…don’t bother.  They’re here!

A fortnightly rant, FL-S style…with a h/t each to “Big Eyes the Klown,” Stephen Sondheim, and the late Larry Harmon, once known to kiddies across the U.S. as “Bozo”.  Harmon died yesterday at the age of 83:

My best friend’s dad is a Klown.

No, really…

His dad is a Shriner Klown, you know, the folks who maniacally drive those little convertible cars in circles and figure 8s along the Fourth of July parade route.

The house where my best friend grew up was like being backstage at the circus. Sprawled across the dining room table: rainbow wigs. Along the perimeter of the bathroom sink: tins of clown-white makeup. On the floor by the foot of the stairs: clown shoes.  And, someplace in plain sight: his dad’s trademark BIG EYES sunglasses.

Throughout his many years of klowning, Big Eyes has done “mitzvah” work, most notably providing a moment of joy to sick kids in hospital fighting very adult diseases like leukemia.     

But it is on days like today, the Fourth of July - when the residents of some Connecticut town or city line up their beach chairs along the main thoroughfare and see Big Eyes and the rest of the Klowns from Pyramid Shriners #9 on parade - that I really think of his dad, and smile.

And that’s what Klowns are for. To make us forget our worries.

But, I tell ya, we really could have used Big Eyes, Blinkie, Dizzy, and the rest of the crew this week to liven up some really sour acts in our political three-ring circus.

First, to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chambers, the site Tuesday night of a contentious (that’s being kind) public hearing and vote on the Business Professessional Occupational License (BPOL).  Passions flared as hundreds of local business owners, squared off against a goodly number of BPOL proponents, vented their spleens over the impending passage of BPOL.  There were so many people there to address the Board in public session that we hear the actual vote to accept BPOL didn’t happen until after 3AM.

While I wasn’t there, I do hear from several people that at least one public speaker was threatened with removal from the chambers.

What is this?  South Korean Parliament?

The proponents will tell you that BPOL was intended, among other things, to stabilize the wild year-to-year fluctuations in Stafford County’s revenue stream and make sure that there would always be enough money in the annual budget for schools, public safety, and other requirements.  We were told that its passage would end the yearly bickering over school funding.

Yet, we now hear the resulting package - negotiated on, then voted in 4-3 by the seven bleary-eyed board members - earmarks all of the revenue from BPOL for transportation improvement.  From the FL-S:

The entire board, however, agreed that revenue generated by BPOL will be used to upgrade county roads and help pay the debt service on a potential transportation bond.

So much for stabilizing school-funding.

It would appear that in their zeal to pass this thing, the members in approval gave the dissenters exactly what they wanted.  And, mark your calendars: next year’s public hearing on setting the FY 2010 assessment should be a circus!  So, too, should the races for BOS in Aquia, Falmouth, and Hartwood Districts.

Then, a candidate for Congress “suspends” his campaign.

When, Dr. Keith Hummel approached the powers that be that he wanted to run for Congress, he admitted to all the key-influencers and decision-makers that he had once gone through personal bankruptcy reorganization. 

It seemed innocous enough.  And, who among us hasn’t known someone that had gone through the hardest, and most-embarrassing, of financial situations?  Very few, I’d guess.

Many accepted that notion that perhaps there was only one bankruptcy filing.  One person I know, and respect very much, was in a public setting where Dr. Hummel spoke.  She said (he) ”lied to all of us.  In public session, he stated there was one bankruptcy.  One not, THREE!”

After the nomination, the questions about Dr. Hummel started bubbling up.  And, sure enough, an easy-to-run public records search spit out not just one bankruptcy filing in the Eastern District, but three.  And the list of past creditors was long, very long.  Pages long.

Was Dr. Hummel forthright in discussing his financial history?  Not being part of the formal process, I cannot say.  Unlike my friend, I was not in the room.  That said, my friend is an honest broker.  I have no reason to disbelieve her account.

I do know this much.  The machinery to vet and nominate a First District Congressional candidate broke and needs to be fixed.   Questions that should have been asked by the nominating committee, due diligence that should have been done by them, were not.  Information provided may not have been given truthfully, or vetted completely.

The Hummel campaign suspended operations.  And I speak for many that believe Dr. Hummel should do now the right thing and formally withdraw from the race.  Doing so would would clear the way for a replacement candidate to come forward.

Then, we need to take a really good look at how all this happened and do everything possible to assure ourselves and the public, that this will never happen again.

Politics should be fun, especially on the Fourth of July.  But in the end, it is and should remain serious business.

