One Like and Many Gripes

By Charles Houston

I seem to vacuum random facts, which my brain manufactures into various ideas and opinions. A basic topic is protecting Loudoun County. Some of my ideas can be expressed in short paragraphs, or even in a sentence or two. Here goes …

National Ideas

Securitize and sell roughly $1.6 trillion in SBA and student loans, and pay off that amount of the national debt. 

Impose term and age limits government-wide, to include judges.

Limit the decisions of inferior courts to their own geographical district. Find a way to stop judge-stopping, which automatically injects partisanship.

Raise Social Security’s retirement age by two months every year, until the retirement age has increased to 75 years.

Easy Local Ideas

There is one thing we should like: Our local government appears to be honest.

Eliminate the plastic bag tax, which is regressive and thus disproportionately burdens the poor. I think this tax was an aspirational, progressive idea that we could do without.

Ever drove over the front of a roadway median while turning? They can be very difficult to see, so paint medians’ noses optic yellow. 

Improve traffic flow with “Slower traffic move right” and “Trucks use right lane.” Who drives slowly in the left lane? Inattentive drivers. Rude drivers. Worst of all, passive-aggressive drivers who consciously drive the speed limit to force those behind them to do the same. Slow traffic in the left lane, intentional or not, often causes road rage.

End the grotesque practice of developers’ using legal shills to grease the way to Board approval. If a developer takes pride in his proposed project, have him personally present his plans.

Local Mistakes – Probably no way to fix them

While State code mandates Planning Commissions, they only have to comment on broad issues. Their review of individual zoning applications is a waste of time and duplicative of Staff’s professional advice. That’s made worse by having two odious planning commissioners.

Grandfathering data center proposals was a terrible mistake. The public has erupted over the intrusion of the 46 million square feet of data centers now up and running. The grandfathering allows another 61 million square feet of the ugly things. How on earth could the Board have let this happen, especially where a power catastrophe looms over us? There’s a solution—impose such stringent requirements (e.g. setbacks, height limits etc.) that effectively block any more data centers.

Oops! An unintended consequence: The Board passed a zoning requirement that cluster subdivisions had to stay off prime agricultural soils. That’s caused a huge reduction in conservation easements. It was also expected that these good soils would entice new farmers. That has yet to happen.

When planning districts were established, a hard edge (perhaps a greenbelt) should have been put between suburban and rural areas. In actuality, the Transition area, is dying a death of a thousand cuts as commercialization rolls through.

Difficult Local Ideas

Make all local elections non-partisan, and don’t identify the incumbents.

Understand the true nature of property rights, which one Supervisor cited as the reason for his wanting grandfathering. Our property rights are already limited by governmental taxation and regulation of such matters as zoning. Why squawk about “property rights” as if they were among the Ten Commandments? Doesn’t it seem that the “property rights” banner is waved by wealthy businesses and promoters?

County government seems to have a “spend every dollar” mentality; our per capita spending is 50% higher than in nearby suburban counties.

The County has over $250 million in undesignated funds. It seems to be rushing to squirrel that money away by creating new contingency accounts to serve as caches to hide that cash. Use the money to eliminate taxes on vehicles, and use future largesse to reduce real property taxes.

The School System – LCPS

LCPS spends like a drunken sailor, consuming more than 50% of our tax dollars. Worse, its capital spending is out of control. Can you say “$221 million for a new high school?” The Supervisors seem to take pride in fully funding the annual LCPS budget request. 

Don’t micromanage spending cuts, just take a sword to this Gordian knot and chop 15% or so off any LCPS budget request.

A Criticaster’s Jihad

One local crusader has studied County finances in detail and reached two conclusions. His first one is true – County spending is out of control. 

His second thesis is that real property taxes should comprise 60% of county revenue. Because of windfalls from data centers, we’re not near that “balanced budget” benchmark. But whoever set that 60% mark? Why is it magic? Why do a few top county officials buy into it?

There are two ways to meet the 60% target: Cut data center taxes (Is the criticaster crazy?) or even crazier, impose higher real property taxes. Say goodbye to this Board when elections next come around.

An analogy would be if the County had a winning MegaMillions ticket and pocketed, say, $200 million. Would you say to the lottery, “We’ll take only $80 million because we must maintain a balanced revenue stream?” 

A Populist Crusade

At Gettysburg, Abe Lincoln spoke simple words that define the best concept for governance: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

In theory, that sentence makes you feel good. In practice, it makes you want to choke most politicians and all lobbyists. For millennia, governments have been of, by and for the powerful and the wealthy. At the Federal level, consider the influence wielded by big corporations, big unions, big nabobs. At our state level, Dominion exerts the most power over the General Assembly. At the local level, do big promoters and rich land barons usually get their way?

Yep. It kinda makes me sad. Angry, too.

Charlie Houston and his wife live on a small farm in Paeonian Springs. While writing this he had to pause to find some Rolaids.