FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - November 2022
-- by David Swink, 11/29/2022
'Good Reads', a Cure for Wokeness?
Many of us were surprised that the November election results produced a "red trickle" rather than the anticipated "red wave" -- given the woeful Atlas-Shrugged-like state of the nation. The Left was able to get Gen-Z and Millennials out in force, and -- with their K-16 indoctrination in wokeness -- was thus able to largely maintain the dreadful status quo.
Now we all know that most young people start out inclined to vote with the left, and move to the right as they gain maturity. But public schools in America have for decades been de-emphasizing critical thinking skills, emphasizing so-called "social emotional learning" (SEL), and of late have branched out into the Marxist Critical Race Theory (CRT) and destuctive transgender grooming. This borders on child abuse, and at best renders the upcoming generation with "skulls full of mush" (a Rush Limbaugh depiction), leaving K-16 graduates woefully unprepared to successfully navigate in the real world (and to vote intelligently).
When this writer graduated from Fairfax County Public Schools in 1962, he had been required to read and discuss a number of the great works of Western literature, including Moby Dick, Great Expectations, The Scarlet Letter, and Animal Farm. These and other great works teach us life's lessons and provide valuable perspective from human history in Western civilization. Life's lessons include honor, integrity, courage, steadfastness, moderation, humility, manliness, femininity, and manners -- virtues sadly not adequately addressed in today's culture. So what to do?
This writer (and FCTA webmaster) noted that the Great Works were by-and-large available somewhere on the internet, but there was no central location where these works were consolidated and their content made accessible. This is now fixed: "Good Reads: Full Text of Classics in Western Literature" (Ref http://fcta.org/books/). But of course who wants to read an entire book from their computer? -- one should buy the paperback. The point is: there's now one location where these Great Works can be found and referenced!
Well, so what!? Studious parents -- if they know about our 'Good Reads' site -- may be encouraged to ask their kids what they're being assigned in school, and to perhaps add some required reading of their own. Such extra reading would certainly help to counterbalance some of the brainwashing encountered in the schools. FCTA may even consider buying sheets of those smartphone-readable QR code stickers to append to those hundreds of street-side mini-libraries throughout Fairfax County. What say you?
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - June 2022
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 06/22/2022
Fairfax County Homeowners to Get a $600 (8%) Tax Hike -- Taxation by Misrepresentation -- (Printable)
- Note: Also posted on The Bull Elephant, Bacon's Rebellion, and Fairfax County Times.
Around June 28 Fairfax County homeowners will get their real estate tax bill, which is due July 28. The typical homeowner's real estate tax bill will increase by $484 or 6.8%, from $7,159 to $7,643.
 
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Around Sept. 5, Fairfax County car owners will get their personal property tax bill, which is due Oct. 5. The typical household's personal property tax will increase by $151 or 36%, from $420 to $571.
Combining real estate and property tax increases, the typical household will have a $634 or 8.4% tax increase. This is the largest increase since Gerry Connolly's 9.7% increase in 2006, at the end of the housing bubble. (When he was county chairman, Congressman Connolly increased taxes 15% in 2003, which makes him the record holder for the largest tax increase since 1982.)
However, if you read county chairman Jeff McKay's April 26, 2022, newsletter about next year's budget, you'd think your taxes are going down.
First, he says that the supervisors lowered the tax rate 3 cents, from $1.14 to $1.11. In fact, the supervisors increased the tax rate, since $1.11 is 7 cents higher than the $1.04 rate which would have prevented a tax increase due to higher assessments.
Virginia Code Section 58.1-3321 requires supervisors to compare the new rate of $1.11 not to the current $1.14 rate but to a lower rate that would offset the increase in assessments. For homeowners that "lowered" rate is $1.04. Chairman McKay ignores the Virginia Code.
Also, Chairman McKay left out the stormwater tax, which is also based on assessments. The stormwater rate is $0.0325, so the total real estate tax rate is $1.1425, and not $1.11.
Second, Chairman McKay says, "The Board also agreed to a 15% reduction in the assessment of personal property (car tax), ..." However, used car values have increased so much that even with this 15% "reduction", the typical household's car tax bill will increase 36%.
Third, Chairman McKay cites "expanded tax relief for seniors", which will increase the number of seniors eligible for tax relief by 2,000. There are about 160,000 seniors in the county, so the expanded tax relief benefits only about 1% of seniors.
Under compensation, Chairman McKay says all county employees are getting 4% raises. However, the supervisors' budget package states that there will be "... average pay increases of 7.86 percent for uniformed public safety employees and 6.16 percent for non-uniformed employees ..."
All told, county revenue increases next year total $246 million. The total cost of raises and rate hikes for benefits for the county and schools (school employees are also getting 6% raises) is $252 million. So, the quarter-of-a-billion-dollar tax hike is all for raises and benefits.
Chairman McKay's newsletter does not mention this. Instead, he says, "In total, this budget provides $199.4 million in tax relief."
This is taxation by misrepresentation.
What he means is that the supervisors were thinking of raising taxes and other revenues by $445 million, but instead they only raised taxes and revenues by $246 million.
Suppose Chairman McKay had said that the supervisors effectively raised the real estate tax rate 7 cents rather than decreasing it 3-cents; that the rate is actually $1.14, not $1.11; that the car tax is going up 36%, not down 15%, that county employees are getting raises of 6% and 7%, not 4%, and that county revenues are increasing $246 million to pay for the raises and not going down by $199 million.
Would that jeopardize Chairman McKay’s reelection next year?
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - April 2022
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 04/23/2022
"Any Rate Reduction of Less Than 10¢ Is a Tax Hike!"
- The following is testimony of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance at the April 12 Board of Supervisors hearing on the effective tax rate increase. FCTA testimony is mentioned in a Fairfax Times article on the budget hearings.
Members of the Board:
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I am Arthur Purves and address you as president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance.
Virginia Code Section 58.1-3321 requires that you hold this hearing and that you publicize it. The purpose is to let voters know that the supervisors can prevent a real estate tax increase due to higher assessments by reducing the real estate tax rate ten cents.
Many believe that if assessments increase, real estate taxes have to increase. This is false. The supervisors can prevent a tax increase due to higher assessments by lowering the tax rate.
To prevent a tax increase for homeowners next year, Mr. Chairman, you and the board can reduce the tax rate ten cents.
However, this hearing and the ability to prevent a real estate tax increase by reducing the rate by ten cents is one of the county's best-kept secrets. The ten-cent reduction is not mentioned anywhere in the county's 1400-page FY2023 Advertised Budget Plan. The ten-cent reduction is not mentioned in budget press releases. The ten-cent reduction is not mentioned in supervisor newsletters. The ten-cent reduction is not mentioned in town halls. Even this hearing's legally required announcement that you publish in the Washington Times, does not mention the ten-cent reduction.
One might conclude that the supervisors do not want voters and taxpayers to know that a ten-cent reduction in the tax rate would prevent a real estate tax increase, perhaps because knowledge of that fact would jeopardize the supervisors' reelection next year.
Note, any rate reduction of less than ten cents will result in a tax hike for homeowners. If you reduce the rate eight cents, that still results in a tax hike. If you reduce the rate 5 cents, that's a bigger tax hike. If you reduce the rate only 2 or 3 cents, that is an enormous tax hike.
If you believe that taxpayers would vote you out of office if they knew that you hiked taxes by failing to reduce the rate ten cents, then maybe you should reduce rate by ten cents.
However, by not reducing the rate, you get an extra $250 million. That's a quarter of a billion dollars. You want that money because you have promised 37,000 county and school employees 6% raises next year, and those raises cost $250 million.
For the past two decades the average raises for county and school employees have been well above inflation. To pay for those raises, you've had to increase household real estate taxes faster than inflation. That's because your other revenue sources are stagnant. Commercial real estate taxes, the car tax, the BPOL tax, utility taxes, and sales taxes collected per household have barely kept up with inflation.
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So, the only way you’ve been able to grant raises above inflation has been to sock it to the homeowners. For two decades you've increased homeowner real estate taxes about three times faster than household income.
You should be concerned. In FY2000, real estate tax revenues were only half of the county's income. But because all your other revenue sources are stagnant and because of your soaring residential real estate tax hikes, real estate taxes are now two-thirds of the county's income. You should see red flags.
If 37,000 county and school employees want raises that are above inflation, then then schools and county administrators should produce a workforce and a business climate that attracts and retains good businesses, increases personal wealth, and drives up tax revenues due to increased prosperity and not tax-rate increases.
The numbers say that hasn't happened in 20 years. Until it starts happening there is no justification for increasing residential tax revenues any faster than your other, stagnant, revenue sources.
As far as the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is concerned, if the real estate tax rate is reduced by only 8, or 5, or 2 cents we will do our best to inform the voters that the incumbent supervisors enacted a tax hike.
Thank you.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - March 2022
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 03/24/2022
"Reduce the Fairfax County Real Estate Tax Rate by 10 Cents"
- Note: Also posted on Bacon's Rebellion, The Bull Elephant, Fairfax County Times, and Sun Gazette.
If you live in Fairfax County and are over 50, you may have received from the county a 5-page 120-question survey to "... inform the county's ... Future Aging Plan". Here's the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance Future Aging Plan: Stop taxing us out of our homes.
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For 20 years, the county supervisors have been increasing real estate taxes three times faster than household income. Real estate taxes are the supervisors' "Unaffordable Housing Program". The supervisors do have an "Affordable Housing Program", but with a waiting list so long that they're afraid to disclose it. Their Unaffordable Housing Program, however, has no waiting list: Homeowners get a tax hike July 28.
Assessments increased almost 10%. Everyone thinks that because assessments increased real estate taxes have to increase. This is false. The supervisors can prevent a tax hike by lowering the tax rate 10 cents. However, if they keep the rate unchanged, they get an extra $250 million. That's a quarter of billion dollars.
The supervisors want that money to give 37,000 county and school employees 6% and 7% raises, because of "recruitment and retention issues". For the past two decades the average raises for all county and school employees have been higher than inflation. Most employees would probably lose pay and benefits if they went to the private sector.
Except for police, the supervisors have provided no data about retention. What's the impact of mask and vaccine mandates? Administrivia? Or in the schools, student behavior? What's the impact of the anti-police rhetoric?
What do our taxes buy us?
A county administration that cannot attract business: commercial real estate tax revenues are stagnant.
A school system that, because of its flawed reading and arithmetic curriculum, provides no upward mobility for low-income children and mediocre achievement for whites.
