Pick One: Tax Hikes, Or More Taxes?
By Greg L | 19 June 2008 | Prince William County | 16 Comments
Back in April the Regional Chamber of Commerce sent out a survey to members asking their opinion on whether they’d like a tax hike for transportation, or alternatively, whether they’d like to see their taxes raised in order to finance transportation improvements. Well, the results have been tabulated, and it turns out that 40% of the members support a tax hike. With a survey as incredibly biased towards an outcome where the Chamber of Commerce would support tax hikes, this is a pretty stunning rebuke. Fortunately, it would seem that local business owners can see past this utter goofiness.
But that didn’t stop the chamber. Despite their being no clear support for tax hikes, the Chamber’s Executive Board approved this message to the membership, asking for their help in lobbying the General Assembly for — now wait for it…
Tax hikes.
This is absolutely stunning. Who’s running the Regional Chamber, John Chichester and Russ Potts?
You are receiving this email because you are a member of the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce. On Monday, June, 23 our state legislators will go to Richmond for a special transportation session. You’ll remain in Prince William, impacted by the gridlock that plagues all of Northern Virginia.
You may be faced with increased delivery times. The already-high cost of gas may be made even higher for you because you and your employees sit in an idling vehicle when roads are congested. You may be limited in the times that you can schedule meetings or appointments, particularly if you need to leave Prince William, by the times when you know that the roads will be at their most crowded. And you may have employees who are late or frustrated by their commute or customers who are reluctant to visit your place of business.
And worse, planned roads that could have helped are no longer a near-term possibility because of a recent legislative failure – HB 3202, which was passed last year to provide some relief but this year overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court.
We’ve heard from you in conversations, meetings and responses to surveys that you are frustrated by the state of transportation. It’s important that you communicate now with our legislators.
Our legislators were elected to solve the critical problems that relate to our region’s prosperity and quality of life. It’s time for them to put aside political posturing, partisanship and ideology and work together to provide real solutions for the businesses and residents of Prince William.
Your Chamber has written to all of the Prince William legislators. Yesterday – Wednesday, June 18 – we sat down with them to work together for transportation solutions. They need to hear from you also.
More information on the current state of transportation, the special General Assembly session and how to contact our legislators can be found on the Chamber’s website at http://www.regionalchamber.org/public_policy/TransportationSpecialSession6.08.shtm.
Thank you for being a member of the Region’s Chamber.
Laurie C. Wieder
President
The Region’s Chamber
Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce
Connecting You With Business Opportunity
4320 Ridgewood Center Drive
Prince William, VA 22192
703-590-5000, Ext. 102; Fax 703-590-9815
www.RegionalChamber.org
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
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“Who’s running the Regional Chamber, John Chichester and Russ Potts?”
Answer:
A local guy. His name is Miles Friedman, and he is the chairman of the PWC Economic Development Council. www.milesfriedman.com
Professional “Track Record” (Partial)
Prince William County, Virginia…funded by the County, the Prince William 66 Business Partnership and the City of Manassas to profile their unique ED partnership with George Mason University.
Comcast…hired to assist in developing community outreach and partnering strategy
Greater Prince William Community Development Center…engaged as one of two primary cohorts to develop a novel approach to expanding the supply of workforce housing in the community.
Northern Virginia Community College…engaged to develop and facilitate a Business Community Dialog on BRAC; prepare and implement community responses to impending base buildups.
Prince William County, Virginia…engaged by the County to reorganize its ED function and to design a public-private Economic Development Council.
Virginia Chamber of Commerce… engaged to assess the state’s competitive position for ED.
Comcast community outreach … well, that explains it a little. Are you allowed to bring hammers to chamber meetings?
Huh. I’ve been thinking for a while that whoever is doing economic development for the county needs to be replaced. Heck, after two years they couldn’t even find a suitable place to relocate the Globe & Laurel restaurant that was being displaced by the Route 1 widening near Quantico, yet Stafford County was able to find a perfect location within 2 months.
