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What
Mr. Dyke and the other critics of Governor Gilmore ignore is that
during the 80's Fairfax County already had enormous tax and spending
increases from which the taxpayer has received little benefit. Why
cannot funds from these tax increases pay for transportation?
Politicians ask for higher taxes without any accountability for past
increases. This is especially true in Fairfax County.
These increases are shown in above charts, which reflect the newly
approved Fairfax County and Fairfax County Public School System FY2000
budgets. Since 1975, school per-student spending, adjusted for
inflation, has increased 98 percent, from $4566 to $9021, and has
reached a new high. This means that this year the schools will receive
$690 million more
(Continued on page 2)
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Virginia
Governor Jim Gilmore has drawn criticism from Northern Virginia
politicians, editors, and business leaders because he is refusing to
raise taxes to pay for more roads. For example, James W. Dyke, Jr.,
the new chairman of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, has said
the Chamber might support higher taxes for transportation if the issue
were put to a voter referendum. Mr. Dyke is a long-time advocate of
higher taxes. In 1996, the Democrat-controlled school board appointed
Mr. Dyke chairman of the "Financing Education for 2001 Task Force."
That committee's July 11, 1996, report advocated taxing authority for
school boards and combinations of tax increases including a higher
sales tax, a new piggy-back income tax, a new meals tax, and higher
occupancy taxes and cigarette taxes. The only taxes Mr. Dyke's
committee would not raise were utility taxes.
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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(Continued from page 1)
than was required to keep up with population growth and inflation since 1975.
Since 1975, County non-school per-resident spending, adjusted for
inflation, has increased 65 percent, from $613 to $1010 per resident .
This gives the County an extra $380 million per year.
The County's budget for FY2000 is $1.96 billion. Half of this is due
to tax and spending increases in excess of population growth and
inflation since 1975. Several months ago the Fairfax County Chamber of
Commerce estimated that the cost of meeting County transportation needs
was $250 million per year. This is only a quarter of the extra
billion dollars the County receives each year due to tax and spending
increases. If money were reallocated from ineffective County programs,
there would be funds for transportation without more tax increases.
A brief review of County programs suggests questionable spending.
The Fairfax County Public School System is a classic example of how
higher school spending does not improve schools. Despite nearly
doubling per-student spending:
Dr. Domench blames the tests rather than the school curriculum, which
is the real problem. He criticizes the history tests for emphasizing
facts instead of concepts. However how can one analyze concepts
without developing a factual background first?
These are tests that an average student should pass. In all 8th
grade and high school tests, a student passes if he gets 69% of the
questions right. For the high school chemistry and biology tests, a
student need answer only 54% of the questions correctly to pass.
To continue, despite nearly doubling per-student spending:
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ates perform better than the state average.)
School administrators claim that student achievement correlates with
affluence and the parents' education level. Fairfax County is in the 99th
percentile compared to all counties nationwide for both household
income and adults with college degrees. Yet its students achieve only
at the 65th percentile on SATs. Doubling per-student spending has not increased student achievement.
As for the County, despite a 60% increase in spending per resident,
residents face the second-worst commute in the United States. The
County has an $18 million maintenance backlog for County buildings,
perhaps a $300 million backlog in stormwater drainage projects, and
still relies on one-time surpluses to balance its budget. Of the extra
$380 million the County gets per year from tax increases, only $18
million goes for new transportation programs - the Fairfax Connector
bus service and the Virginia Railway Express.
So where does the extra $1 billion go?
Two years ago the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance wrote the chairmen
of the School Board and of the Board of Supervisors to ask for an
accounting of the tax increases. While the School Board did provide an
answer, Board of Supervisors Chairman Katherine K. Hanley did not. The
correspondence is posted on the FCTA website -- www.fcta.org -- under the "Why We Care" heading.
So, taxpayers do not know where the County's tax increases are spent,
although a previous FCTA newsletter reported that most of the increase
is funding public safety, health and welfare. We do know that the
school system's spending increases have utterly failed to improve
student achievement.
The Governor may have stymied his Fairfax critics, at least
temporarily. He pointed out that there already is a law that permits
Fairfax County to impose a piggy-back income tax for transportation if
it passes a voter referendum. So far this election season, candidates
are not rushing to advocate a local referendum for higher
transportation taxes. Perhaps they would rather have the tax increase
passed on in Richmond.
