Henrico County residents voted in favor of the meals tax on Election Day.
The new meals tax will add four percent to the already five percent tax. The tax will be added on prepared foods, such as meals from restaurants and hot foods from grocery stores.
Students need to understand the meals tax and how it will affect them.
The meals tax is estimated to bring in $18 million next year, which would go towards Henrico County Public Schools. About 40 percent or $7.2 million of the revenue from this tax is expected to come from non-residents of Henrico County. If the meals tax had not passed, Henrico County would have needed to raise the real estate tax by six cents for each dollar. Only residents of Henrico County would have been affected by this increase.
Many school administrators and teachers favor the meals tax because every county school will benefit from a new source of revenue.
The budget for Henrico County schools increased $21 million from the 2013-14 school year to the 2014-15 school year. This increase is unavoidable, and Henrico County must bring in more money to cover the needs of education. HCPS already receives 55 percent of the budget each year.
A meals tax is already added to the cost of prepared foods in the City of Richmond and in New Kent County. Henrico will now join their ranks.
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