A school system that uses history to attack the Constitution. As Governor Youngkin has repeatedly said, we need to teach honest history. But the goal of CRT is to dissolve the Senate, end the electoral college, and become a pure democracy. Pure democracy leads to tyranny. Vladimir Putin was elected president by a 71% majority. Hitler and Mussolini's parties won popular elections. Is that what we want from our taxes?
To prevent a tax increase the supervisors can lower the real estate rate by 10 cents. We predict they'll lower it by only 5 cents.
The supervisors have provided no evidence to back up their claim that recruitment and retention justify a quarter of a billion dollars of raises. Until they do, the Taxpayers Alliance recommends that the supervisors lower the tax rate 10 cents.
Also, union contributions to supervisor political campaigns are a conflict of interest, as unions sit on both sides of the bargaining table. We therefore recommend an end to union contributions to supervisor political campaigns.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - January 2022
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 01/08/2022
A Taste of Tyranny - Testimony to the Fx Co Delegation to the Va General Assembly
- Note: The first Saturday of every January, the nine state senators and 17 delegates from Fairfax County hold a public hearing at the Fairfax County Government Center. Speakers have three minutes. This is the testimony given by Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance president, Arthur Purves. It's been posted on Bacon's Rebellion and The Bull Elephant.
Thank you for holding this hearing. I have five topics:
First, it was 19 degrees this morning, and we just had a 20-hour, 50-mile shutdown on I-95 due to snow and ice. You should claim victory in your war against global warming, withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and repeal the Virginia Clean Energy Act, which drives up the cost of living and replaces reliable with unreliable energy. Solar panel production is not clean.
Why does Germany, a leader in clean energy, need a new natural gas pipeline?
The evidence for a climate change crisis is sketchy. For example, when I asked an employee who had worked at a ski resort for 32 years if the ski season had been shortened, the answer was no. For another example, Bangladesh flooding is the result of silt runoff due to deforestation, not rising sea levels.
Second, for two decades, Fairfax County real estate taxes have been increasing three times faster than household income. It is the county's "unaffordable housing" program. The tax hikes are driven by employee compensation. This year the supervisors have floated a 9 percent real estate tax hike so employees can have 6 percent raises. Unions donated $100,000 to Fairfax County Chairman's 2019 election campaign. To end this conflict of interest, we ask you to ban union contributions to local election campaigns.
Third, regarding CRT, public schools are a leading cause of poverty and racial inequality. They provide no upward mobility. The most important years are 1st and 2nd grades where reading and math facts are taught. However, by third grade, Blacks and Latinos are behind whites and Asians and never catch up. The reason is that schools teach "whole word" instead of intensive phonics and ignore arithmetic drill. The students who succeed are the ones who get phonics and math drill outside of school. Hence, the public-school curriculum advantages whites and Asians and disadvantages Blacks and Latinos. Thus, public schools fit the CRT definition of "systemic racism". More money won't fix public schools; competition will.
Fourth, families are crucial to student success. Edmund Burke said, "Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality." The same can be said of successful families. But in literature and Family Life Education, schools teach that morality is optional and unexpected. The destruction of families is government's growth engine.
Fifth, Edmund Burke also said, "The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws." COVID lockdowns, school closures, mask mandates, mandates for experimental, misnamed vaccines, and the banning of low-risk, low-cost cures such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) come to mind.
By giving Virginians a taste of tyranny, you may have awakened them.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - October 2021
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 09/28/2021
Democrat Bunkum about Youngkin
In this fall's Virginia gubernatorial campaign, Virginia Democrats are citing "a new independent study" to attack Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, when Democrat policies themselves merit scrutiny. The Virginia Democrats web page does not cite the source of the Youngkin study but does link to the the website of the Virginia Education Association (VEA), whose political action committee has endorsed the Democrat candidate. The VEA page describes a study about "... Mr. Youngkin's proposal to eliminate the personal income tax ..." but does not link to an actual study. To request it, you must contact VEA Communications.
Try it. The reply was, "This study is being reserved for VEA members and members of the media."
What are the Democrats and the "independent" Virginia Education Association trying to hide? Perhaps it is that Mr. Youngkin never proposed to eliminate the personal income tax. According to PolitiFact:
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Seeking the GOP nomination in April, Youngkin said he was focused "on not just getting our income tax down, but how we can, in fact, eliminate it." Although that may have stirred some Republicans, Youngkin stopped short of saying he would abolish the tax. He said he was looking into it with a conservative economist.
Four months later, Youngkin says he still wants to cut the income tax but has determined it's infeasible to eliminate it. That's a significant change in position, but he left himself some leeway.
The VEA page also cites cataclysmic numbers, for example 43,000 fewer educator jobs, from another study, by Virginia Excels, which is based on the same falsehood.
Now, consider Democrat proposals.
For education, instead of returning last year's record $2.6 billion budget surplus to taxpayers, they will increase public school spending annually by $2 billion. They do not promise to raise overall or minority achievement. That requires elementary school curricula changes that they oppose, namely intensive phonics instead of "Balanced Literacy" and arithmetic drill instead of reliance on hand calculators.
For the economy, their promise of good jobs for Black and Brown communities will fail, as it has for past decades, as long as Virginia public schools fail to raise minority achievement. Mandatory sick leave and raising the minimum wage jeopardize small businesses and reduce entry-level jobs. Think kiosks at McDonalds.
For COVID recovery, they will help Black and Brown-owned businesses, which closed at disproportionate rates during the lockdown, by again raising the minimum wage and by mandating paid sick, family, and medical leave! Can small businesses afford mandates?
For healthcare, they will expand Medicaid, which subsidizes poverty rather than ending it, and still allows hospitals to charge exorbitant rates elsewhere to make up for Medicaid underpayments.
For gun violence, they will continue complicating gun laws so law-abiding citizens become inadvertent felons, while Democrats ignore family breakdown, which is the source of most gun violence.
For energy, Democrats will tear down all natural gas power plants and ban gasoline cars, driving up energy costs and causing solar and wind-related brownouts to avoid climate disasters that are predicted but don't occur. Imagine your electric car's battery running out in a traffic jam.
For higher education, they will attempt to teach in community colleges what they failed to teach in grades K-12.
Their affordable housing plans reduce the housing supply by imposing mandates and restrictions on landlords. Affordable housing programs do not meet a fraction of the demand.
For nutrition, the government will furnish more meals. Remember when families used to cook their own meals?
For women's rights, they ignore that Virginia already has 17,000 abortions a year, and that half of the babies aborted are female. The United States birth rate is now below the replacement level. Is that what Democrats want?
For Black Virginians, Democrats force Black children -- and all children -- to attend public schools that cannot even teach reading and writing, thereby trapping children in poverty.
For seniors, the Democrats will drive up taxes that erode retirement incomes to fund programs that subsidize problems instead of solving them.
For COVID, the Democrats will "incentivize" ($14,000 fines per employee?) businesses to mandate the COVID vaccine even though the inventor of mRNA warns against universal vaccination (will result in a vaccine-resistant variant) and says that only those at high risk should be vaccinated.
Democrats attack Youngkin for a proposal that Youngkin never made and base their attack on a secret "independent" study that wasn't independent. Meanwhile Democrat proposals are the same socialist solutions Democrats have promoted for a century. They drive up taxes, trap the poor in poverty, subsidize failed programs, erode freedom, and ignore individual responsibility, the power of free markets, and the critical role of families.
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Note: This article was reprinted at Bacon's Rebellion and The Bull Elephant.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - September 2021
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 09/24/2021
Return Virginia's Surplus, Don't Reward Schools that Don't Teach
Virginia ended Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 with a record-breaking budget surplus of $2.6 billion. (Virginia's budget year, or fiscal year, is from July 1 to June 30.) Virginia Governor Ralph Northam stated that the surplus was due to Virginia's great business climate, pointing out that CNBC ranked Virginia as the #1 state for being business friendly. Not everyone agrees with CNBC. The Virginia Industry Foundation last November ranked Virginia as #11.
$800 million in tax hikes.
Also, Governor Northam did not acknowledge that perhaps $800 million of the
surplus is from two recent tax hikes. One is the internet sales tax, which
started July 2019. The other is Virginia's failure to increase its income
tax standard deductions to conform to the federal standard deductions.
Currently the Virginia standard deduction for single and married filers is $4,500 and $9,000 compared to the 2021 federal deductions of $12,550 and $25,100. Many filers have itemized deductions that are less than the federal standard deduction but greater than the Virginia standard deduction. They opt for the federal standard deduction to save on federal taxes but are then forced by Virginia to use the Virginia standard deduction on their state return. They then pay more for their Virginia tax than they did with itemized deductions.
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In 2019, the Virginia Department of Taxation estimated that the new internet sales tax would increase Virginia revenues by $175 million in FY2021. The Tax Foundation estimated that the lack of conformity between Virginia and federal standard deductions would increase Virginia revenues by $600 million.
Governor Northam's press release on the FY2021 surplus did not specify how much of the surplus came from these two tax increases.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin has promised to double the Virginia standard deductions and return about $1 billion of the surplus in the form of one-time checks of $300 to single filers and $600 to joint filers.
Extra billions for public schools.
However, whenever Republicans propose cutting taxes, Democrats often counter
by saying that the money is needed for the "underfunded" public schools.
For example, when State Senator Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, announced her run for re-election in 2019, she stated, "I am outraged that despite loud breast beating about the importance of education, we do very little to fund it."
Senator Howell was first elected in 1995. Since then, Virginia spending on public schools has increased $5.4 billion more than needed to keep up with enrollment and inflation. This includes state, local, and federal funding.
Senator Howell, by virtue of the Democrats winning the majority in the state senate, is now chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. It is sobering that the Senate Finance Committee chairman considers an extra $5.4 billion "very little".
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Low student achievement.
What is student achievement with the extra billions? Not good.
Every year Virginia administers Standards of Learning (SOL) tests statewide, including high school tests for reading and Algebra I. The SOL tests have two passing thresholds, "Pass Proficient" and "Pass Advanced".
"Pass Proficient" is a misnomer; "Pass Barely Proficient" would be more appropriate as it corresponds to D-level work, or just above failing. "Pass Advanced" is a better indicator of college and career readiness.
Statewide only 14% of Asians read at the Advanced level; and Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics do worse.
Statewide, 40% of Asians passed Algebra I at the Advanced level, while whites, Blacks, and Hispanics were at 15% or less.
Public schools' flawed curriculum.
The extra billions of dollars did not raise achievement. The reason is
that public schools do not teach reading (they use "whole word" instead of
intensive phonics for reading instruction) nor math (no math drill), little
history (displaced by social studies) nor morals (unconstitutional).
