Capital gains are taxed as income payable only upon the sale of real property. Income is a much better measurement of wealth in today's economy. It has been my experience in managing rural local governments that it is very difficult to raise local revenue. In my memory, I have never experienced the joy of recommending the reduction of locally imposed taxes. Economic growth rarely pays the costs of a reassessment in rural Virginia.
Inflation is reassessments best accomplice in rural Virginia, if increased revenue is needed.
On a closing note, the 2000 session of the Virginia General Assembly created an eighteen member, eighteen month Rural Prosperity Study Commission. Hopefully, that Commission, in combination with the legislative adoption of the recommendations of this Commission, will return economic vitality, opportunity, and long-term economic viability to rural Virginia.