At last night's Richmond City Council meeting, I had placed on the agenda a discussion of how the City of Richmond might adjust the utility user's tax in order to temporarily reduce the tax or return windfall revenue to the taxpayers to reflect the recent substantial increases in gas and electricity costs. 

Apparently, the City Council did not want to discuss it. Six members (Griffin, Belcher, Bell, Anderson, Penn and Bates) voted to table the motion, meaning there would be no discussion or debate at all and that I could not raise the matter again. The issue will remain dead until one of the council members who voted to table it decides to bring it up. 

The same motion supported by the same six council members also tabled the matter of placing on the ballot the issue of a special exemption in the utility user's tax for Chevron so that the voters could decide whether Chevron would pay the same tax rate as the other taxpayers of Richmond. Apparently, a majority of the City Council feels the voters should not have that opportunity.