At today's convention of the Fairfax County Republican Committee, held at Edison High School, Fairfax County Republicans unanimously approved resolutions:

• AGAINST higher taxes for transportation; (see resolution)
• FOR lowering the Fairfax County real estate tax rate from $1.23 to $1.06; and (see resolution)
• FOR funding transportation from state income and sales taxes. (see resolution)

Bill Wheaton, who writes a column for the Northern Virginia Journal, submitted the first resolution. Mr. Wheaton's resolution cites Supervisor Elaine McConnell's statistic that Fairfax County gets back from the state of Virginia only 19 cents for every tax dollar sent to Richmond. The resolution then states that until better "...tax distribution equity is achieved, no further taxes of any kind be proposed, by any means, for the citizens of Fairfax County and all of Northern Virginia."

Arthur G. Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, drafted the second and third resolutions. The tax-rate resolution notes that the 16 percent increase in real estate assessments gives the county an extra $187 million. This exceeds the revenue from Governor Warner's proposed 11-percent sales tax increase.

One would expect that this $187 million would be applied to Fairfax County's most pressing needs, school construction and transportation.

However, there is no increase in school construction funding, which remains at $130 million per year.

Transportation funding increases by only $2 million.

Since the tax hike is not being spent on the county's greatest needs, the resolution recommends reducing the real estate tax rate to $1.06, to offset the increase in assessments. The $1.06 tax rate is not a tax cut; it only prevents another tax increase.

The third resolution points out that the state transportation crisis exists only because the state does not spend income taxes on transportation.

All three resolutions are posted on the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance website, www.fcta.org.