As goes the waste from Culpeper Schools one waster at a time, so should go the Spotsylvania School System…. except that Jerry Hill’s contract that he strongarmed his board into giving him has more than double the benefits every year and  about double the salary. 

Yes folks, Spotsylvania County pays its school superintendent with YOUR TAX MONEY more than $260,000 per year (including benefits, car, tax sheltered annutiy and more).

Education should always be funded with priority.  Teachers should always be paid what they’re worth.  Waste should always be cut from the top down.  Bonuses, if any, should ALWAYS be merit based.  HUGE salaries simply shouldn’t exist in public education.  They aren’t needed!

A family of five could live in the biggest house in the county on one income and eat our 4 nights per week on a ‘mere’ $175,000 salary. But Hill rakes in $260,000!  What in the world does a person do with that kind of cash from a public till? 

Is this what you intend to be done with your hard earned money when you pay your property taxes every year??  Is that education funding as it is advertised?  Are the children suffering when Mr. Hill doesn’t get the school budget passed or is he personally (I’d like to suffer in his league for a vacation)?

But on the other hand, he is but one salary that tops $120K in the county school system.  Do you know how many others there are? 

You might be surprised to learn just how many people are slurping from the breast of your paycheck, your commute stress, your missed soccer games due to work, and your dual income family budget that just never seems to be enough to catch up from. 

There’s a very simple economic reason for that:  each and every year, the slacking school system(s) (NOT the teachers as a group, but the SYSTEM as a whole) is asking for 15-20% more money.  Your family doesn’t make 15-20% more money so you don’t pay 15-20% more in taxes to pay for it.  It’s really THAT SIMPLE! 

Culpeper is apparently just begining to wake up to the concept.  Spotsy should too, then Stafford, then King George, then Caroline….

from the FLS today:

 

Culpeper removes schools chief
David Cox is out as superintendent of Culpeper County’s public schools.

School Board Chairman George Dasher made the announcement last night during the School Board’s annual summer retreat at Graves Mountain Lodge.

Dasher said that Cox, 46, will take a one-year sabbatical–effective immediately–during which he will do unspecified consulting work for the School Board. After June 30 of next year, he will resign.

While no official action was taken until last night, sources said that last week, following his yearly evaluation, Cox was told there were enough votes to remove him unless he resigned.

It is unclear why the superintendent fell out of favor with the board.

Under a negotiated agreement, Dasher said, the School Board will pay the superintendent his full salary plus benefits next year and for the remaining two years of his four-year contract, unless Cox takes another job before June 30, 2011.

Cox’s $130,000-plus yearly salary and an annual 12 percent tax-sheltered annuity could add up to almost a half-million dollars at a time when the school system is so strapped that teachers got no raises this year. Cox’s contract has no buyout clause.                               READ MORE…

The tax-hiking crew on the Board of Supervisors (including mine - Gary Skinner) are calling for a gas-tax hike, cleverly disguised as “VRE participation” (Free Lance-Star):

Spotsylvania County supervisors may vote on joining Virginia Railway Express by the end of the summer.

Supervisors Benjamin Pitts and Gary Skinner, who made joining the rail service a centerpiece of their campaigns last year, said this week that they are laying the groundwork for a VRE vote. Supervisor Hap Connors also supports VRE.

They need one more vote.

. . .

To join VRE, a locality must enact a 2 percent gasoline tax. After the locality pays its share of VRE operations, the leftover funds can be used on local transportation projects.

. . .

Now that gasoline has hit $4 a gallon, the sales pitch won’t be any easier.

I’ll say; 2% translates to an extra 8 cents a gallon!

Now, putting aside the question of the gas tax as a valid user fee (I’m not so sold on that), but the deeper question is this: what benefit will “joining” the VRE bring Spotsylvania.

A new station?  I doubt it.  Existing rail lines would make force a new station to be built in the extreme eastern part of the county - either along Route 2 (Tidewater Trail) or Benchmark Road.  As one of the very few Spotsylvanians who actually use the VRE, I can attest that these locations would add zero value to the users.  Unless one lives on Benchmark or Tidewater Trail themselves, the Fredericksburg station is just as close (if not closer).  So in order to the station to have enough customers to justify its existence, it would have to be outside the Primary Settlement District - i.e., in the central or western part of the county - the very place where resistance to development is strongest.  The Civil War preservationists, local environmentalists, and others who prefer the ruralia of the western part of the county have been a near-unbeatable phalanx against any kind of major development outside the PSD.  Does anyone seriously think they’ll accept railroad tracks, a commuter station, and the massive parking lots that go with it?  As John McEnroe would say, “You cannot be serious!”

