|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and School Board have been
lamenting the stagnant values of residential property, little notice
has been afforded to soaring commercial property values.
The
result is that in the current fiscal year business real estate tax
rates are up 8% and may increase another 10% in FY 2000. Overall
business taxes are fast approaching their previous high, which occurred
in FY 1991.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When
commercial property values increase, business owners have to pay higher
taxes even though the supervisors do not raise tax rates. This is
perfect for the supervisors, who in an election year will claim that
taxes did not increase when in fact taxes did increase. What the
supervisors should have done was reduce commercial real estate tax
rates to compensate for the increase in property values.
By Arthur Purves
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Police Helicopter: noisy, expensive, ineffective?
(The
following letter was received from a member of the FCTA who resides in
the Mason District. This letter summarizes communications the author
has had with the Mason District Supervisor and the Fairfax County
Police Department over the past three years. The author has requested
that his name not be given but you can send him an e-mail at anzman@altavista.net with your comments.)
***********************************************
After
studying the issue of late-night and early-morning police helicopter
operations in the Mason District for almost three years, I have come to
the conclusion that the
Fairfax County police are operating their helicopters excessively in
the Mason District during late-night and early-morning hours.
In many situations where the helicopter is used, the crimes committed
are not serious enough to justify the disturbance, noise and anxiety
created in the community. The helicopter generally circles overhead at
low altitude for 10 to 30 minutes. It also appears that on occasion
the police helicopter operates in the early morning hours without being
called for a specific crime. There are two main reasons for the
excessive use of the police helicopter: 1) the criterion for its use
is far too general and 2) there is virtually no civilian oversight of
helicopter operations. (Police Department policy simply states that
the helicopter can be used "Öfor police emergency flights.")
There
appears to be almost no civilian oversight of the police helicopters
even though helicopter operations impact dramatically on the community
and cost taxpayers approximately $2,000 for each flight. I question
whether the seriousness of some crimes for which the helicopter is
called justifies the expense when a less costly squad car could answer
the call. I also believe that the police have engaged in a "use or
lose" practice whereby they must justify the high cost of the
helicopters by flying them even when the seriousness of the crimes does
not warrant their use.
A
good example of what has been occurring over the past three years is
evidenced by six helicopter operations that took place in the Mason
District beginning October 6, 1998 (note that five incidents occurred
in a 30-day period):
The police public relations
department gave the following descriptions of these incidents: two
robberies, a peeping Tom, an abandoned vehicle, and a DWI suspect. No report was filed for one incident. It is interesting to note that for these six incidents the suspects had no weapons nor were any suspects apprehended.
I agree that the robberies would justify the use of the helicopter, but
I don't think the other four incidents justify its use especially when
the cost and the disruption to the community are considered.
I
wholeheartedly support the police department in its effort to combat
crime in the county and feel that they generally do a very good job -
except for the use of the helicopters. For this reason, I would like
to see an impartial group of citizens take a hard look at the county's
helicopter operations with an eye on the cost (in dollars and
disruption to the community) versus the benefits to the taxpayers.
Until this is done, skeptics like myself will continue to feel that our
tax dollars are not being wisely spent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tax Increases: How are They Spent?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
As
this newsletter has repeatedly reported, during the late 70s and 80s,
Fairfax County government and schools increased taxes and spending much
faster than population growth and inflation. These higher tax rates
cost Fairfax County taxpayers about an extra $1 billion per year.
The
accompanying pie chart shows how the proposed FY 2000 school system and
county government budgets will spend the extra billion dollars
School
salary increases (above the amount required to keep up with inflation
and enrollment) account for 8 percent of the $1 billion. As a result,
the average school system salary in FY 2000 will be about $45,000 or 12
percent higher than in FY 1975. Please see chart entitled "Fairfax
County Government and School System Salary Trends, FY 1975-2000.")
The average salary for county government workers will have increased
19% more than inflation.
Since 1975, average fringe benefits for school em
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Employees have increased 400%, and will cost an extra $134 million this year.
Two
thirds, or $660 million is spent not to increase employee salaries and
benefits but on new and expanded programs. Of this amount, schools get
42 percent or an extra $420 million and the county government gets an
extra 26% or $260 million.