This the same guy who asked the BOCS earlier this year to fund a work force housing project. They approved $200k for the project and not one home materialized.
The Manassas Journal Messenger reported that he paid himself 160k. Even more ridiculous is that BOCS approved another $50k!
A moment of silence please for the quarter of a million dollars that could have been used to fund the Rule of Law resolution, the Senior Center in Manassas, Park Authority for Silver Lake, police camera’s, etc.
Ghandi-
Umm…those were proffer funds collected from developers to pay for affordable housing initiatives. The BOCS could not have spent them on other projects. Maybe they should not have given the money to this donkey and given them to some other affordable housing group. But they could not have used them for the other stuff you mentioned.
Here is a word about taxes:
Police slaying of man raises neighborhood tensions
Jun 10, 2008 12:00 AM by Freeman Klopott , The Examiner 2 hrs 43 ago: Police slaying of man raises neighborhood tensions When a Montgomery County police officer killed 25-year-old Hector Jose Marinero on Friday
Now that everything is quite again, please come out to Juan’s illegal taco business. We operated out of a house without a license or regulation to keep the costs down. We don’t pay taxes on our profits so we can bring you the lowest priced illegal tacos around.
http://www.zillow.com/aerial/DualMapPage.htm?zpid=37520815
Hello,
I’m Juan from Juan’s illegal taco house. Please look at this site to see how many times people have complained about me selling quaility illegal tacos from my residency.
http://egov.goprincegeorgescounty.com/Epermitsexternal/Site/Public/Citizens/Permitdefault.Aspx
But I still bring you the lowest priced unlicensed unregulated tacos in town. Come out today to get a low priced taco today!
Look at this latest attempt to shut down my low priced illegal, unlicensed, unregulated taco house.
June 1, 2008
Maj Kevin Davis
Commander, Prince George’s County Police, District I
5000 Rhode Island Ave
Hyattsville, MD 20784
Dear Maj Davis:
This letter is in follow up to the District I’s Advisory Community Meeting of January 30, 2008. At that meeting Ofc Lisa Garland described the Joint Agency Group (JAG) program for addressing persistent and varied issues at specific properties. Thank you very much for your attention to the properties listed in my previous letter. The JAG intervention had some impact to improve property standards at 2211 Cool Spring Rd., 2708 Curry Drive; 2409 Cool Spring Rd, and 8320 26th Ave.
I have since received a request concerning 8531 Riggs Rd. As you can see from the enclosed, there have been numerous actions concerning the operation of an illegal food business at this address. Our hope is that a coordinated JAG visit to this address will prompt the shut down of these operations that apparently continue despite these numerous citations. As you can see also, we have already corresponded about this case with Mr. Bill Edelen of the Department of Environmental Resources.
If this county attorney could not shut me down I think I’m in the clear!
Court System: DISTRICT COURT FOR PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY - CIVIL SYSTEM
Case Number: 0502SP085752007Claim Type:INJUNCTION
District/Location Codes: 05 / 02Filing Date:06/05/2007Case Status:CLOSED
Name: MAGNER, ANNE C
Connection to Complaint: ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFF
Address: 5121 COUNTY ADMIN. BLDG.
City: UPPER MARLBOROState:MDZip Code:20772
If Person is Attorney: Attorney Code:000910Attorney’s Firm:ASSOC COUNTY ATTORNEY
Complaint No: 002(PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY, MARYLAND) Vs:(CASTILLO, JUAN )
Type: REGULAR CLAIM
Status Date: 08/17/2007Filing Date:06/05/2007Amount$0Last Activity Date:08/17/2007
Type: INITIAL CASE FILINGComplaint No.:
Date: 06/05/2007Comment:INITIAL FILING OF INJUNCTION
Type: COURT ORDER ENTEREDComplaint No.:001
Date: 06/12/2007Comment:9S2;ORDER OF INJUNCTION ISSUANCE
SERVICEComplaint No.:001
Date: 06/19/2007Comment:REGL;0605200 7;DEF;SV-SERVED ;
Type: COMMENTComplaint No.:
Date: 08/15/2007Comment:ATP APPRD BEFORE JUDGE BARON, CONSENT ORDER SIGNED
COMMENTComplaint No.:
Date: 08/17/2007Comment:SENT COPY OF SIGNED ORDER TO PARTIES
CASE CLOSEDComplaint No.:
Date: 08/17/2007Comment:ORDER SIGNED
So this is Juan From Juan’s illegal tacos where we don’t care who wants us to stop cooking and selling unlicensed, unregulated, tacos from a residential home where we pay no taxes on our profits from said tacos, telling you to come on down to Juan’s Tacos. We will sell tacos at the lowest price possible. If you get food poisoning(proof required) your next 2 tacos are FREE!