So if a VRE station is simply a pipe dream, what we’re really contemplating here is another cash grab for “transportation.”  Never mind the $144 million in bonds approved in 2005, or the $2 million-plus in the Transportation “reserve fund” that seems to vanish every year for no reason.  Skinner, Pitts, and Connors want more, and with one more vote, they’ll get it.

Oddly enough, that’s the good news.  The other two “independents” won’t listen to the mob this time:

The two rural supervisors, Emmitt Marshall and T.C. Waddy, say there is nothing that will convince them that joining VRE is a good idea.

So it’s up to the Republican Supervisors (Jerry Logan and Gary Jackson).  If they are as firm on this as they were on the local budget, we’ll be spared this unnecessary tax hike.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal

After whining for months about being cash-strapped, the Spotsylvania School Board is considering a venture that ordinary, budget-conscious people would never even contemplate (Free Lance-Star, emphasis added):

The Spotsylvania County School Board is considering allowing children of full-time employees who live out of the district to attend county schools tuition-free.

“We do see that this policy would be great for retention of our employees,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Brenda Seals said at last night’s School Board meeting.

Current policy requires students who aren’t Spotsylvania residents to pay tuition of roughly $2,000 a year.

Are you kidding me?

The reason non-residents pay tuition is because they don’t pay taxes here.  Thus, the tuition is their user fee.  While school system employees provide an obvious service (well, usually obvious), they’re compensated for it with their salary.  That’s the way the market works - even the market for public employees.  For the school system to even consider a fringe benefit like this after demanding a tax increase that whacked nearly $200 million from county property values is beyond mind-boggling; it’s outright offensive to the taxpayers of the county.

If the school system is having such a hard time getting and keeping employees, perhaps they should consider attriting the jobs in question and save the taxpayer some money, for once.

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 Tuesday to hold a public hearing about implementing the Business, Professional, and Occupational License Tax; aka BPOL Tax.

The board will consider charging half of the maximum rate allowed by state law during a public hearing July 1. When would you presume the second half will be added?  Is this the spoonful of sugar along with the arsenic we’re supposed to say ‘thank you’ for giving us? Should we expect a press release from the Democrats who support this saying, “We cut your taxes in half”?

BPOL is a new tax to Stafford on businesses’ gross receipts. The counties of Spotsylvania, Prince William, and the City of Fredericksburg charge the tax at various levels of maximum allowances.  The Dillon Rules that Virginia is governed by already allow localities to charge this optional tax. Counties who have lived within their means do not charge this tax. Counties who have mismanaged their income and not planned for rainy days or over-promised socialized government services wthout the means to fund them, do charge these taxes as means of sustaining the bureaucracy.

BPOL supporters say it’s a revenue source that residents are ‘missing out on’. Advocates use the cowardly human student/children shield again by saying it will help ‘fully fund schools’. That’s code-speak for ‘we demand more go toward a system of wasteful management without transparent accountability or else we’re going to do less for your babies, even though you gave us more each year than the previous, it’s still not enough, there is so much more we could squander of your money still!’

The county budget ‘income’ is indeed declining due to sales and real estate tax revenue reductions during this near-depression we’re currently in.  Leaders are faced with either raising tax ‘rates’, raising tax ‘values/assessments’ of property, or finding something else to tax you for in order to keep the same cash dollars coming in to the county.

It’s simply a socialist-government way to think that you are entitled to money that you didn’t earn and have no way of repaying. The United States taxing system was NEVER intended to fund what it funds today.

We have to work MORE THAN HALF THE YEAR for OUR GOVERNMENT right now!!!

If we all signed the back of our paychecks over to the government right now, would he have everything we ever wanted? Democratic thinking says YES. Republican thinking says YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME.

Let me repeat myself: The United States taxing system was NEVER intended to fund what it funds today. Somewhere along the line we lost sight of the role of government in America. This is BOTH the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to blame ESPECIALLY the federal ones. The system is broken because the people IN the system don’t understand it or the Constitution when they make laws. Professional ‘BEGGARS’ (ie: wasteful bureaucrats) line up to exploit these weaknesses and get their pork-barrel projects funded on some coattail of a bill we do want.

The waste process beings, and the financial demands on YOUR pocketbook trickles down to the states (to fund federal projects like wars, international space stations, and funding overthrows of other governments, or just bad trade deals with countries that do little for us but take our money), and from the state to the counties (to fund state projects like bridges, Medicaid, unecessary school projects, roads to nowhere, tax subsidies to big businesses that in turn outsource jobs to India), and from local to YOU directly now (via property taxes, BPOL taxes, county decals, user fees, and again school funding of different line items).

