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Loudoun County (web | news) , Va. - Loudoun County voters have to decide to support or reject a 4% meals tax, with all of the money raised going toward school construction, but restaurant owners say the tax will only hurt business.

Emil Azar is the longtime owner of Emilio's Brick Oven Pizza in Sterling. He says business just hasn't been the same the past few months and he's concerned that support for a 4% meals tax could keep his customers away. "If they used to go once a week, now they probably once every two weeks."

Azar says it's hard enough keeping up with the high cost of food and says the tax would only hurt small business owners. "All the distributors are raising their prices, ABC, wine companies, beer company, everything, on top of that imagine four percent. It adds up."

But the Board of Supervisors says this is a small price to pay to raise money for schools while reducing the tax burden on homeowners. "Majority of our tax revenues come from homeowners property tax and our biggest expenditures goes to schools. 70 percent of our operating budget each year and 80 percent of our long term debt is for building of schools," said Jim Burton, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Burton says the county built 40 new schools since 1993 and each building is being paid for through a bond. In 2008, the bond payments add up to more than $160 million and Burton says the debt continues to grow, so there's a great need to address this problem. "The bill has to be paid. We've taken out the loans, we have built the schools and we have payments of 20 years on each of the schools and we're continuing to build new schools."

"It's a huge problem. We have to build two or three schools in Loudoun County. We have to acquire the land for the schools. We have to renovate our older schools to keep up with it. This money would be dedicated toward all of those capital needs," said Robert DuPree, Loudoun School Board Chairman.

The meals tax is expected to generate $13 million annually for school construction. "That's about half of an elementary school including all the furnishings for that elementary school," said DuPree.

Some say the county is making the right decision. "It's for the kids and it's promoting education," said one resident.

But others don't believe the restaurant industry should be singled out. "The tax would help the government, but hurt the small businessman and hurt the individuals trying to go out for a meal," said opponent Doug Kramer.

Four towns in Loudoun County currently have a meals tax, but are exempt from the referendum. Nils Schnibe, manager at a Leesburg sandwich shop, says he's always had a tax, but business hasn't suffered. "Maybe the people are used to it already. So we have to charge it, and so far, nobody complained."

The meals tax referendum isn't new for Loudoun County. In fact, residents had a chance to vote for it 2 times in the 1990's, but it failed each time.

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