Governor Gilmore is right to reject tax increases. The state and local
governments should instead examine previous tax increases to see if
they are being spent effectively. If Fairfax County is representative,
current revenues may well be able to pay for transportation
improvements.
By Arthur Purves
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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PAUL E. GAGNON FOR CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Paul E. Gagnon, former vice-president of the FCTA, is running for
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors on a tax reform and smart growth
platform. Gagnon calls his tax reform plan "LOWER TAXES TO THE GROUND-
REDUCE THE TAX ON BUILDINGS NOW!" The "Lower Taxes to the Ground" plan
would replace the current real estate tax with a split rate system,
sometimes called a site value tax that taxes land and buildings at two
different rates.
The site value tax calls for a slightly higher rate on land assessments
coupled with a much lower rate on buildings. The tax on buildings would
be phased out gradually over five years. An incremental approach
prevents a shock to the real estate market and allows the county
government to adapt to lower revenues. Lower taxes on land would be
granted to individual property owners who agree to conservation
easements to preserve open green space.
The
benefits of the site value tax are many. It reduces construction and
rehabilitation costs by taxing buildings less; upgrades to current
structures will not mean an increase in taxes. The average homeowner
will see a decrease in property taxes. Urban sprawl is discouraged
because valuable urban land will be used more efficiently and rural
open space will remain unused because it has little taxable value.
Central business districts will be invigorated because each business
will have an incentive to improve buildings and amenities within the
district. Renters will pay less because while the property tax on
buildings is passed on to the renters, the landlord must absorb the tax
on land. Absentee landlords, owners of vacant lots, and land
speculators will pay more and have an incentive to sell their
properties to more efficient property owners. The site value tax is
used in over 700 jurisdictions throughout the world successfully.
In addition to tax reform Gagnon proposes a smart growth program
consisting of an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, developer impact
fees, and ending welfare for big developers. Gagnon advocates giving
taxpayers a choice of county services and a tax refund for those not
using county services such as libraries and parks. Gagnon believes we
can get the kids out of trailers in the public schools by offering an
incentive to parents who place their children in schools outside of the
county public schools and at the same time save money.
Gagnon has been involved in the community for many years. His public
service includes: the Commission for the New Government Center, 1990;
the Commission on Organ Donor and Transplantation, 1996-98; the Lee
District Land Use and Transportation Advisory Committee, 1990-present,
currently Chairman; a Vice-President, Fairfax County Taxpayers
Alliance, 1993-94; and Chairman, Libertarian Party of Fairfax County,
1992-98.
Gagnon's professional and education experience is as a Mediator,
Trainer, and co-owner of Gagnon Training and Development. Other work
experience include: USAF Air Traffic Controller, Medical Technologist,
substitute teacher, boxcar loader, dock worker, barber, forklift
operator, lay minister, and dishwasher. Gagnon holds a M.S. degree in
Conflict Management from GMU. If you would like to help the Gagnon
campaign Phone: 703-329-NVLP. WEB PAGE: WWW.FREEFAIRFAX.COM,
Email:74633.3520@compuserve.com Authorized by the COMMITTEE TO ELECT
PAUL E. GAGNON, 7011-A Manchester Blvd. Suite # 1776, Franconia, VA
22310
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JOHNA GOOD GAGNON FOR SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DIRECTOR
Johna
Good Gagnon, an FCTA member is running for Northern Virginia Soil and
Water Conservation Director. Johna has long been an advocate for the
land. She will work for the restoration of stream valleys, watersheds,
and environmental quality corridors by increasing public and private
cooperative efforts. Johna believes a "one-stop shopping" environmental
clearinghouse needs to be established. Johna also wants to eliminate
duplicate, obsolete, and ineffective regulations hampering
environmental work.
Johna has a long history of community service. She has been on the
Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council since 1993 to the
present, representing Lee District; and serves on the Lee District Land
Use and Transportation Advisory Committee. She is a member of the
League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area, Fairfax ReLeaf, Friends of
Huntley Meadows Park.
Johna is a Counselor, Trainer, and co-owner of Gagnon Training and
Development. Her work experience includes 27 years with the Dept. of
Justice. Johna started her working life on her family's Amish farm in
Lancaster, PA. Johna was an office manager for a private Counseling
Center in Northern Virginia and holds a M.Ed from George Mason
University. Anyone wishing to help Johna can phone: 703-329-NVLP. WEB
PAGE: WWW.FREEFAIRFAX.COM, Email:74633.3520@compuserve.com Authorized
by the COMMITTEE TO ELECT PAUL E. GAGNON, 7011-A Manchester Blvd. Suite
# 1776, Franconia, VA 22310
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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Vote No! on the School Bond Referendum
Bonds Subsidize Mismanagement.