I’ll repeat myself once again: We have to work MORE THAN HALF THE YEAR for OUR GOVERNMENT right now!!!

Businesses currently pay about a dozen taxes just to operate, not including all the fees, permits and tariffs just to get open in the first place.  Indeed, business pay more than their fair share already.  Also, keep in mind that any ‘payment’ the business makes to the county—any at all— comes from sales revenues generates by, well, sales that come from us, the customers.

Any BPOL tax is NOT a tax on businesses, it is a tax on Stafford residents and customers.  It is merely collected by businesses whose prices are now higher to offset their profits being lost.  Make no mistake- a business is not going to just ‘take it on the chin’ or  ’suck it up on the bottom line’ as advocates of BPOL suggest.  Business will do what they have to in order to survive; they will raise their price accordingly.

A BPOL Tax is a defacto tax on consumers. We are consumers.  The price of milk, gas, childcare, car repairs, cars, houses, clothes, coffee, soccer jerseys, school books, and everything else you buy in Stafford County will GO UP.  There is no alternative for businesses BUT to raise prices to offset their new tax if this is passed.

The Stafford Economic Development office uses Stafford’s lack of a BPOL tax as a recruiting tool. There’s a reason for that.  It’s a GOOD THING that we DON’T have a BPOL tax.

cross-posted on Bloggers for Marshall:

In the closest race I’ve seen in many years, Gov. Jim Gilmore’s Goliath met his David today.

Jim Gilmore is officially the Republican nominee for the November, 2008 election running opposite of liberal tax hiker Mark Warner.

The convention, held at the Richmond Convention Center, was a “nearly” packed house of approximately 3,500 delegates who had volunteered to attend on behalf of their respective counties and districts.

Just about every major player in Virginia politics, past, present and future, was in attendance including Senator George Allen, Congressman Rob Wittman, Del. Mark Cole, Del. Bill Howell, Sen. Ken Cuccinelli and my good friends of The Jeffersoniad Blog Alliance whose appearance in numbers simply overshadow the “real” press.

Bloggers had numbers, results, opinions, humor, interviews in audio, video and print, all available in real time to the public whereas the newspapers were still scribbling in little notebooks writing stories you won’t hear until tomorrow sometime!

TV was noticeably weak in attendance, but there were a few cameras, so you might see a snippet on the boob tube tonight, but I doubt it…

It was GREAT to see and meet a lot of the Virginia blogosphere in person for a change.

The crowd was vociferously in favor of Marshall. Based on decibel levels alone, I would have thought a 75-25 split was eminent. You already know, it wasn’t. That was weird.

We were graced by a video made from President George W. Bush who spoke of keeping party unity, taxes low and a few other stock presidential speech items. It was long and frankly, old rhetoric.

Each county was given a total number of possible delegate votes based on its voting population. Each GOP committee nominated its delegates to attend the convention. No committee successfully put forth as many people as the the possible votes they were allotted, so the delegates who signed up basically represented those who didn’t bother to. Furthermore, those delegates who actually attended the convention got to vote in proportion to the total number of allotted delegate slots.

Some counties had a few hundred possible delegate positions to carry one vote each, but only a few dozen signed up to be delegates and therefore those few dozen voted for the rest. On the day of the convention, of those few dozen who signed up, only a handful showed up, and thus there were instances where a single attendee’s appearance and single ballot carried the weight of as many as 30 delegates!

Spotsylvania and Stafford, part of the First District, had some of the highest Marshall supporting vote ratios in the county itself but the overall number of district-wide delegate votes was what made the difference, and the Henrico area of the 7th District had some of the highest for Gilmore.

For example, if County ABC had 150 total delegate votes and 100 showed up with 90 voting for Marshall, then Bob has 135 out of 150 votes (each delegate weights as 1.5 votes), and County DEF had 100 possible delegate votes and only 2 people showed up and voted for Gilmore, then 100 votes went to Gilmore. Thus 2 people carried the weight of 50 votes each in the second county compared to 90 people only weighing 1.5 votes each.

In that example, had ONE extra person showed up in the second county for Marshall, it would have made the vote 66 votes for Gilmore and 33 for Marshall. Had two shown up, it would be 50-50!

You can see how IMPORTANT ATTENDANCE WAS in this convention!

Bob Barry, a dropped third candidate, received 22 delegate votes from a single district. These votes would have almost certainly been for Marshall, but were disqualified from being counted, and a re-vote was not authorized but Chairman Hager (who lost badly to Jeff Frederick, our new state GOP chairman.) This was a small factor in delegate vote losses for Marshall.

