A.I. — Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

Today’s issue has a look at:

• You will be getting your car tax bill in the mail this week (or soon) but no one knows if or when the real estate rebate checks will go out.

• The city flooded the water system with flouride last week and didn’t tell anyone for almost five days; the state called the counties before we did. What does City Hall not get about communicating?

• On a positive note, after an article revealing more credit card abuse at City Hall, the mayor makes a strong move to rein in the problem.

STORY #1 — Car Tax Bills But No Rebates
It is a sad irony that the same week Richmonders’ personal property tax bills are hitting mailboxes right on time without issue, news reports revealed that the real estate rebate checks (worth about $150 for a property worth the average of $366,000) — that were supposed to be mailed in February — are now lost in the ether after the latest screw up, and there is no indication when they will be processed or mailed. But pay that car tax by June 5th or get hit with a penalty and interest!

Questions had been swirling in recent weeks about the rebate checks after the news in late March that a major process error occurred and the Finance Department had to cancel the checks because more than 8,300 of them were sent out to different addresses but the payee was the same. At a Council meeting Monday afternoon, Interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Sabrina Joy-Hogg told Council that Finance was still looking into it.

“They’re doing their due diligence now on all of that,” Joy-Hogg said, according to Graham Moomaw at the Richmonder. But later on Monday, just after the Mayor pushed for and Council approved large, arbitrary, non-merit based raises for top City Hall officials, it was suddenly revealed the problem was a little bigger than just, “we’re looking into it.”

Finance incorrectly canceled some of the checks that were written correctly, some of which bounced when property owners tried to cash them (with those wonderful corresponding bank fees, which the city says they will reimburse (good luck with that paperwork)). It was also revealed that some checks were sent to people who bought their house in 2024 (and were thus ineligible if they had not paid taxes on it), and 156 checks were sent to addresses that do not exist.

Beam me up, Scotty.

It seems apparent that Jamie Atkinson, who had been hired by the Stoney administration in October as director of revenue, was brought on to take the fall for the next Finance office screw up, which every one knew was just a matter of time — and this was it. She resigned almost two weeks ago.

Last September, Finance Director Sheila White told Council at a public meeting that she had made so much progress with the department that if she left it would all fall apart. White warned that replacing her would lead to further disruption. She said, “We’ve gone more than a decade without stability in the department. Is more change really the answer? Putting in a new finance director will more certainly disrupt the work in progress and