I can’t understand a problem unless I am living it. That thought just struck me as I sat my phone down on a pile of bills totaling close to $30K. I have been trying and trying to get ahead of this problem, but every time I believe I am starting to make headwind something blows me back, and now the problem has arrived.
Virginia Beach has some of the highest property taxes in the country. It is crazy living here because I am not sure where all this money is going. There aren’t a lot of people that talk about the customer service of the government but it is dreadful. We are paying local, state, and federal taxes daily and do we know what the money is being spent on? We have a vague idea, but beyond that we don’t really know.
That tangent isn’t where the thought came from. I am sitting here looking at this pile of bills and of how I have arranged everything and I realized my problem with the problem was I didn’t have a full grasp of it until I was inside of it. Now that I can view it from all angles I have a better understanding of it.
With my mother in rehab this is also a month where we aren’t paying for her home health. That will help a little bit in getting these bills paid. I also now understand why my father was never in the best mode in May and December. That is when all these bills come due, and not to mention the property tax bill arrives right after regular tax season has ended. We just paid taxes and are immediately asked to do so again.
We are also getting hit with taxes in a season of adjustment. We are repositioning our assets and getting everything set up in a better position for the future. For my father Campbell Drive Properties wasn’t a business. It has an entity that held assets and my father acquired assets to keep them from annoying him.
That is why he bought the properties around Fuller and d’Albert and why he bought the lot behind and in front of the beach house. The fact that I know the provenance of every property we hold scares me at times, but it scares me worse when I try and trace it forward and it gets lost. Like it dropped from our history or money was shed at some point.
That isn’t important right now. What is is that I am inside of this problem. I see all angles, and I am starting to feel like I have a hold of it.
David Huzzard Writes 