I am writing in reference to the Southampton County budget.

We must look at the time in history in which we now find ourselves. The recession we are experiencing locally is the severest recession since the Great Depression.

Most households are cutting back and struggling to meet personal needs. With the closing of International Paper and one of Smithfield Food’s plants, we find ourselves in a position worse than many neighboring jurisdictions.

Suffolk, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth have announced draft budgets with cuts to prevent raising real estate taxes. Some jurisdictions have new assessments with 6 to 7 percent decreases in the assessed value of residential property without proposed increases in their real estate tax rate.

I would like to point out for comparative purposes that the County of Surry has a real estate tax rate of 70 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value with a personal property tax rate of only $3.50 per hundred dollars and Sussex County has a real estate tax rate of 54 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value with a personal property tax rate of $4.85 per hundred dollars.

To our east Isle of Wight County has a real estate tax rate of 52 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value and a personal property tax rate of $4.40 per hundred dollars of assessed value.

Southampton County presently has a real estate tax rate of 72 cents per hundred dollars of assessed value, a tax rate higher than all of our surrounding counties. Southampton’s personal property tax rate of $4.50 is only surpassed by Sussex County with a personal property rate of $4.85.

Isle of Wight County also had land-use taxation. With agriculture being the economic backbone of our county, we need to continue our land use program to have a viable agricultural economy. For many years farmers have sold road frontage from their farms for building lots when they were in need of additional income.

Farmers can no longer sell an acre or two to help them meet their operational expenses. Southampton County’s planning process and goal of continuing to maintain agriculture and forestry as an important part of the plan incorporated new restrictions on subdividing land in the agricultural zone and land use taxation for tracts of land zoned for agriculture and forestry purposes.

With agriculture and forestry being the economic engine that drives Southampton County the board must look to agriculture and forestry to lead our recovery from this recession. Adding additional taxes to farmers will prolong our recovery.

It is only reasonable to compare Southampton County with other agricultural counties in our area.

Considering the tough economic times that exist today, any consideration to raising our real estate tax rate or personal property tax rate would be a mistake and only have the effect of prolonging the recovery from the economic recession. The only option that I can suggest is to cut each department’s and agency’s budgets by an additional prorated share.

Southampton County will hold a public hearing on the budget on May 17 at 7 p.m.