School increases have funded more
administrators, more guidance counselors, more computers, and
air-conditioning of all schools. The extra taxes have also funded
increasing the number of classes a middle or high school student takes
per day from six to seven. Another expense is the increase in Learning
Disabled expenses, much of which may be due to the failure of the
school system to use phonics-based reading instruction in the regular
classroom. Another major increase is the need for alternative programs
for disruptive students.
The increase was not spent on needed school
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Northern Virginia Hotline
How
many Fairfax County citizens are aware that the Fairfax County Board of
Supervisors has been granting tax money to support a Fairfax County
telephone answering service for more than twenty years? The Northern
Virginia Hotline (NVHL), answering anonymous and sometimes obscene
telephone calls, has cost county taxpayers an estimated one million
dollars since its inception. The NVHL program was intended to be an
answering service for school children who could not talk to their
parents and was started by a group of well intentioned volunteers who
first received donations (not tax dollars) from local citizen groups
(churches, businesses, etc.) in Arlington and Fairfax Counties. That
is until the NVHL managed to nestle a place in the Fairfax County
Budget.
One volunteer who had been a listener of over ten
years noted there was only one worthwhile call during that period. It
pertained to a young runaway girl. She wanted to go back home but was
afraid her mother would beat her. Throughout negotiations the
distraught mother assured the listener that she wanted her daughter
home and agreed to pay the taxi fare to get the girl home.
The
NVHL's original expenses were for two telephones, a part time
secretary, a typewriter and supplies. It operated from a spare
hospital room and from an empty office in Fort Myers. It was an all
volunteer organization from the director to the volunteer listeners.
After several years the calls and the community donations began to drop
off. It was then the Hotline staff finagled financial funding from
Fairfax and Arlington Counties. NVHL staff were so successful in
getting taxpayer money that they began to pay the director a part time
salary, added a third telephone for "administrative purposes" and still
later hired a part time psychiatrist. What started out to be a
community program run on donations has now expanded in 1998, to a
$90,994 (FY 1998 Human Services Performance Budget p. x) a year
taxpayer financed telephone answering service that provides the same
service that was originally accomplished with community donations and
volunteer personnel.
With eighty-seven (87) hotline & crisis
telephone numbers, including the NVHL, listed in the Northern Virginia
One Book Yellow Pages, there is little reason to continue to use
taxpayer dollars to support this "volunteer" group. If you are a
Fairfax County taxpayer, call your Fairfax County supervisor and demand
that funds to the NVHL be stopped. The NVHL was a well meaning program
that
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
should have died when volunteer funds from the local community dried up because of a lack of interest. Think of it. $90,944 a year just to be one more out of a list of 87 "volunteer" organizations.
By Warren Hill
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Know Your Customer
Back
on February 24, 1999, I spoke to a staff attorney with the FDIC and
was informed that the "know your customer" rule would be sent back to
the drawing board.
In fact, bank regulators more recently
have announced that they will be withdrawing the controversial "know
your customer" rule after having been overwhelmed by complaints that
the rule is a massive invasion of privacy.
Congratulations to those who took the time to make their concerns about the proposed "Know Your Customer" rule known.
Because
bad ideas never seem to die, but rather lie dormant until a later
time when they can resurface while people's attentions are elsewhere,
we will likely have to turn to Congress for a legislative solution if
we are to avoid having to fight another "know your customer" proposal.
T Pfister
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Good News
The Supreme Court recently struck down an attempt by Colorado to regulate ballot initiatives. The Washington Post, on
January 13, 1999, p. A01, quoted Dane Waters, president of the
Initiative and Referendum Institute, praising the ruling as sending
"a clear message to state legislators that people do have the right to
self-govern" and should not be deterred from participating in
initiatives.
T Pfister
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Odds and Ends . . .
The National Taxpayers Conference 1999, organized by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation and Iowans for Tax Relief,
will be held 8:30 AM Friday, June 11, to 4:00 PM Saturday, June 12,
1999, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, DC. The
conference cost will be $149/person (includes all conference entrance
fees, materials, and lunch with prominent keynote speakers both days).