By Arthur Purves, FCTA President
On
November 2, 1999, Fairfax County voters will be asked to approve a
$296,800,000 bond referendum exclusively for schools. Newspapers,
almost all political candidates, and the business community are vocal
in their support.
However, at its July 6,
1999 meeting, the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance Board of Directors
voted unanimously to oppose the referendum. Arthur Purves, president
of the FCTA and running as an independent candidate for chairman of the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, opposes the bond referendum as
does Paul E. Gagnon.
For five years in a row, the County has spent more on debt service for
bonds (i.e., annual payments for principal and interest) than it has
received from bond sales. For example, in FY1995, the County raised
$100 million from bond sales while spending $141 million on debt
service; consequently the County spent $41 million more on debt service
than it received from bond sales that year. In each year from FY1995 to
FY2000 the County will have sold the maximum amount of bonds it could
without lowering its credit rating. From 1995 through 2000, the County
will have spent a total of $144 million more on debt service than it
will have raised through bond sales.
In addition to current-year debt service, the County owes over the next
twenty years $1.5 billion in principal and $600 million in interest for
the bonds it has already sold. Annual debt service costs in the FY2000
budget are projected to be $110 million for principal and $75 million
for interest.
The County does merit praise for its AAA bond rating, which results in
lower interest rates. Out of 26,000 local and state governments rated
by Moody's, Standard and Poor's, and Fitch, only 28 localities are
rated AAA by all three.
Nevertheless, the County is misusing bonds by selling them to cover
annual expenses. Each year the County sells the maximum amount of
bonds it can without jeopardizing its credit rating. It was inevitable
then that debt service would exceed bond revenues, as is currently
happening.
Of the $296.8 million, only $74 million or 25% is for new
construction. The rest is for school renovations, roof, boiler, air
conditioner replacement, etc. By contrast, the County pays for all of
its building maintenance from the operating budget.
During the past 15 years the cost of school renovations has increased
50%. The school system has never justified this increase.
One driver for high renovation costs is the increasing demand for small
classrooms for Special Education classes. A significant portion of
Special Education is the "Learning Disabled" ("LD") program. A student
is labeled "LD" if he reads or does math at a level well below his
expected capability as determined by testing. There is considerable
evidence that many "LD" students are not really "LD" at all but simply
have not had phonics instruction in the regular classroom. Presumably
the cost of school renovations could be reduced if phonics instruction
were allowed in the regular classroom. This would reduce the demand
for smaller classrooms. However, the Democrat school board members
have kept phonics out of the regular classroom despite many Republican
attempts to introduce phonics. The Democrats are showing an
election-eve rhetorical conversion to phonics, but they still support
non-phonics reading curricula.
Finally, the school board's bond resolution states that ". . . the
County School board has determined that such public school property and
improvements cannot be provided from current revenues Ö" This
statement is false. The school board has not examined the cost
effectiveness of its operating budget programs. As indicated in
another article in this newsletter, even though inflation-adjusted
school spending per student has doubled since 1975, student achievement
is mediocre.
The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance believes that school construction
and renovation costs could be reduced and can be paid for from the
school operating budget. Therefore, voters are urged to vote NO on the
November 2 school bond referendum.
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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Fairfax County is Striking Out
By Perry H. Young
The
Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Baseball Stadium
Authority in 1995. It includes officials from the Loudoun and Fairfax
County Boards of Supervisors, as well as leaders from the business
community. Since its inception, it has been studying the feasibility
of building a stadium and bringing a Major League baseball team to
Northern Virginia. A March, 1996 Fairfax Journal article
states that Fairfax County officials have been contributing thousands
of dollars and many hours of staff resources to the effort. So much,
in fact, that the stadium site selection committee recommended that
they not be charged the same fee that was recommended to be charged to
other counties that wanted to join the process later. They must have
spent at least the equivalent of that $150,000 fee to that point, and
have continued to support the effort since then. They could have saved
our money.