The flawed reading and math instruction results in many children being unable to read and do math facts by 3rd grade, and they never catch up. Teachers are victims too, being forced to use bad curricula and deal with students who are frustrated because they're not learning.
More taxes for schools that cannot teach reading and math are dollars wasted.
Public schools provide no upward mobility for low-income children. If you are poor in kindergarten, you will be poor as an adult.
Critical Race Theory.
Another problem is Critical Race Theory, now called "Culturally Responsive
Education". Although what little history public schools teach ignores
travesties in American history, Critical Race Theory tells students what
America has done wrong and nothing about what America has done right.
This biases students against the Constitution and towards socialism.
Are students taught that Hitler was a socialist and that NAZI stands for
National Socialist German Workers Party? It is ironic that public schools,
which virtue signal about systemic racism, are perhaps the major reason
why minorities have no upward mobility, due to the schools' flawed
curricula.
End state control of public schools.
What is to be done? First there should be no increase in public school
funding until the curricula are fixed. However, state and local school
boards have embraced bad curricula for nearly a century and show no signs
of relenting.
So, second, end state control of public schools and let local school boards run their districts. Virginians pay the state Department of Education $300 million annually to administer mediocrity statewide. Maybe local school districts would compete to attract good students. Ending state control of public schools would require amending the Virginia constitution, which states in Article VIII that the General Assembly "... shall seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established ..." The General Assembly has shown it is incapable of doing that.
School choice.
Third, as Glenn Youngkin has advocated but Terry McAuliffe opposes, enact
school choice. One option is for school districts to give a voucher equal
to the per-student cost for every child that leaves public school for
private or home schooling. Another option is to replicate West Virginia's
Hope Scholarship, which allows parents to spend the state portion of school
funding for private schools or home tutoring.
In any case, we need to stop increasing spending for public schools that perpetuate mediocrity and poverty and turn children against our country. Both students and teachers deserve to teach in schools where children really learn, teachers really teach, and students are not turned against a country that is (was?) so free and prosperous that the rest of the world wants to migrate here.
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Note: This article was reprinted at Bacon's Rebellion.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - July 2021
-- by David Swink, 07/29/2021
The Left's Critical 3-M Theories
It's summertime and the state and local pols are safely unbusy, so this article will reflect on the big freedom-robbing and indoctrination issues being pushed nationally by the Left and their media enablers. I refer to these as the 3-M's of Critical Theory -- 1. Critical "Melting" Theory (aka 'Global Warming' or 'Climate Change'); 2. Critical "Mask" Theory (part of the whole Covid fear-stoking effort for political control); and 3. Critical "Marxist" Theory (aka 'Critical Race Theory') -- stated in the order of mass public awareness:
Critical "Melting" Theory:
While CO2 makes up about 0.03% of the earth's atmosphere (Nitrogen 78%,
Oxygen 21%, Argon 0.93%) and is essential to all plant life, so-called
"environmentalists" have been attributing man's production of this very
minor greenhouse gas to the earth's doom-by-warming for the last 35 years,
with at least two RIP deadlines long past. No empirical science is involved,
just wildly inaccurate computer models. Meanwhile, actual worldwide warming
measurements have not
increased since 1998.
So what is the rationale for this effort to eliminate the use of fossil fuels? The answer: Control! The Left hates the freedom of mobility that diesel- and gas-driven cars and trucks provide (themselves exempted, of course). They would ideally like you confined to expensive public transportation. Alternatively, they want you to buy taxpayer-subsidized electric vehicles, which currently leave you dependent on mileage-limited lithium-ion batteries. Ironically, these same EV technologies cost the earth dearly in the mining of rare-earth and other precious metals (80% supplied by China) and are extremely damaging to the environment at life-cycle end, as they are very difficult and expensive to recycle. (ref: Truth About EVs)
Critical "Mask" Theory:
The Wuhan Covid-19 virus in early 2020 provided Leftists with a golden
opportunity to induce the citizenry to give up their freedom of association
("temporarily", of course). The President properly passed off enforcement
of any public health measures to the states, with a recommended two-week
period until the lethality of the virus was determined. But the pols in
many states and localities took this as a cue to grab and hold on to power
while their allies in the media kept their audiences in fear.
The CDC early on determined that Covid was about as lethal as the seasonal flu, with only a 0.26% mortality rate for those contracting the disease -- primarily the elderly and infirm. Children were considered virtually immune to Covid and were not vectors for transmission. So locking down the entire population was not necessary. Nevertheless, state and local pols instituted drastic lockdown, masking, and social distancing requirements; churches were ordered closed; schools were shut down for in-person learning for most of the 2021 school year.
Science also indicated early on that cheap medications like Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin were quite effective when applied in early treatment of patients experiencing Covid symptoms, thus allowing the patient to develop natural antibodies to future Covid infections. But how could Big Pharma make any money that way?! So the push was to crash-produce still-experimental vaccines at great taxpayer expense, vaccines which can cause serious side effects unlike HCQ or Ivermectin. And it turns out that those vaccines do not help your body produce the necessary antibodies to protect against Covid "variants", while naturally recovering from Covid likely does.
Still the drumbeat goes on for masking, mandatory Covid vaccination, and "vaccine passports". This has nothing to do with public health, but is an overt attempt to get people to cede their freedom to the ruling class. American pols admire the Orwellian "social credit scores" now required of the Chinese citizenry to track every facet of a person's life. Once again: Control!
Critical "Marxist" Theory:
The Left's "Melting" and "Mask" Theories would not be accepted by a public
properly educated in the nation's school systems. For some decades now,
public education has been in decline, with students being instructed in WHAT
to think, not in HOW to think. This dumbing down has accelerated in recent
months with the advent of "Critical Race Theory" -- a Marxist concept
Americanized with "race warfare" substituting for "class warfare".
Traditional "race hustlers" like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton directed their ire at society at large. Now Ibram Kendi is practicing the newest form of race hustle on America's students in our schools. Some schools were already promoting that discredited "Hannah's Hyphenated History" variant called the "1619 Project" (more accurately dubbed the "1917 Project"). Kendi's "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" is heavily promoted within Fairfax County, and you can read the book and or its critique and judge for yourself, located here: fcta.org/books/.
Ibram Kendi's STAMPED is remarkable only in that this modern-day race hustler has managed to promote it in many public (and private) "But-We-Don't-Teach-Critical-Race-Theory" school systems nationwide. As with other Woke/Marxist screeds, it's purpose is to dredge up unsavory items from the nation's past for the purpose of pitting [racial] classes against one another -- in the Leninist model. Kendi clearly states his purpose thusly: "I hope it's clear how the construct of race has always been used to keep and gain power, whether financially or politically." -- precisely what he's trying to perpetuate.
Critical "Thinking" and Critical "Information" -- Missing In Action:
So now you get the picture of the Left's "Critical 3-M Theories". Having
gained control of our institutions -- Schools, the Universities, Media,
Big Tech, Corporate CEOs, and Government agencies including FBI and even
DOD -- the Left is now indoctrinating our kids to hate the country, and
using Big Tech and the MainStream Media to promote misinformation and
outright disinformation on important issues such as the Global Warming hype
and the Covid Scamdemic.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - June 2021
-- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 06/24/2021
(also posted at Bacon's Rebellion)
Governor Northam's Hidden 40% Gasoline Tax Hike
Did you know that last year Virginia's tax on gasoline increased 5 cents per gallon, on July 1, 2020, from 24.4 cents to 29.4 cents?
Did you know that this year Virginia's tax on gasoline is increasing again, by another 5 cents per gallon on July 1, 2021, to 34.4 cents? That is a 40% increase in one year, costing the average motorist about $50 per year.
Also, starting next year the Virginia gasoline tax will automatically increase with inflation every July 1st.
Did you know that in addition to the Virginia gasoline tax, there is a federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents?
Therefore, the total gasoline tax at Virginia pumps will have increased from 42.8 cents in 2019 to 52.8 cents this year.
You won’t find these numbers in press reports because the For example, a March 8, 2020, Washington Post article, "Virginia
General Assembly approves higher gas tax ..." quoted Virginia officials
as saying that the gas tax before last year's increase was 16.2 cents.
It wasn't; it was 24.4 cents. The 16.2 cents is what the retailer pays the
state. In addition, the wholesaler pays another 7.6 cents per gallon to the
state. On top of that there is a 0.6 cent tax per gallon for tank storage.
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) collects gasoline taxes and is
responsible for reporting them. A June 5, 2020, DMV press release,
"New Law Reduces Vehicle Registration Fees for Virginians ..." does mention
"increasing the statewide gas tax by five cents this year and next."
The press release however emphasizes a $10 reduction in vehicle registration
fees, while admitting to a new "highway use fee" of $19 for fuel-efficient
cars.
Elsewhere the DMV website does mention the 2019 retailer 16.2 cent gas tax,
that it increased to 21.2 cents last year, and that it increases to 26.2 this
year, but try to find it. The 0.6 cent storage tank fee is also shown, but
with a typo: It's shown as "0.006 cents." It should be 0.6 cents or $0.006.
The wholesaler’s 7.6 cent per gallon tax is on a separate DMV page.
Nowhere does the DMV state that the total Virginia gasoline tax was
increasing from 24.4 cents to 34.4 cents.
Nowhere does the DMV website mention that with the federal gas tax,
the total gasoline tax at Virginia pumps will be 52.8 cents.
The gasoline tax hikes along with increases in hotel taxes and real estate
transfer taxes plus the new "highway use fee" were enacted by Patrons of HB1414 include Fairfax County Delegates Eileen Filler-Corn,
"Rip" Sullivan, Jr., Vivian Watts, and Kathleen Murphy.
Patrons of the identical senate version, Senate Bill 890 (SB890), include
Fairfax County Senators Richard Saslaw, Jennifer Boysko, and
Barbara Favola. In the Washington Post article, a Northam spokeswoman said that
HB1414 is a "once-in-a-generation" package. Not so. In 2019, HB2718
imposed the 7.6 cent wholesale gas tax on the I-81 corridor. Add to that
the new tolls on I-66. In 2013, HB 2313, another transportation bill,
raised the Fairfax County sales tax from 5 to 6 cents, a 20% increase, and
increased the auto sales tax from 3% to 4.15%. Perhaps Virginia's fastest growing revenue is "General Fund" revenue,
which is primarily income taxes and the portion of state sales taxes not
earmarked for transportation. Earmarked taxes go into a "Non-General Fund."