The cost will be $99/person without lunch. Hotel accommodations are
not included. For more information you can call Mark Schmidt at (703)
683-5700 or go to the web site at http://www.ntu.org/conference.html
**********
The dates for the Fairfax County FY 2000 Budget are: Release
of the Budget on February 22; Public Hearings on April 5,6,7; mark-up
on April 19; and adoption on April 26. For additional information
please call the Fairfax County OMB at (703) 324-4089. Arthur Purves,
President of the FCTA, is scheduled to be speaker number 21 at the
April 5th budget hearing. Hearings are televised on Cable channel 16
from 7:30 PM.
**********
The National Education Association has long proposed that home
schooling be made illegal. This position is difficult to reconcile
with the purported concern "for the children" that is so frequently
used as justification for more taxpayer funds. Consider the
following: Dr. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education
Research Institute has done a study entitled "Strengths of Their Own:
Home Schoolers Across America" that is enlightening. On average, home
schoolers out-performed their public school peers by 30 to 37
percentile points across all subjects. While the NEA would love to see
a requirement for teacher certification for parents who home school
their children, test scores showed that home schooled children who had
at least one parent with teacher certification scored only three
percentile points better than students with neither parent having
certification. In fact, home educated students' test scores remain
between the 80th and 90th percentile, whether their mothers have a
college degree or failed to complete high school. While neither
parent education level nor family income have a significant impact on
achievement of home educated children, both education and income levels
do significantly impact public school students. Much is made of the
minority achievement disparity found in public education; in reading,
both white and minority home schoolers score at the 87th percentile
while only five points separate them in math. "A
cost-benefit analysis reveals that an average of $546 spent per home
school student per year yields an average 85th percentile ranking on
test scores. Compare this to the average annual expenditure of $5,325
per public school student to achieve only an average 50th percentile
ranking. These figures do not include capital expenditures, like
buildings and land, etc."
**********
The
following information is from the "Liberator Online", March 4, 1999,
Vol. 4, No. 5. The "Liberator Online" is produced by the Libertarian
Party. "According to the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based public
policy research organization, there has been an explosion of remedial
education programs in government schools grades K-12. An astonishing
36% of America's 45 million public school students are now taking
remedial education classes, in reading, language arts, and/or math.
The number of teachers, aides, and support personnel involved now
approaches the size of the United States armed forces. In 1998, the
total cost of remedial education programs is estimated to be over $65
billion. Sixteen million children are now enrolled in Title 1 and
Special Education remedial programs. Of them, only about 1 million
have physical or mental handicaps that require them to take such
classes, says Regna Lee Wood of the National Right to Read Foundation.
The rest are in these classes, she says, because of what she calls
"school-induced illiteracy"- - the failure of teachers to teach them
how to read, write and do simple math. Evidence
of the growing failure of government schools continues to pour in.
Seventy percent of U.S. high school students can't read ninth-grade
assignments. Thirty percent of U.S. high school seniors can't read
proficiently at a fourth-grade level. A 1998 international math survey ranked U. S. students near the bottom of 20 countries."
**********
.
. . "if it is ($)325 or ($)400 (a) year (or) more divided by twelve and
paid with mortgage payments, no one in Fairfax County who qualifies for
a mortgage should be angry to pay it. They should be ashamed of
themselves for wanting to spend money on vacations and not on making
sure children are well educated." This
statement was made by Robert Whiteman, First V. P., Fairfax County
Council of PTAs, in an e-mail exchange with Arthur Purves, President of
the FCTA. Mr. Whiteman apparently was distressed that Mr. Purves would
dare dispute the contention of the FCCPTA that increasing the counties'
cost of borrowing from 9% to 15% would "only" cost taxpayers an
additional $65 a year. Mr. Purves conservatively estimated the
additional cost to taxpayers to be $157 a year or possibly much
higher. In
order to pay for increased borrowing costs, The FCCPTA supports a new
income tax for Fairfax County residents and suggests that independent
taxing authority be given to the county school board.
T Pfister
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
© 1999 by the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, Inc.
Reproduction in whole or in part is authorized on the condition that
the source and copyright notice are shown on the reproduced materials.
|