For a close-to-home example of
the fact that the public subsidy of a sports stadium is a poor
investment, the Baseball Stadium Authority needs to have looked no
further than the Baltimore Orioles, a team that recently had a state-of-the-art
facility built for them. The Camden Yards stadium has been credited
with revitalizing the economy of Baltimore, creating new jobs and
attracting new business to the area. But were the benefits worth the
costs?
According to Bruce W. Hamilton and
Peter Kahn's article, "Baltimore's Camden Yards Ballparks", included in
the book Sports, Jobs & Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums,
edited by Roger G. Noll and Andrew Zimbalist, "the state of Maryland
spends approximately $14 million a year to attract approximately $3
million a year in job-creation and tax-import benefits." Though Camden
Yards routinely sells out, making a handsome profit for the team
owners, Maryland taxpayers pay approximately $11 million a year order
to keep the Orioles in town. That's in addition to whatever they
actually spend at the ballpark. The $14 million dollars a year are
spent to service the debt on the $200 million cost of the stadium,
while only $3 million dollars in additional tax revenue and new job
benefits are generated for the state. Although the economic impact of
the Baltimore facility has been favorably compared to more dismal
results around the country, in fact, the Camden Yards stadium also
proves to be a poor public investment.
The
legislation establishing the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority grants
them the power to raise money by selling bonds. This proposed
entertainment enterprise will apparently rely, at least in part, on the
credit of a government entity rather than that of its owners. In
addition, Fairfax County officials are using staff time and effort to
study this issue, rather than devoting them to the real problems of
transportation and education faced by the county.
The interests of the citizens of Fairfax County will not be well served
by subsidizing the building of a baseball stadium. If Northern
Virginia is, as claimed, the seventh largest market in the nation for
professional sports, then private financing can certainly be secured to
pay for recreational facilities such as sports stadiums. Virginia
should learn from experience across the nation, and Fairfax County
should stop its campaign to secure a stadium for a major league
baseball team.
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS WILL RAISE REAL ESTATE TAXES IN 2000
History
Suggests That Increased Revenue From A Prosperous Economy Will Not
Deter Supervisors From Raising Taxes in Post-Election Year
By Mark A. Collins, FCTA Second Vice-President
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Taxpayer money is flooding into Fairfax County Government coffers.
County revenues increased by 4.7 percent for fiscal year 1999, the best
rate of growth since the 1991 recession. Fiscal year 2000 revenues are
expected to increase by another 5.6 percent. In particular, real
estate tax revenues are expected to increase by 6.0 percent in fiscal
year 2000 due to automatic tax increases resulting from increased
commercial property values and new development. With this windfall in
mind, the Board of Supervisors recently approved a $1.96 billion budget
for fiscal year 2000. Considering this rosy financial picture for
Fairfax County Government, taxpayers should count on no additional tax
increases for the foreseeable future, right?
Don't bet on it.
With Board of Supervisors elections scheduled for later this year, 2000
promises to be a perilous time for taxpayers. Historically, every real
estate tax rate increase since 1965 has occurred in a post-election
year. The Board of Supervisors has raised the real estate tax rate in
50% of the post-election years since 1968 and those increases, when
combined with increased assessments, have resulted in an average 9.3%
increased tax bill for the average homeowner.
Moreover, recent history proves that a prosperous local economy and a
solid balance sheet will not deter the Board of Supervisors from
raising taxes in a post-election year. In 1996, a majority of the
supervisors voted for an unnecessary seven cent ($.07) per $100
valuation increase in the real estate tax to the current level of
$1.23. This increase resulted in a fiscal year 1997 budget surplus of
$26 million. Did the Board of Supervisors return this windfall to the
taxpayers? Of course not. It simply found new ways to spend the
surplus, which has now disappeared from the books.
The
Board of Supervisors may be particularly emboldened to raise taxes in
2000 by the relative lack of opposition many supervisors face in this
year's election. Five out of nine of the District incumbents are
running unopposed, and Chairman Katherine K. "Kate" Hanley faces no
major party opposition. Party officials gleefully attribute the lack
of challengers to "voter satisfaction with the current board." (Fairfax Journal,
6/11/99). With this underlying confidence among the politicians, the
risk is greater than ever that they will raise taxes once the election
is over, beyond the automatic increase that results from rising
property values.
