Gray’s Faulty Accounting
By Greg L | 12 August 2006 | Prince William County | 3 Comments
I saw John Gray’s candidacy announcement today, and it’s a real hoot. At one point in the announcement, he derides what he sees as a “cut to the bone” policy of conservative Republicans who are trying to focus county government on core priorities and reduce spending. Then he turns around and delivers this whopper:
The far-right agenda for real estate taxation has in fact and truth been to vote against the reduction in the tax rate for the last three years. If their votes had prevailed, your real estate tax rate would still be $ 1.36, not the current rate of .76 cents. Think about that for a minute!
Yes, Mr. Gray, let’s think about this for a minute. Do your allegations make any sense at all? If part of the purpose of focusing on the core responsibilities of government is to control spending, and Corey Stewart has a record of voting to reduce tax rates and spending, then where the heck is this coming from? Corey Stewart wants to spend less so he can raise your taxes? This is nuttier than squirrel poop.
Maybe this is from the same fantasy world where Marty Nohe and Wally Covington are supposedly endorsing John Gray, and where running as a Democrat for the Occoquan Supervisor in 2003 makes you a good Republican.
This just gets wierder every day.
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They voted against “reducing” the tax rate, and that’s what he’s talking about.
Except that, if there was NO VOTE AT ALL on the tax rate, by law the rate would automatically drop to yield the same tax dollars as the previous year (for existing property).
So if they had prevailed, the tax rate would NOT be $1.36, it would be much lower than it is today.
So few people understand this law, and so many politicians misrepresent it.
But each year the county publicises a “real estate tax increase” in the local newspaper, explaining that without action the tax rate would drop to some amount (this year I think it was 72 cents) but that the county was going to RAISE the tax rate, usually to the same rate as the previous year.
Then, later, after those hearings, the board votes to “cut” the “advertised rate”. They call it a “tax cut”, and it is a “tax cut” from the advertised TAX INCREASE, but a tax increase from what would happen otherwise.
That is NOTHING though compared to this whopper: Every year the Chair promises to keep the tax rate increase to some value, like say “5.9%”. And somehow, every year, the staff manages to come up with a budget that exactly spends the money raised by that “5.9%” increase. Never need another tenth, never under by too much. Just right on.
But when Corey and John ask to have the staff prepare a budget with, say, a “4.5%” increase instead, the board chair ridicules them and tells them to propose their own “cuts” from the increases the staff has requested based on the 5.9% increase, as if 5.9% was a number passed down from God above and 4.5% was the devil’s plaything.
But I have no doubt that, if the staff was requested to make a budget with a 4.5% increase, they would dutifully provide a budget that did exactly that.
The county can freely raise money, so they get away with it. But when I do MY budget, I don’t pick some imaginary number like 5.9%, do my budget, and then go to my boss ordering him to give me a 5.9% increase to “cover my budget”.
And my house value increase 10% doesn’t give me extra money to PAY the tax increase. So if I get a raise equal to the rate of inflation, I have to cut my budget in some areas to pay for the additional taxes so the county can increase spending by twice the rate of inflation.
And the “moderates” call COREY the problem, showing little understanding of how government operates, or why Sean is so popular among the county staff (as you would be too if you gave them such generous increases every year).
I don’t think someone like Gray will get any traction at all when Republican candidates start to emerge. They certainly are biding their time. You would think the Webb experience would make clear that much as we honor Marines, party switchers don’t do well, particularly in intra-party contests.
Nova, I’m not sure what you mean by “republican candidates starting to emerge”.
The nomination window is closed, and there are only two reported people in the race. There will be no other “emerging” republicans for this race.
Maybe you are refering to the general election next year.