Since 1961, General Fund revenues, which are mainly spent on education
and welfare and are off-limits to transportation, have grown 7 times
faster than Virginia population and inflation.
If transportation had been allowed to compete against bloated education
and welfare budgets for soaring General Fund revenues, the repeated
transportation tax hikes would not have been necessary.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 04/30/2021
Learning or Indoctrination in our Schools? As the county anxiously awaits the return of full-time in-person school,
one might ask, "What will the students learn in our $3 billion school
system?"
They will not learn reading or arithmetic, at least not in school. Decades
ago, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) abandoned phonics, without
which you cannot learn reading, and it abandoned arithmetic drill,
without which you cannot do math.
However, it appears that students will learn Critical Race Theory.
Last August, FCPS paid $20,000 for Dr. Ibram X. Kendi to give a 1-hour
online presentation entitled "Cultivating an Anti-Racist School Community"
to an estimated audience of 1,500 FCPS staff members.
To learn what Dr. Kendi said, the Taxpayers Alliance submitted a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request for the transcript of the presentation.
The reply was that while there is no transcript, there is a recording.
However, the school superintendent agreed to a contract stipulating that
the recording could not be released to the public. The recording is
"confidential."
The Taxpayers Alliance then submitted another FOIA request "to see all
Critical Race Theory materials being taught to students."
The FCPS FOIA office sent this reply:
Please be advised, it is unclear what specific records you are
requesting. VFOIA requires that requests for public records be made
with reasonable specificity. Va. Code § 2.2-3704(B). If you wish to revise
the scope of your request, then please provide additional information on
what specific records you seek as Critical Race Theory is not a category
that FCPS uses to define instructional material.
Additionally, please be advised that FCPS has over 190 schools and course
materials are not maintained in a central location. If you wish to revise
the scope of your request, then please provide additional information on
what specific records you seek. You may wish to clarify the scope of your
request by identifying specific schools, course names or subjects, and/or
teacher names.
To this, the Taxpayers Alliance replied with:
Pursuant to the need, specified in your 4/26/21 email..., for a more
specific request, may [we] please see [the] content of the Social Emotional
Learning lessons being taught at Thomas Jefferson High School, including
the lesson taught on March 19, 2021?
As this is written, we received the May 19 lesson slides. The lesson centers
on the movie, "13th", about incarceration of African Americans. The irony
is that the "school-to-prison pipeline" begins with public school failure
to teach reading and arithmetic by 3rd grade, which the lesson ignores.
Will public schools acknowledge their role in the disproportionate
incarceration of African Americans?
On a different matter, the Taxpayers Alliance submitted another FOIA request
asking: "During the COVID lockdown, how many FCPS employees were paid
for not working and how much was spent paying employees who were not
working?"
The FCPS FOIA office sent this reply:
Please be advised that it is unclear what specific records you are
requesting. VFOIA requires that requests for public records be made
with reasonable specificity. Va. Code Ann. § 2.2-3704(B). If you wish to
revise the scope of your request, then please provide additional information
on what specific records you seek. For example, do you seek records related
to employee leave (Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency Family Medical
Leave, Emergency Administrative Leave)? If so, then please let us know
and identify a date range for your request. There are new FOIA payment requirements. Previously, we would be notified
in advance of a cost. Now if the cost is $200 or less, the FOIA office will
supply the response with “\"a bill due on receipt." In other words, we
may be charged, without advance notice, up to $200 for a FOIA request.
CALL TO ACTION! BTW: We are often asked what percentage of FCPS staff is regular
classroom teachers. As this chart shows, it is 37%. There is
one staff member for every 8 students.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 03/27/2021
County chairman covering up a 4% real estate tax hike On March 9, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which is deciding on
next year's county budget, advertised a 4.25% real estate tax hike,
which would cost the average homeowner $293. This continues a two-decade
trend where the supervisors have increased real estate taxes three times
faster than homeowner income, which has barely kept up with inflation.
The average homeowner real estate tax next year would be $7200. If real
estate taxes had increased at the same pace as inflation since 2000,
the average tax would be $3800. The $293 increase would be the largest real estate tax hike in five
years. However, you would not know it from reading the county chairman's
newsletter.
It is easy for the supervisors to mislead taxpayers about real estate taxes.
In his March 9, 2021 newsletter, county chairman Jeffrey McKay (D-At-Large)
stated that the advertised real estate tax rate for next year is $1.15 per
$100 of your home’s assessed value, the same as this year's rate. While he
acknowledged "... that many residents' assessments are on the rise ...",
he did not acknowledge that the average increase in residential
assessments is 4.25%. While many homeowners will have tax hikes of 4%
or more and others less depending on their individual assessments, most will
have a tax increase, and the average increase will be 4.25%
By comparison, the cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits
this year is 1.3%. The county's $293 advertised real estate tax increase
is greater than the average 2021 Social Security increase, which is $240.
Also, Chairman McKay neglected to say that the advertised real estate tax
rate is just over $1.18, not $1.15. This is because, starting in 2010,
the supervisors added to your real estate tax bill a new stormwater tax,
which is also based on your assessment. The stormwater rate is an additional
3 ¼ cents.
A Taxpayers Alliance member emailed us that the Mason District supervisor,
at her budget town hall, said that real estate taxes are increasing due to
higher assessments. Our member forced the supervisor to admit that the
supervisors could prevent a tax increase by lowering the real estate rate,
from $1.15 to $1.10, which would cancel out the assessment increase.
The supervisor then told our member to email her suggestions on what to cut.
Here's a suggestion. Preventing a tax increase by lowering the rate to
$1.10 would reduce next year's Fairfax County revenues by $150 million.
Meanwhile, Note that Fairfax County has received $470 million in COVID relief
funds, primarily from the $2.2 billion CARES Act, passed in March 2020.
The county estimates that it will receive an additional $222 million from
the just-passed $1.9 billion American Rescue Plan.
Also, both the county and FCPS have not answered repeated requests from
the Taxpayers Alliance about how many employees were paid while not working
and how much that cost. To our knowledge, no county or school employees
lost jobs or pay due to the COVID lockdown, while their private-sector
counterparts did lose jobs, pay, and businesses. Last year, during the
lockdown, the supervisors imposed a 3% real estate tax hike and now they're
advertising a 4.25% tax hike during the second year of the lockdown.
If you oppose a real estate tax hike, please contact county chairman
Jeffrey McKay well before April 27, when the supervisors finalize
the budget. His phone is 703-324-2321, and he can be emailed at
chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov.
If you feel that it is unacceptable to pay the school system $149 million
for 9,000 students who have withdrawn from the system, please contact school
board chairman Ricardy Anderson at 571-423-1083.
Your phone calls can have an impact.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 02/16/2021
No taxation without education! Madam Chairman, Members of the Board, Mr. Superintendent:
My name is Arthur Purves. I address you as president of the Fairfax County
Taxpayers Alliance. We have three observations.
First, on September 3 of last year, we emailed the Office of Communications
to ask how many employees had gotten full pay while not working during
the COVID lockdown, and the cost. On September 11, we received a reply
that the answer would cost us $87.50. On September 22, without our agreeing
to the cost, we received another reply stating that our "questions do not
fall within the scope of FOIA" along with some woefully incomplete data.
Another email, on September 29, said we still owed the $87.50. Besides
being asked to pay for an answer we did not get, we were surprised that
the school board did not have the answer. Therefore, we have to estimate
the answer. Given that salaries cost $1.7 billion, a conservative
estimate that a quarter of that was spent on non-working employees
would result in a cost of $400 million, or 20% of the school transfer.
Also, we note that the proposed FY2022 budget asks for a $43 million
increase from the county even though enrollment has decreased by 9,000.
Second, this would not be an issue if schools were open. Fairfax County
reports COVID deaths by age group. As of today, 82% of the County's 776
COVID deaths (out of a population of 1.1 million) have been among ages 65 or
older. For ages 50-64, mortality is five hundredths of a percent; for
ages 18-49 it is six thousandths of a percent, and there have been no
deaths for ages 17 and under. The county does not publish ICU availability,
but statewide ICU utilization is 57%. Hospitals are not overcrowded.
What is not reported are the hardships imposed, especially on low-income
families, by the lockdown. It's fair to assume that those hardships
overwhelm the COVID risks for those under 65. Please open the schools.
Third, as we've been saying for a quarter of a century, it is within the
power of the school board to dramatically reduce racial inequality by
bringing back phonics-based reading instruction and arithmetic drill.
"One Fairfax" is a stunning admission that the school curricula,
especially in early elementary school, have failed to give equal opportunity
to low-income Blacks and Hispanics. "Whole word" instruction has a
century-long record of failure, while you haven't even tried phonics-based
reading instruction. Before the Civil War it was illegal to teach a Black
to read for fear that the ability to read would enable them to become
independent. To present words to children and expect them to memorize words
without being able to sound them out is not teaching reading. The cost
of not teaching reading is enormous, not only in terms of budgets for
remediation, welfare, and law enforcement, but in the human cost of
ruined lives. You can fix this!
We oppose taxation without education! Please open schools and really
teach reading.
Thank you.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Arthur Purves, FCTA President, 01/19/2021
Don't be misled about real estate tax hikes! On April 27, 2021, the ten-member Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will
vote on this year’s real estate taxes. When the supervisors raise real
estate taxes, as they have every year since 2012, beware that they befuddle
you by confusing the real estate tax with the real estate tax rate.
To counter that, here are some myths and facts about real estate taxes.
Remember, your real estate tax is the assessed value of your home times
the real estate tax rate. MYTH: My assessment increased. Therefore, my real estate tax has to
increase. MYTH: The supervisors did not increase the tax rate. Therefore,
my real estate tax will not increase. MYTH: The supervisors raised the real estate tax rate by 2%.
Therefore, my real estate tax will increase by only 2%. MYTH: The supervisors decreased the real estate rate by 2%.
Therefore, my real estate taxes will decrease also. MYTH: Since the real estate tax rate in 2020 was $1.15 per $100 of
assessed value of my home, my real estate tax bill was based on that
rate. MYTH: The supervisors raised the real estate tax rate by 3 cents.
That means my real estate tax increased by 3%. What to watch for: Since the start of the housing bubble in 2000, Fairfax County residential
real estate taxes have been increasing three times faster than household
income, which in turn has barely been keeping up with inflation.
Last year, real estate taxes increased 2.6% even though the real estate
tax rate remained flat. Don’t let the supervisors befuddle you again.
** Note: The above refers to calendar years (Jan 1 - Dec 31)
and not fiscal years (Jul 1 - Jun 30).