The FCTA urges taxpayers not to give the Board of Supervisors
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a
"free pass" to raise real estate taxes in 2000. The FCTA plans to
survey the candidates and seek their commitment not to raise real
estate taxes next year. The FCTA will publish the results of this
survey in its October newsletter, and through press releases to the
local papers. Taxpayers should consider the candidates' positions on
this issue (or their refusal to take a position) before they
automatically cast their vote for the incumbents. The time to send a
message to the Board of Supervisors and prevent a real estate tax
increase is before the election, not after.
Otherwise, history is likely to repeat itself, at great cost to the taxpayers.
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The Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance
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Odds and Ends . . .
In
the newsletter article "Fairfax County is Striking Out", Perry Young
writes "A March, 1996 Fairfax Journal article states that Fairfax
County officials have been contributing thousands of dollars and many
hours of staff resources to the effort." "They
must have spent at least the equivalent of that $150,000 fee to that
point, and have continued to support the effort since then. They could
have saved our money."
To
quote Larry Elder in "Houston, you've got a problem.", Jewish World
Review, August 6, 1999, when it comes to public subsidies of sports
stadiums, why would
anyone expect . . . "taxpayers to subsidize billionaire owners to pay
multimillionaire ballplayers, leaving the non-millionaire fans to foot
the bill."
**********
So
far, the reports that the "government" plans to tax internet usage are
unfounded. From the "Liberator Online", Vol. 4. No. 15, we learn that the United Nations Development Program has proposed a tax on e-mail that would generate about $70 billion a year. Apparently
there is no limit to the number of people and organizations who think
they have a right to some portion of our incomes. How does local,
state, federal, and world taxes sound?
**********
Do
you ever wonder why it seems that, regardless of which party is
currently in power, "things" just keep getting worse? Harry Browne,
the 1996 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, wrote an article
entitled "The Republican betrayal - from A to Z", for
"WorldNetDaily.com, Inc." In
this article, Browne assigns each of the letters of the alphabet to
what he considers to be Republican betrayals to the concept of smaller
government. Below are some examples:
B is for the Budgets that just keep getting bigger and bigger.
C is for Corporate welfare -- which expands and expands and expands.
D is for the Debt -- which gets larger and larger, despite supposed "surpluses."
E is for the Education and Energy Departments, which were supposed to be Eliminated, but have Expanded instead.
H
is for HillaryCare - the health care takeover the Democrats couldn't
pass all at once, but which the Republicans are passing one bill at a
time.
J
is for all the Judges that Clinton has nominated and the Republicans
have approved, even though the Judges don't support the Constitution.
N
is for (what else?) the National Endowment for the Arts -- the
Republicans' favorite fund-raising enemy, which of course they have
enlarged, not eliminated.
P is for the Pay hike for congressmen, who don't seem to get paid enough for ruining our lives.
**********
F.
R. Duplantier, writing for "America's Future", quoted Arkansas-based
certified public accountant Kerry Kerstetter (www.TaxGuru.org). "Any
doubts that government-controlled public schools are indoctrination
centers for the youth of our country were dispelled by a recent
television show about how ninth-grade students in Oakland, California
are being educated on the tax system in this country ." "Their quotes,
when asked to describe the tax system, made it clear that the job is
working." ""IRS has a bad rap about being mean and cold-hearted,"" one
proselyte parroted. ""Taxes are good because they provide for good
things, such as teachers,"" chimed in another. ""Taxes
are necessary to pay for social things," a third student regurgitated,
" and anyone who wants to pay less is being mean, cold-hearted, and
selfish.""
**********
Last
year, only six percent of Fairfax County public schools (13 out of 202)
met the state's new school accreditation requirements (which do not
take effect until 2007). This year, only 20 percent of the schools (43
out of 202) met the accreditation requirements. Fairfax School
Superintendent Daniel A. Domenech believes that by 2007 only 60 to 70
percent of the schools will satisfy the accreditation standard.
>From "Governor Gilmore is Right! . . ."page 2.
**********
According
to an editorial in The Washington Post, "The Gridlock Is in Richmond",
August 16, 1999, p. B6, the bipartisan Transportation Coordinating
Council reports that in Northern Virginia . . . "$11 billion will be
needed for (road) projects over the next 20 years. Even
after spending that much, the council says, most main roads would be as
congested in 2020 as now; and some highways, such as Interstates 395
and 95 and Routes 50 and 123 would be worse." Something to think about as you sit in construction traffic while driving into Wash. D.C. for the next ten years.
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