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50th HOD Debate: Plenty Of Fireworks
By Greg L | 17 October 2006 | Jeanette Rishell, 50th HOD District | 13 Comments
Tonight’s debate between Jeanette Rishell and Jackson Miller gave the audience plenty of fireworks, plenty of back-and-forth, and quite a lot more for the voters to evaluate. In a two-hour marathon that focused on taxes, transportation and immigration as well as education and healthcare, which included numerous questions from the audience, Jackson Miller methodically picked apart plenty of the non-sequiturs coming from Jeanette Rishell.
Jeanette Rishell admitted to supporting “undocumented” workers as a part of her “social justice” commitee activism, although she only characterized it as providing food and clothing. But what about the cash donations you organized for the Woodbridge Workers Committee, Ms. Rishell?
During the last debate Jeanette Rishell characterized “overcrowding” as the number one issue facing the residents of the 50th District, but tonight that number one issue became “transportation”. Jeanette Rishell kept calling for a “dedicated revenue stream” to support additional transportation spending, but denied she wanted to raise taxes in order to fund it. But “all options are on the table”, which presumably includes taxation as she apparently doesn’t want to fund transportation spending using the surplus generated from the last tax hike in Virginia. Why? Becuase according to her, there is no surplus, only a “carryover”.
Jeanette Rishell is proposing all sorts of spending without any idea of how much that spending will cost nor how to pay for it. But thankfully she’s retaining enough “legislative flexibility” to “leave all options on the table”. In other words, ‘give me all your money, and I’ll fix all your problems’. It was pathetic.
Jackson Miller tore right into this silliness. What the heck else is almost $2 billion of revenues over and above what the state can legally spend but a surplus? And if there’s a “carryover”, didn’t that result from money that couldn’t be legally spent during the prior fiscal year? It’s a surplus by definition. Democrats in the House of Delegates are calling it a surplus. This was one of the goofiest things many in the audience had ever heard.
Jeanette Rishell also refused to say whether day laborer centers should be allowed or whether illegal immigrants should be allowed to attend public colleges, only stating that these shouldn’t be taxpayer-supported. Last time I checked, public colleges were supported to a great degree from taxpayer funds, and day laborer centers which abet illegal activity are themselves illegal. The activist Rishell slightly shines through the candidate Rishell.
The only spontaneous applause of the evening, as the audience tried to follow the directions of the moderator, was when Jackson Miller gave a forceful defense of the idea of combating illegal immigration on the local level using whatever tools were available to states and localities. Calling for enforcement of the law, and demanding that we stop making excuses, the audience couldn’t restrain itself.
There’s more to cover on this, and undoubtably the Manassas Journal-Messenger will have something on this tomorrow, although their reporter had to leave before the end in order to make his deadline. More on this later…
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While I was only able to stay for a part of the debate, I saw enough to know Rishell can’t tell the truth on any issue. She says she does not want to raise taxes, yet wants a dedicated fund for transportation. She says she did not “protest” against the overcrowding ordinance passed by the City of Manassas, yet she was the very first person to speak out against it at the public hearing. I guess she must think protesting is raising hell in the streets.
When it comes to telling the truth, Jackson Miller is the one who has the problem. He voted to raise taxes on the Manssas City Council. He is the only candidate in this race who has voted to raise taxes. He has, before even being elected, broken his promise. He also is playing games with numbers by engaging in Enron style accounting to pretend that we can solve our transportation problem based on formula distribution, hardly any money, borrowing, well, that is something Republicans love, borrow and spend, and the surplus, which is for schools, public safety.
His immigration has been called a train wreck by the Manssas police chief and not supported by Charlie Deane. The chiefs, however, work for him. Perhpas Mr. Miller would like to give Mary Hill a call and find out what happens to candidates who cross Charlie Deane.
Hey anonymous 10:36 , sorry but Miller has never promised that he would never raise taxes. He didnt make that promise before he ran for Council and he didnt make it while running for Delegate. He has always told me he would try his hardest as a legislator to keep down spending and taxes as much as he possibly can.
I heard that Rishell called him a “right - wing - extremist” and a person who “voted to raise taxes” in the same statement. HUH?????
I also heard that Miilers opening statement was very positive and about Virginia being a nice place. Then Rishell opened up jsut going straight for Millers jugular.
CAN ANYONE ELSE CONFIRM THIS FOR ME ?? (paragraphs 2 & 3)
Anon 10:36. It’s clear you really don’t understand what happened with the last Manassas City budget and how Jackson compromised with his fellow councilmembers in order to arrive at a budget increase lower than it would have been without his involvement. For someone who blathers on about a candidate that promises they’re going to work across the aisle and seek common ground, you sure don’t tolerate a record of actually doing that.
And anon 11:13, that is exactly what happened. I have the video to prove it.
The only reason why Skinner does not support the ICE program is because he is connected to Georgetown South neighborhood in a business relationship. GTS might have more illegals than any other neighborhood in NOVA. So, it seems Skinner is willing to allow his business connections to cloud his thinking on this issue.
But, what is really funny is one of the reasons he he is against the program is because he says the Manassas jail will be full of illegals. What does that say? That in addition to breaking immigration laws, illegals seem to be pretty good at breaking other laws too.
Jackson fought to keep taxes low on City Council, it was other members, some who are not around any longer, who wanted to keep them high.
I fully believe in the “slippery slope” theory of criminality and that crossing the border illegally is just the first in a series of crimes that the average illegal alien commits.
Others would try to equate illegal border crossing with speeding. I’m not buying it. There’s a whole lot of premeditation that goes on long before a border is ever crossed–not so with speeding. That’s just one difference.
By the way:
“If law enforcement agencies can decide which laws they like and which laws they don’t like, that’s a recipe for corruption.”
Yes it can lead to corruption. Second it is pretty stupid for Skinner to say they do not have the time or resources to enter the program. So, any increase in crime of any type will break the force? I used to have respect for Skinner, not anymore.
He needs to be told:
“You’re going to do it…or we’ll find someone that will.”
Agree. While that may seem to be an extreme position to take. Just look at the Cities that have had the same attitude Skinner has. Too many Cities have passed the breaking point, and have really suffered because of illegal immigration.
Someone needs to tell him all the long term plans the City leadership has for the City will be all for nothing if Manassas does not start to crack down on illegals.
Well, that depends on whether he considers long-term gains for the City more important than the short-term gains he makes on whatever deal he has going on in GTS that apparently requires the presence of large numbers of illegal aliens to be profitable.
Slumlord, perhaps?
I realize that last comment of mine maybe harsh, but I have first-hand experience with the conditions you’ll find in some of these townhouses that are rented out in the older townhouse communities. Let a property go to hell and soon the only people you’ll find who want to live there will be illegal aliens.
There’s also the section 8 scam, where you can get paid fair-market rate rent by the government who won’t check to see if your property is in a fair-market condition.