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 12/12/2020
Voting Machines Then and Now Regardless of the final outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, most
people outside the mainstream media and their Big Tech allies believe massive
election fraud occurred in important battleground states -- enough to change
the outcome of the election. Thus it is critically important to find out how
this was allowed to occur, and take steps to prevent it from reoccurring.
Back before 2000, mechanical machines and mechanical tabulation of votes were
common. Some states like Virginia used heavy lever-type voting machines,
where you pushed levers for your choices and the results were archived on
a paper tape or some other medium for tabulation. In other states like
Florida, a clipboard-sized device recorded voter selections on IBM-type
punch cards, which were then tabulated. Both types left a "paper trail"
that could be recounted easily.
In the early 2000s, many states including Virginia used PC-based electronic
voting machines whereby the voter selected his choices from a computer touch
screen and the tabulated results were recorded internally but without the
"paper trail". But with clever programming, it was found that choices could
be altered and never detected, and there was no way to go back and verify
the tabulated results.
So back to paper ballots. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) machines were
introduced to replace those touch-screen PCs. The new machines could be
programmed to read and interpret the black bubble marks made by the voter on
the front and back of a letter- or legal-sized paper ballot, save the ballot
in a bin within the machine, and tabulate the votes so entered. Thus a
literal "paper trail" was left behind in case a recount was required.
So what could go wrong!?
Well, it turns out that many of these machines were built with software that
allowed the machine to be nudged to favor certain selections at the expense
of others. This could be done in a way subtle enough not to draw suspicion.
So one party could be awarded 3/5 of a vote (sound familiar?) and the other
party 7/5 -- "fractionalization". But the 2020 Presidential election results
were tending so much in one direction that preprogrammed attempts to put in
"corrections" literally overwhelmed the machines' capabilities for fraud,
and election officials "mysteriously" and synchronously stopped the counting
the votes across six states so that "corrections" could be made manually.
Additionally, the same batch of mail-in ballots could be fed into a machine
multiple times. But at least there was a paper trail to go back too, wasn't
there? Well, maybe not.
One of the features of some of these machines is to record an image of each
ballot, in theory making the storing of bulky paper ballots redundant. So
perhaps the actual paper could be discarded since we now have its electronic
image, right? Well, no. Watch this
six-minute video
as a Georgia election supervisor explains how Dominion software allows
changing and adding votes via an "adjudication" process, altering the image.
And the problem is amplified exponentially with no-excuse mail-in voting.
So how do we restore election integrity and loss of faith in the election
process? Obviously, this year's drawn-out voting period and the inherent
weakness of mail-in ballot authentication needs to be addressed. Back to
voting only on Election Day with at least the same identification level as
required to buy a pack of cigarettes, and requiring that absentee ballots
have a witness's signature. But more importantly, fixing the current OCR
machines (not just Dominion's) to produce "one man one vote" as prescribed
by law, with a recount capability, using the original paper ballots, to be
at least as reliable as those mechanical voting machines of old -- with
or without the hanging chads!
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Jim Ruland, 11/14/2020
Call to Action "We have put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter
fraud organization in the history of American politics." -- Joe Biden,
11/05/2020
On November 3, I was watching the returns around 12:00am. Trump was up in
Florida and Ohio, as well as up by about 104,000 votes in Wisconsin, 300,000
votes in Michigan, and 700,000 votes in Pennsylvania. The yuan was crashing
and stock futures were up.
Then a series of unfortunate events occurred. Fox News called Arizona
for Biden. It was announced that counting was ceased in key swing states
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. The latter
was due to an alleged water main burst, where no subsequent work order can
be found.
When I woke up November 4, votes had been updated at about 4am in Wisconsin
and about 6am in Michigan to give Biden the lead in Wisconsin and close the
gap to within a few thousand in Michigan. Over the next several days,
rules regarding counting votes, such as having observers, were ignored in
Pennsylvania and Michigan. Courts issued rulings in Pennsylvania to allow
observers that were ignored by election officers. Miraculously, after
several days, the media reported Joe had pulled ahead and was now
"President-Elect." We heard about statistical anomalies in the key swing
states of vote surges for Biden and potential problems with voting machines,
even that the voting machines may have switched votes from Trump to Biden.
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai produced a video with over 800,000 views -- of voting
patterns in four Michigan counties indicating a pattern of fraud by
switching votes from Trump voters to Biden voters in Republican precincts.
There were other anomalies in this election. President Obama set a record
low for counties won by a winning campaign in 2012 and got 65,915,795 votes,
and Joe Biden won only 477 counties in 2020, but got 78,523,590 votes, or
13,000,000 more votes than President Obama in 2012 and about 9,000,00 more
votes than President Obama in 2008. Republicans didn't lose a House seat
this year and picked up 12 and about 100 state legislative seats despite
predictions of a blue wave. Joe Biden in 2020 underperformed Hillary
Clinton in 2016 except for four cities: Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, and
Philadelphia. Moreover, in 19 bellweather counties historically indicative
of the Presidential winner, all but one went for President Trump, not Joe
Biden.
Absent an investigation, it appears to me that software was used to shift
votes in some counties that were substantially GOP leaning, and when that
steal wasn't sufficient, the counting was stopped so ballots could be dumped
in several states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Am I right? I do not know, but that is why every American should demand a
canvas of the votes in disputed states to insure every legal vote is counted
and every illegitimate vote is not.
But what do we hear from the media and IT companies? Shut-up, accept the
election, and do not question the election results for the good of the
country. On the above-referenced video, YouTube includes the tag, "The AP
has called the Presidential race for Joe Biden." Trumps tweets, "He won
because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed,
vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a
bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn't even qualify for Texas (which
I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!" Media immediately
pounces that Trump has issued a concession. Trump doubles down, "He only
won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA. I concede NOTHING! We have a long
way to go. This was a RIGGED ELECTION!"
So apparently the fix is in. My position is simple. I am in this fight as
long as Trump is in this fight. The media doesn't make the official call
on this or any other election. The Constitution lays out the process in
Article 1, Section 1, and the state legislatures make the rules, and the
state legislatures have the power to elect a slate of electors to the House
of Representatives, which then elects the President by a majority of state
delegations.
The GOP, if it acts, actually controls this process. They have control of
the state legislatures in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina,
Georgia, and Arizona. Currently, the state delegations in the House favor
Republicans 26-24, and the current election should not reduce that total.
Leaders in the state legislatures have indicated an unwillingness to act.
But the question is, if the GOP won't force an investigation into an
allegedly fraudulent election, or act to reverse such fraud, why would
anyone support the GOP again? Why put yourself forward supporting the GOP,
when the Democrats, allegedly, can create whatever the required votes are
needed to win elections and enact policies, no matter their unpopularity?
So, what to do as individuals? Again, I'm in this fight as long as Trump is
in this fight. For us plebes, the next action is at the state legislatures.
We can organize rallies, just like the Yuuugge rally held in
Washington DC November 14, especially in the state capitols of Wisconsin,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona. Afterwards,
we will need to rally at Washington, DC, again. Other action items include:
An ancient Chinese curse translates, "May you live in interesting times."
We certainly do, with the fate of our republic at stake.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 10/11/2020
What the 2020 Election is REALLY About An Oct 6 article in
ZeroHedge was titled "There Are Trillions At Stake... How Washington
Really Works, & Why Its Denizens Despise Trump". The article was rather
long, but it posited that the 2016 and upcoming 2020 elections are more
than about Democrat versus Republican. Both parties are complicit in a
dysfunctional Congress that is now run by K-Street, and that Trump is the
first person to point this out and to throw a wrench in the decades-old
"good-old-boys" network that is lucrative to congressmen and lobbyists
(The Swamp), but devastating to the constituents back home.
Most people think that when they vote for their U.S. House or Senate
representative, it's "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" to enact legislation.
But not a single person in congress has written legislation since around the
mid-1990s. Instead, special interest groups write those 1000- or 2000-page
tomes that -- as Nancy Pelosi would say -- "we have to pass the bill to
find out what's in it". The job of your representative is merely to
sign off on laws that almost certainly do not benefit the American public.
When these bills get passed, the special interest groups reward those
compliant representatives mightily -- even more so if said representative
is a committee chair. The process resembles insider trading on Wall Street,
except the trading is based on who benefits from passage of the law in
question.
Now, legislation is based on ideology. If Hillary had won in 2016, a whole
litany of feeder bills were already poised for eventual passage, and Swamp
creatures would have been happy. But instead, Trump won, and his "America
First" policies were antithetical to all of those DC legislative briefs and
constructs -- representing tens of millions of dollars worth of time and
influence -- which became worthless when Donald Trump won the election.
And there was no special interest or lobbying group, currently occupying DC
office space with any interest in synergy with Trump policy. And this is
why many politicians from both political parties, suddenly without the
ability to acquire personal wealth from this corrupt system, chose to
retire in 2018.
Most of the legislation that was passed by congress and signed by President
Trump in his first term is older legislative proposals, with little indulgent
value, that were shelved in years past. The "First Step act", "Right to
Try", etc. were all shelved by Boehner, Pelosi, Ryan, McConnell, Reid and
others before them. Any new legislation has very little chance of getting
passed under the current system.
Before the 17th Amendment was passed, U.S. Senators were appointed by their
state legislature and were thus immune to such corruption. But with direct
election by the people after 17A was passed, Senators could become just as
tainted by K-Street as their House brethren, though it took many decades for
this temptation to come to pass. Since it takes both houses of Congress to
pass legislation, is stands to reason that if the 17th Amendment is ever
repealed, Congress might have to write its own legislation once again
just to clear the Senate.
In 2016, the people voiced their frustration with both parties to this
system and elected Donald Trump as President. The Left and their media
allies thereafter acquired "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (for which there is
no cure). They have failed with ObamaGate and assorted other allegations
to dislodge Trump from office. Desperate now to prevent his reelection,
they have pulled out all the stops. Blue state politicians are willing to
continue ruining their economies with Covid fear-mongering lockdowns, and
are willing to overlook the well-funded and well-organized rioting by Marxist
organizations like Antifa and BLM -- all in hopes of preventing Trump from
being reelected. (The extended lockdowns are used as an excuse for mail-in
voting, an easy means for facilitating voter fraud -- a specialty of the
Left.)
But perhaps the Left has overplayed its hand in 2020. People are coming to
realize the nefarious machinations of the Left, despite its media and Big
Tech cheerleaders, and will likely counter with revenge across the ballot
on Nov 3.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 09/10/2020
Vote In Person, and NO to Fairfax Co Bond Issues The "Wuhan Red Death" pandemic has degenerated into a "scamdemic" -- pushed
long beyond its "sell-by" date by the Left and its media allies, including
Big Tech with fully-activated "cancel culture" to filter out any ideas that
this is merely another Asian flu with a
very low mortality rate.