Kingsley,
We all know the County does a great job hiding it’s money from the public eye.
It’s like the street hustler in NY with the walnut shells. Now you see it, now you don’t.
I had no idea we asked developers to support affordable housing.
Isn’t this the same misguided “donkey” who is trying to bust up the rural crescent by finding excuses to bring in public sewage systems?
The Chamber’s been getting drunk on the kool-aid.
It is more like a “chamber pot” the bed pan of socialist thought.
Ghandi said on 19 Jun 2008 at 6:06 pm:
Kingsley,
We all know the County does a great job hiding it’s money from the public eye.
It’s like the street hustler in NY with the walnut shells. Now you see it, now you don’t.
I had no idea we asked developers to support affordable housing.
Isn’t this the same misguided “donkey” who is trying to bust up the rural crescent by finding excuses to bring in public sewage systems?
The Chamber’s been getting drunk on the kool-aid.
Every uint rezoned for Residential housing pays 250.00 each for affordable housing if you are a white man requesting the rezoning. If you are a black man such a Mr Stokes in a January 07 rezoning request then he had to agree to sell on of 18 units that were approved at 33% less then the regular selling price rather then just 250.00. This is your BOCS by their public voting record. Not one other rezoning request has ever had to sell a unit at 33 % less for affordable housing since and not sure if any before that had to do that either for the previous 2-3 years. No discrimination in PWC or by the BOCS is there?
Anyone know why Bob Wills repeats others’ posts before putting in his vile diatribes?
Lefty said on 20 Jun 2008 at 9:49 am:
Anyone know why Bob Wills repeats others’ posts before putting in his vile diatribes?
Lefty sorry you are having such a bad day. Hope it gets better for you soon
To bad the truth bothers you so much
Not enough people are taking the time to get involved, and because of that, special interests groups, like the Region’s Chamber are using their influence to raise taxes.
Taxes are not in the best interest of businesses. Where were they when some supervisors wanted to raise the property tax rate to $1.00!
This is about special interests groups leveraging their influence, and that influence taking priority over what is best for the majority.
Whereas certain individuals may benefit from the pork barrel interests, it is not always what is best for the majority.
Not enough people are taking the time to get involved, and because of that, special interests groups, like the Region’s Chamber are using their influence to raise taxes.
Taxes are not in the best interest of businesses. Where were they (PWRCC) when some supervisors wanted to raise the property tax rate to $1.00?
This is about special interests groups leveraging their influence, and that influence taking priority over what is best for the majority.
Whereas certain individuals may benefit from the pork barrel interests, it is not always what is best for the majority on a local or state level.
Have you reviewed the Republican transportation proposal, penned by the infamous Dave Albo, author of the abusive drivers legislation. His most recent proposal is absolutely insane, raise 15 taxes and fees, you name it it’s taxed, need new tires, well pay an additional $4 for each one, have a kid getting an initial drivers license, well pony up $150, it goes on an on, he must have been on something wildly illegal when he came up with this plan.
“Have you reviewed the Republican transportation proposal, penned by the infamous Dave Albo, author of the abusive drivers legislationI”
It’s the original draft of HB3202 before Kaines changes. It’ll never happen.
Once again, the Chamber is advocating tax increases on the front page of the Potomac News. How is the fairly representing businesses already struggling to control costs and remain profitable.
This is B.S.