Gilmore outspent Marshall 14:1 and got quite the jump start by about nine months since Del. Marshall was prohibited from campaigning and fundraising while the House of Delegates is in session. This isn’t meant to be an excuse, but it was a factor.

Gilmore’s refusal to change his lifetime of advocating for life itself not beginning until the 8-12 week point in development, thus allowing abortions to occur until that time, will likely never earn him favor with pro-lifers.

He has several other chinks in his armor to overcome that have been aired in this campaign and in his brief presidential bid in 2007. Warner is waiting to exploit these weaknesses and Jim’s virtually broke campaign as of now. Gilmore spent nearly a million dollars during this year long ramp up campaign and has nearly nothing on hand at this point. Warner, however, has amassed 3 million dollars and has no opposition to worry about in his party.

Conservatives and core-value loyalists will have to decide between now and November, if Gilmore is “close enough” to conservative to earn their vote or not. The alternative of course is liberal tax-raiser Mark Warner for six years in the U.S. Senate. One hopes that will be enough to turn out the vote when there are few to no state or local races to bring out the grassroots.

We must however, remember to re-elect U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman, so do make it a point to vote if he’s your federal congressman!

This is the breakdown of delegate votes per district (not the number of people who voted, but the total weighted votes that were cast):

Thanks to Bearing Drift blog for his dedication and hard work live at the convention and recording these votes!

1st: 643.27-490.73 for Marshall (confirmed)
2nd: 612-345.6 for Gilmore (confirmed)
3rd: 121.83-75.16 for Gilmore (confirmed)- ABOUT SEVEN VOTE DIFFERENCE!
4th: 382.53-319.45 for Marshall (confirmed)- FIVE VOTE DIFFERENCE!
5th: 666.17-419.65 for Gilmore (confirmed)
6th: 530.62-507.47 for Gilmore (confirmed)- TWO TO THREE VOTE DIFFERENCE!
7th: 1035.79-581.52 for Gilmore (confirmed)
8th: 156.96-145.04 for Gilmore (confirmed) — ONE VOTE DIFFERENCE!
9th: 551.78-335.22 for Gilmore (confirmed)
10th: 584.5-160.5 for Marshall (confirmed)
11th: 1137-577 Marshall (confirmed)

After the announcement of Jim Gilmore’s win, a pre-made video diary of Jim’s life was played on the big screens. It was LONG to say the least and its audio was like that of a 7th grade science class video on the forming of a star. “Wake me when it’s over”, I told my wife.

A very nice, and again very LONG video honoring Jo Ann Davis’ memory was aired having been introduced by her successor Rob Wittman.

Note to whomever hired this media company- DUMP THEM. The videos aren’t interesting and they are very old fashioned. I think the soundtrack was from the 84 Olympics! You will never win the hearts and minds of young people with this type of video style. It’s more interesting to watch grass grow. Whomever you get to do future videos- make them SHORTER also! Two words: “MTV Generation”.

Bob Marshall shook Jim Gilmore’s hand and congratulated him, then took the stage and told us to “beat Mark Warner” at the end of a brief speech and thanking his family, staff and hundreds of grassroots volunteers. They really did a great job with the time and resources they had, and this effort will not go unnoticed. In fact, it will be sorely missed by future campaigns of candidates with lesser qualities and qualifications.

Bob Marshall is still serving us as a Virginia delegate from Prince William County. He brought us a 7-0 win in a lawsuit that challenged HB3202 (abusive driver fees and unelected tax hiking authority), the Marriage Amendment, and many other success stories during his 17 year (so far) service to Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Thank you Bob for all you’ve done for the party, Virginia and the pre-born. Your principled leadership, accomplishements and steadfast loyalty and understanding of the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions are now legendary.

You’re a patriot in every sense of the word.

You didn’t lose today, we, as voting self-proclaimed conservatives, let you down. I’m personally very sorry for that.

… Gilmore wins: 5,222.73 to 5,156.97

ONE SMALL FAMILY’S VOTES would have made the difference in a Marshall Victory. Did you show up?

Jack Fowler, publisher of National Review, had this to say about our little Senate race in a Comment on Jim Bowden’s blog:

I am the publisher of National Review, so I believe I have some conservative credentials. And a long time ago I was a member of the Spotsylvania Republican Party.

That said, I support Bob Marshall as THE conservative candidate, and I have put my money where my mouth is. Go Bob!

Indeed, the record shows he gave $250 to Bob’s campaign.  Many thanks, Jack!

Cross-posted to the right-wing liberal