The main purpose appears to be to create such fear in the voting public that
they submit to the call for mail-in ballots with their potential for
rejection and voter fraud. State and local government leaders, especially
in "blue" jurisdictions, seem willing to
follow the narrative, and destroy their economies (and their tax base)
in order to discourage voters from reelecting President Trump.
Which brings us to the main point of this article: If you can get out to
shop at Walmart, you can certainly ensure that your vote is counted by
VOTING IN PERSON. By voting in person at your local precinct, you insure
that your vote is tabulated on election night. You may choose to vote in
person early at local government centers, and your vote will be counted by
the day after the election. In Virginia, you can request a absentee ballot,
fill it out and sign it in front of a witness (made not mandatory just this
year by the General Assembly). Still, you should drop it off at a local
government drop box rather than risk having it lost or stolen from the mail.
Absentee ballots will be verified and tabulated within several days after
the election.
Five U.S. western states automatically mail ballots to all registered voters
on their voter roles. Even so, most of their citizens choose to
vote in person
to ensure safe and prompt vote tabulation. So our advice is to vote in
person -- on election day if possible (Nov 3).
Early voting
is available at the Fairfax Government Center starting Sept 18,
and 14 satellite government centers and libraries starting Oct 14
-- hence the reason for writing this Message a month early.
As of this writing, there is no official ballot yet available from Fairfax
County, but we have the gist of it:
Items 1-3 are not at issue here. On item 4, some of our board members
question the "independent" part of the proposed redistricting commission.
On item 5, FCTA encourages voters to vote NO on all four bond issues:
Regarding transportation, over 80% of Fairfax County demand is for highways,
NOT transit. Yet for over a decade, our Supervisors and the General Assembly
have voted an ever increasing proportion of transportation funds to transit
-- 87% in FY2020. The proposed $160M transportation bond does not specify
for what projects and where funds will be used. Given major post-COVID
declines in Metro ridership so far in 2020, the Metro board's refusal to
increase peak period Metrorail fares, and uncertain future revenues,
the transportation bond issue must certainly be opposed.
As FCTA president
Arthur Purves explains:
current bond debt service is crushing; the County has reached its AAA bond
rating limit; the County is not transparent about any of this; and Metro
is increasingly an unaccountable funding Black Hole. Taxpayers simply can't
afford to continue. (Historically, tax referenda fail, while bond issues
-- which are taxes plus interest -- pass easily. For some reason, voters
seem to view bonds as no-cost items.)
With the County having kept the schools closed to in-person learning, some
of the County's massive school system budget could perhaps be repurposed
for some of the dollar amount of the bond requests. Considering the
disappointing closure of schools against parents' wishes, voters should
express their displeasure by voting NO on all of the aforementioned bond
issues.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Max Ehrmann, 1927
"Desiderata" (on Life during Chaos) GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 07/15/2020
Public Unions Sanction Police and Teacher Misconduct When George Floyd was killed, the Minneapolis offending police officer had
already been cited for
18 prior
complaints in 19 years. He was still on the force because the police
union would not allow him to be fired. This is not an aberration. Bad cops
are protected by their unions across the country. If the infraction is
serious enough, the union will convince the offending officer to leave the
department for another secured assignment in such garden spots as
Baltimore or Detroit.
There is a similar problem in our public schools. It is nearly impossible
to fire bad teachers, due to the job protection enforced by their unions.
In New York City, bad teachers can be assigned to "rubber rooms", where they
can continue to draw full salary while at least "doing no harm" to students.
Most other jurisdictions cannot afford this pay-to-do-nothing luxury, and so
bad or incompetent teachers are simply reassigned, from a higher-performing
school in a prosperous neighborhood, to a lower-performing school in a poor
neighborhood.
In Fairfax County, bad teachers are typically processed out of prosperous
areas like McLean or Great Falls, to schools elsewhere in the county. But
rather than address this bad-teacher problem directly, the School Board
advocates "busing" -- a "social justice" concept that is part of the George
Soros-funded 'One Fairfax' model. So the Board would propose
reversing the situation, by sending the lower-performing students afflicted
by those bad teachers imposed on them to the County's higher-performing
schools from which those same bad teachers were ejected.
And it is the teachers' unions that are promoting the irrational
schools-half-opened policy that Fairfax County has thus far promoted for
this fall. Plus perhaps even "hazardous-duty" pay for teaching only half
the student coursework. Meanwhile, the coronovirus death rate in the County
stands at 0.044% (in Va, 0.023%) -- less than for the seasonal flu -- while
school-age children are virtually immune from serious effects and are not
vectors for the spread of this virus.
Even FDR agreed that there is no place for unions in the public service
realm, as government workers are inherently secure in their positions --
it's the taxpayers which have no such protection. JFK later changed the
rules, allowing government workers to unionize. And in Virginia, Gov.
Northam & Co. now allow government workers to unionize, and Fx Co School
Board has vowed to recognize the unions, possibly overcoming Virginia's
Right to Work laws. (Of course, our School Board bargains with the union
even now, as if the teachers belonged to the union.)
So public unions are now a fact, but their power over hiring/firing decisions
should be recognized as not serving the public interest, and throttled
accordingly.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 05/28/2020
FUD, Face Masks, and Election Fraud The Left and its allies in Big media and Big Tech are experts at promoting
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) and by omitting from their articles,
de-platforming YouTube videos, or flagging from social media, any content
that questions their prevailing narrative. So any facts that contradict
the Global Warming narrative or question the Covid-19 recommendations of
Dr. Fausi or the WHO are verboten.
The world's economies are being ruined by the current Covid-19 lockdown.
And while the President has given the go-ahead for the state governors to
reopen their economies, Blue State governors are dragging their heels at the
expense of their citizenry, seemingly satisfied to accept devastating their
tax base, with many businesses forced to close permanently, with the loss of
thousands of jobs. Citizens are being required to "virtue signal" by wearing
face masks -- as if Covid-19 were the new Black Death rather than just
another Asian flu with a mortality rate not much higher than the seasonal
flu. (Note: Due to our over-counting of Covid-19 deaths for political
purposes, it is safe to assume that perhaps 3/4 have died FROM Covid,
while 1/4 died from other causes, but WITH Covid.)
We're being conditioned to believe that the current situation might continue
for years (or at least through the November 2020 elections). And by the way,
we'll need to vote by mail, since "social distancing" guidelines would make
normal voting at your precinct unworkable. AH-HA, so THAT's their rationale.
Reducing voter ID requirements at polling places (as newly-woke Virginia has
just passed into law) is nothing compared to the potential for hanky panky
with mail-in ballots, which is why the Left favors vote-by-mail. It is not
as easy to rig the paper ballots at your local precinct as it is to intercept
mailed absentee ballots to mark up as needed, or to physically withhold
mailed ballots that don't favor your candidate. And the Left knows it
cannot win the House, Senate, or Presidency in an honest election.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation has compiled public data provided from
the Election Assistance Commission, finding that between 2012 and 2018,
28.3 million mail-in ballots remain unaccounted for, or nearly one in
five of all absentee ballots and ballots mailed to voters residing in states
that do elections exclusively by mail -- 7 million ballots missing for each
of the last four elections. States and local authorities simply have no idea
what happened to these ballots since they were mailed, but nearly 20 percent
of mail-in ballots missing is cause for alarm.
A significant increase in mail-in voting this fall could greatly incentivize
"ballot harvesting", where third parties collect mail-in ballots on behalf of
voters and deliver them to election officials. There's long been a consensus
that such a practice incentivizes fraud, and ballot harvesting is illegal
in most of the country. But California legalized ballot harvesting, and
observers say the practice played a key role in ousting several Republican
congressmen in Orange County in 2018, a longstanding GOP stronghold.
So Blue State governors are hoping that mail-in voting will be implemented
and enable the Left to stay in power. Don't humor them. Put on your clearly
marked "VIRTUE SIGNALING 95" face mask and go vote personally in November.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 05/06/2020
Trump Derangement Syndrome and the LockdnVID-20 Virus FCTA normally tries to remain neutral on political issues, but the current
shutdown and destruction of the U.S. and world economies to limit the
spread of the CCP coronavirus is no longer justified based on the original
premise, and you are not being properly informed by the mainstream media.
The rationale has become political.
We remain under government-mandated "house arrest" for "safety reasons" and
businesses are shut down and threatened with bankruptcy long after the
original rationale -- "to keep hospitals from getting overwhelmed" -- is long
past. And hospitals themselves are in financial straits because authorities
have made them suspend "elective surgeries", their primary source of income.
(Inova just announced they're laying off 400 employees.) So how do we
explain this continued lockdown and the destruction of the American economy
to safeguard against a virus little more deadly than the seasonal flu?
The answer may go back to November 2016, when Donald Trump handily won the
electoral college vote to become the 45th president of the United States.
The Left and the media (but I repeat myself) was apoplectic; their goal of
Obama 2.0 and the continued destruction of America's founding principles had
been thwarted, and they simply could not accept the popular refutation of
their ideals. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDSvid-16) was in full swing,
and for three and a half years the Left has pulled out all the stops in
trying to bring down President Trump -- Spy-gate, Russia-gate, Ukraine-gate,
Flynn-gate: all have failed miserably. And the Trump economy took off while
the Left's credibility tumbled.
In 2018, the Woke virus (WokeVID-18) infected the Left, partially in
reaction to the TDSvid-16 virus, and certain states (including Virginia
in 2019) were particularly hard hit.
Then in November 2019 a government lab in Wuhan, China accidentally
released the COVID-19 virus, and the Chinese Communist Party deliberately
allowed the virus to be spread internationally rather than have China suffer
the economic consequences of its fecklessness alone. A few countries like
Sweden quarantined only their elderly and frail citizens and kept their
economies open, but most of the world including the U.S. decided to follow
the advice of their "experts" and quarantine the whole population, bringing
their economies to a halt. The president set April 30 as the default end
date for the lockdown in the U.S., but properly deferred to the state
governors to choose an end date based on their individual situations.
Some states never did go into full lockdown, and as of early May many Red
states are opening up again to varying degrees. But most Blue states
(including Virginia) are dragging their feet in reopening their economies
and are not yet rescinding the house arrest of their citizens. Why?
If one were cynical, one would say they simply want to make the transition
as painful as possible -- to heck with their economies and freedom of
association -- until after the November election, hoping that their media
allies will be able to pin the blame on President Trump (whom they refer
to as 'Orange Man'). One might thus tag this as the LockdnVID-20 virus,
a variation of the original TDSvid-16 virus but much more damaging.
Big Tech is aiding the Left by suppressing information that goes against the
prevailing shutdown narrative. Google's YouTube has blocked videos that go
against the "conventional wisdom" regarding the COVID-19 lockdown; likewise
Facebook and Twitter. And you won't see much news or many videos of
demonstrators protesting the lockdown in the various states and localities
-- mustn't disrupt the narrative.
The Left thinks their latest strategy will upend the president in November.
But more likely, people are aware of what's going on, and November 2020 in
the U.S. could very well be a replay of December 2019 in the U.K. -- whereby
the Labour Party was sent into the wilderness. What say you?
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 04/10/2020
So Much for the "Experts" As we "stay in place" at home during the country's emergency declaration over
the Wuhan coronavirus and listen to the daily feeds from Fox News and talk
radio, one begins to see that COVID-19 fatalities -- actual and estimated --
are far less than predicted. Those sacred "models" for U.S. fatalities have
come down from over two million to approximately 60,000 -- about the same as
yearly deaths from the seasonal flu -- and may well go lower.
And California, which was exposed to the virus much earlier than New York,
has far fewer diagnosed cases, suggesting that perhaps "herd immunity" is
more effective than "stay in place" -- many people being exposed, developing
antibodies, and never being aware of exposure.
Meanwhile, the nation's newly unemployed increase at a rate of over 1,000
for every coronavirus fatality, whose average age continues to be in the
upper 70s. One has to wonder whether destroying the economy, and the deaths
associated with that including suicides, has even now become the primary
national concern -- surpassing COVID-19 as the issue at hand.
Admittedly with 20/20 hindsight, one begins to form the opinion that those
so-called experts from the CDC and elsewhere are not giving the president
sound advice. Will Anthony Fauci's and his models become as discredited
as Michael Mann and his global warming "hockey stick" model. Keep in mind
that these people are focused on their specialty (with more than a little
CYA), and may have little or no concern for effects outside their field of
interest.
The president cannot be faulted for accepting advice of those touted as the
most knowledgeable in their field, developing a task force to implement this
advice, and working with state governors to help meet their needs. But at
some point the president too must be aware of the "Fauci-tian bargain" he
has made at the expense of the American people. Hopefully, he will rescind
his lockdown order sooner rather than later (an Easter surprise would be
nice).
There is a silver lining to this lockdown for Virginia and for Fairfax
County taxpayers, in that both the governor and our County executive are
recommending rescinding those tax increases that were approved just a month
or two ago. Governor Northam will reconsider giving teachers and state
workers raises, freezing in-state college tuition, and other new spending
in the budget recently passed by the General Assembly. And Fairfax County
Executive Bryan Hill has proposed a new Fairfax County FY2021 Budget
eliminating the proposed 3-cent real estate tax rate increase and
compensation increases for county employees (no mention of decreasing
the tax rate to balance assessment increases).
So hang tough, and always follow these guidelines when evaluating news or
opinion: Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 03/28/2020
Whatever Happened to Self-Reliance? Commentator Michael Walsh writes: "For a disease that so far has extracted
a relatively small death toll, and from which a quarter of those infected
have already recovered, why are we reacting as if COVID-19 is the second
coming of the Black Death? In short, what is the cost/benefit analysis of
deliberately damaging the world economy?"
Another adds: "In 2009, we had 61 million cases of Swine Flu in America,
claiming the lives of 12,469 Americans. Somehow, we weathered that viral
storm without shut-downs, curfews, closings, banning funerals, 'social
distancing', house arrests, martial law or massive layoffs and unemployment."
Regardless, we are where we are. The only good to come out of this pandemic
may be the "lessons learned" -- individually, and politically/economically.
The common denominator should be the issue of self-reliance.
Politically/Economically: Hopefully, this pandemic will inspire our leaders to finally realize the
folly of continuing in this direction. Emergency easement of red tape may
well lead to the sunsetting of many of these restrictions altogether (though
one suspects not much constructive will come out of the current Congress).
At minimum, we must keep enough manufacturing in the U.S. to provide for
our own national defense. ... National self-reliance!
Individually: It's not rocket science. Live within your means and put something aside for
a rainy day. Likewise for small businesses. That way, the government won't
have to add $2 trillion to the national debt, to be paid for by the next
generation. ... Personal self-reliance!
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Arthur Purves, 01/27/2020
Public Schools: An Investment in Mediocrity The following is my testimony for the Fairfax County School Board FY2021 Budget Hearing on January 27:
Madam Chairman, Members of the Board, Mr. Superintendent:
My name is Arthur Purves. I address you as president of the Fairfax County
Taxpayers Alliance.
The "One Fairfax" policy adopted by the Fairfax County supervisors and
school board is a stunning admission that decades of strategies to end
racial inequality in public schools have been a failure. Also, SAT scores
show that overall achievement is low. The average SAT score for Fairfax
County Public Schools (FCPS) seniors is at the 76th percentile. The average
SAT score to get into the University of Virginia is at the 95th percentile;
for Virginia Tech it is the 85th percentile. A lot of colleges accept
students at or below the 76th percentile, but the four-year graduation
rates of these colleges are less than 50 percent.
Years ago, as a Scoutmaster, I was helping a FCPS middle-school student
prepare the menu for a campout. We had nine campers, and each would get
a half pound of hamburger. When I asked how much hamburger we had to buy,
he replied that he could not figure that out. My observation is that FCPS
seniors do arithmetic at the 4th-grade level.
Low achievement of African-American and Hispanic students is evident in
4th-grade reading and math tests, because FCPS is not teaching reading and
arithmetic correctly. This is because of the century-old adoption of John
Dewey's (different from the Dewey of the Dewey decimal system) "progressive
education". Dewey replaced phonics with "whole word", which has created a
nation of 14 million dyslexics. He opposed arithmetic drill, thereby
creating a STEM crisis; and he replaced unbiased history with atheistic
Social Studies, because he wanted schools to turn out Socialists.
"Progressive education" favors affluent white and Asian students, who learn
phonics and arithmetic drill at home, while discriminating against low-income
predominately Hispanic and African American students, who do not have that
advantage.
More money and staffing are not the solution. Since the first school board
election in 1995, spending has increased from $1 billion to $3 billion, or
$1 billion more than needed to keep up with enrollment and inflation.
Staffing has increased from 17,000 to 25,000, or 3,000 more than needed
to keep up with enrollment.
According to the dictionary, a racist is a person who discriminates
against people of other races. The FCPS early elementary school curriculum
discriminates against Hispanics and African-Americans and also has a
negative effect on whites and Asians, which results in low achievement
overall.
This can be fixed. Bring back phonics, arithmetic drill, and unbiased
history in early elementary school. That would end racial inequality in the
school system and would probably end racial inequality in society overall.
Fixing the curriculum should be done before FCPS receives any increase in
funding. The Fairfax Education Association and the Fairfax County Federation
of Teachers, who advocate for higher taxes, ignore low achievement and
discrimination against African-Americans and Hispanics.
Investing in public schools is currently an investment in mediocrity and
racial inequality.
Thank you.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink, 01/11/2020
The Virginia General Assembly's 'Woke' Agenda In 2019, the Virginia General Assembly, with Republicans in charge of both houses, considered 2814 bills in the house and 1790 bills in the senate: 4604 bills total (Ref: www.richmondsunlight.com/bills/2019/). Most were confined to tweaks in the laws here and there. The few bolder proposals offended one side or the other, and never made it into law.
In 2020, with the new Michael Bloomberg-bought Virginia General Assembly, 'woke' Democrats are now in charge of both houses and the governorship, it's "Katie bar the door". As of this writing, 1550 house bills and 937 senate bills have been introduced: 2487 bills total so far (Ref: www.richmondsunlight.com/bills/2020/), with many more to come. And instead of minor tweaks, Democrats are attempting to turn Virginia into New York or California, after being out of power for some 30 years.
FCTA has put together, onto a single page (Ref: fcta.org/BeyondFx/Virginia/2020_va_bills.html) the first 768 of these bills introduced as of January 5 -- with bill title, a brief description, which delegate of senator sponsored it, and a hot link to the Richmond Sunlight source (where you can find the status and full description of the particular bill). The page has a search window which allows you to filter out the bills that aren't relevant. For example, if you're looking for bills sponsored by 'kory' or bills flagged as '~guns'; 'kory' will reduce to 16 entries, while '~guns' reduces to 52 (as shown in the browser's status bar).
In this initial analysis, 1) 36.8% of the bill sponsors are from Fairfax (~fx); 2) 8.8% reduce voting requirements including photo ID (~vote); 3) 6.7% are some form of gun control (~guns); and 4) 2.6% deal with (~green) issues including so-called climate change. Not yet marked are numerous bills for (~special) rights for some identity group, numerous (~soft)-on-crime bills, and (~afford)-able housing including in single-family neighborhoods -- all of which tend to favor the Party of Free Stuff at the expense of the citizenry.
If you wish to learn more about what's going on in Richmond, you can use the FCTA or Sunlight sites noted above, or browse Virginia's Legislative Information system (LIS) server (Ref: lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+lst+ALL). Both Sunlight and LIS have email links and telephone numbers for any given delegate or senator whose bill you'd like to comment on.
And if you'd like to meet with FCTA members for breakfast and discussion, please join us... Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
I-66 Tolls and the Laffer Curve FCTA has posted a 10/27/2019 letter by long-time Northern Virginia resident
L.J. Wright of Centreville, who rightfully complains about the obscenely high
tolls now placed on I-66 during rush hours. He notes that the tolls are
so high that only a few people can afford to use the toll lanes, which
consequently are nearly empty when tolls are in effect. He speculates that
lowering those tolls -- perhaps to a flat $2 -- would both benefit users
while bringing in more money.
Exactly!
In the 1970's, supply-side economist Arthur Laffer used his 'Laffer curve'
to show the relationship between tax rates and the amount of tax revenue
received. There's a "sweet spot" on his Bell curve in which a maximum
amount of tax revenue is received, and the farther away from that optimum
rate in either direction, the less taxes received.
The same principle applies to the I-66 tolling situation, and it's amazing
that those E-ZPass folks setting toll rates don't take advantage of Laffer's
wisdom. With cameras monitoring the traffic currently in place all along
the toll road, it would be easy enough to manually experiment, setting tolls
low enough to keep the road busy but high enough to prevent congestion.
And the current I-66 no-toll periods could still be maintained.
A publicity campaign would be required to let commuters know about the
lower-rate experiment, and then a few weeks to allow those commuters to
"vote with their wheels", while the rates are being tweaked to the desired
optimum. Later on, E-ZPass computers could monitor traffic via the cameras
and be programmed to adjust those rates even more optimally.
And consider the Elizabeth River tunnels in Hampton Roads for comparison.
The folks down there have fewer options for crossing that river than Northern
Virginia residents have for getting into and out of D.C. E-ZPass tolls for
those tunnels is due to "increase to $2.33" for automobiles in January 2020.
Meanwhile, one-way E-ZPass tolls for using I-66 into D.C. during peak periods
can exceed $44.
Clearly, current I-66 toll rates are a lose-lose for commuters and revenue
collectors alike. Rational adjustments need to be made.
* * * * * Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
Thanksgiving for Conservatives? So with all this "wokeness" ascending in Fairfax and the Commonwealth, what
can Conservatives be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Here's a short list:
President Trump. Despite his personal style, he has done much
to reverse the damage left by the previous administration, including
over-regulation and the weaponization of the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and other
federal institutions. And unlike typical Republicans, he does not shy from
criticism, and actually delights in pushing back against his critics --
to the delight of his many supporters.
The Courts. The Left had been counting on the Federal Courts
to "legislate from the bench" those issues they could not get passed in
Congress. No more! The President, with help from Mitch McConnell, and
sanction from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (who reduced the
filibuster limit), is rapidly filling vacant Federal and Circuit Court
positions with judges who respect and adhere to the Constitution as written.
Conservative Media. The Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from
Trump Derangement Syndrome, has sacrificed its credibility in order to push
their favored "narrative" over factual reporting, and readers and viewers
are noticing. Fortunately, Fox news, One America News, Talk Radio, The
Washington Times, and the weekly Epoch Times are available with straight
news and thoughtful opinion.
The Marxist Left. The Democrats, with help from their MSM allies,
have become something of a national joke to many Americans. They can't find
a presidential candidate that Americans consider serious. They let AOC and
her "Squad" dictate Party policy. They let "Ahab" Schiff proceed with
groundless Impeachment hearings against the "Great White" Trump -- an
effort that will haunt the Party in the 2020 elections. Good news for
Conservatives, bad news for Democrats.
Booming economy. With the new federal tax code in full effect,
the economy is booming, unemployment is at an all-time low, and employers
are having trouble hiring people to fill vacant positions. Anyone who
wants to work can find a job.
The NRA. With headquarters located right here in Fairfax County,
the NRA has an army of lawyers to fight against any "gun control" laws which
will inevitably come forth from Virginia's new general assembly next year.
But stock up on guns and ammunition now, and support the NRA.
Rural Virginia sheriffs. Of local interest, sheriffs in some 30
Virginia counties are sending Richmond a warning before the next general
assembly session. They may emulate the "Second Amendment Sanctuary"
movement, started in selected Western state jurisdictions... To wit: "We
will not expend any local funding to enforce any state law that infringes
on the Constitution's Second Amendment right to bear arms." One could be
excused for thinking: "OK, if woke prosecutors can illegally protect MS-13,
unwoke sheriffs can legally protect your AR-15."
So cheer up, Conservatives, and remember ...
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
Change 'Woke' Fairfax on November 5: I would like to add my own observations, having been a County resident
(Vienna) for over 50 years.
Up until 2000, Fairfax County was run fairly competently, having just
recently left its old digs in the Massey Building in Fairfax City.
Thereafter, the County started spending like a drunken sailor, and my
taxes went up, from $1999 in 1999, to $6984 in 2019 on the same house
(See
/FxCo/Taxes/2014_fx_REtax40years) -- x3.5 in 20 years!
All manner of social programs were indulged in, while your kids (to this day)
are still being taught out of trailers. And salary and benefits to County
workers increased much faster that their counterparts in the private sector.
The likely reason for this is that the population of the County changed.
Long-time Northern Virginia residents suddenly had many new neighbors from
high-tax left-leaning states like New Jersey and Maryland. And the new
residents, who likely left those states to come to low-tax Virginia, kept
voting for the same Party that caused them to leave their former domiciles.
Meanwhile original residents have been moving to more tax-friendly counties
farther out. So Fairfax has gone from bright red in 2000 to solid blue
in 2019.
The County leadership has given developers carte blanche for all manner of
commercial development, especially in Reston and Tysons, without a sound
infrastructure plan -- namely proper roads. They seem to think that
light rail will solve all those problems, so almost no money goes to road
improvements, and we likely have the worst road conditions in Virginia.
Metro is in constant crisis, commuters are staying with their cars,
and we have perpetual gridlock every single day.
In 2014, the County went 'Woke' by introducing 'One Fairfax', one of many
similar plans across the nation funded by George Soros to fund localities
that include "equity" in their government policies. This vague language is
used as a cover to promote leftist desires such as sanctuary counties,
transgender bathrooms, renaming of schools, tearing down of historical
monuments, and busing (See
https://dailycaller.com/2019/10/08/liberal-network-racial-equity-policies/).
A similar 'Fairfax Forward' policy aims to turn suburban Fairfax into a
county that prioritizes high density over single-family living; we see that
in Tyson and Reston, as well as the "bicycle jihad" the planners are pushing
-- even along I-66.
And Woke-iness has especially infected the public schools. Education
in Fairfax County has been in a long slow decline for 40 years, with
approximately half of the students entering college having to take remedial
classes to bring them up to speed academically. The County has long ignored
proper instruction and drill in reading, writing, arithmetic, American
history, and civics. But lately it's been indoctrinating your kids in
Climate hype, graphically instructing first graders on the 'Facts of Life',
and promoting abnormal sexual behavior as normal.
You and your friends can help fix all the above by voting in a new School
Board, a new Board of Supervisors, and NOT that Soros-funded County
prosecutor. So wake up and 'UnWoke' Fairfax County; vote like
you wish to stay here!
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
FCTA's Annual Luncheon: Other Items of Note: As noted above, FCTA president Arthur Purves is running for Virginia's
32nd Senate District seat, currently held by Janet Howell.
FCTA has provided an early Fairfax County 2019 Ballot
(/FxCo/Misc/2019_fx_ballot)
for your perusal, with hyperlinks to information about the candidates where
found. (Virginia election law prohibits identifying county-level candidates
as Republican or Democrat on ballots issued at the polls, but our posting
is not so constrained.)
FCTA's Fred Costello has provide a stinging report on the state of Fx Co
Public Schools, "Should You Trust the Fairfax County School Board (FCSB)?"
(/Pubs/Reports/2019-08a-fac),
which should be required reading for every parent and taxpayer.
Minutes of the Sept. 3 Fx Co Joint Environmental Task Force (JET)
Meeting (
/FxCo/Misc/2019_fx_JETseptmtg) were dully recorded
by County resident Darren Braynard, who is monitoring the County's fixation
on so-called Global Warming (aka Climate Change). An April 2019 account
of JET's origin is also appended.
And to close on a jocular note, considering the week-long UN Climate
Doom confab, read the tongue-in-cheek "Al Gore edges Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez for top Climate Hypocrite Award"
(/news/2019/sep/28/al-gore-edges-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-inhofes-top/).
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
Fixing the School Board: However, it is not the point of this article to bemoan the gradual "dumbing
down" of American education since 1900, but to ask: "Why does Fairfax County
have a school board which insists on accelerating this trend?!"
The 12-member board for the last few years has busied itself in "social
justice" causes: 1) Radicalized Sex-Ed; 2) Transgender bathrooms; 3) School
renaming; and now 4) Boundary changes infused with race and "social equity"
implications (i.e. - Busing) -- none of which lead to the betterment of our
kids' education. Meanwhile, those trailer classrooms have not gone away.
Now, nobody disputes that school boundary adjustments are periodically
required, as some schools are way over capacity (e.g., Oakton H.S.) while
others are comfortably under capacity (e.g., Langley H.S.). Great Falls
residents are up in arms over the school board's mention of (Langley's)
coming boundary changes. And while that may be regarded as a "NIMBY"
response, the ten social justice warriors on the school board have damaged
their case by touting 'social equity' via the County's 2014 'One Fairfax'
war on merit.
Fairfax resident Luke Rosiak and his wife have put together a professional
5:25min video titled "The Truth About 'One Fairfax' Reboundarying"
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM4AfGQqTWE), which puts together annotated clips of board members
pontificating at their various recorded meetings. At the end,
Elizabeth Schultz lambasts the board:
"The notion that we would identify a child, or the neighborhood the child
lives in, and target them for a boundary change based on the color of their
skin or the size of their parent's bank account is a frightening prospect
on legality alone. Considering the amount of legal issues this Board has,
I don't understand why we're going there. We're going to consider moving
or busing children based on their characteristics instead of delivering to
them the services that they need where they are. That should be the role
of the Board."
Which brings us to the point: On November 5, the entire school board is up
for (re)election. County residents have two friendlies on the board --
Elizabeth Schultz (Springfield district) and Tom Wilson (Sully district)
-- who represent traditional values and academic rigor. FCTA recommends
that you vote to replace the candidates for the three at-large positions,
plus the candidate for your district as listed below:
The Fairfax County School Board has lost all credibility with the students
and their parents that it supposedly represents. Only you, the intelligent
voter/taxpayer (and your friends), can fix this problem.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
This month's message is about the upcoming primary in Fairfax County on June 11. As you may have heard, all 10 Supervisors, 12 School Board, 9 state senators and 17 delegates from Fairfax are up for reelection, as well as the Sheriff, one Commonwealth's Attorney, and 3 Soil Water Conservation District Directors. The Democrats have multiple candidates for many of the available positions for final vote in November, while the Republicans have at most one candidate for each position, and therefore have no need for a primary.
In Virginia, you do not register to vote by party, and anyone can vote in one primary. So the question is: Should Republicans and Independents vote in the upcoming Democrat primary? That choice is up to you. This Monthly is merely to point out the stark choices you face as a taxpayer.
In the last two decades, Fairfax County has gone from a well-run suburban county to a fiscally irresponsible semi-urban one. People from New Jersey and Maryland "escaped" from those jurisdictions, moved into Fairfax, maintained their old voting patterns, and thus changed the complexion of our county. And our schools, which used to adhere to sound educational practices, are now drowning in dumbed-down curricula and identity victimization. Moreover, the tremendous numbers of teachers, first responders, and other county personnel all vote to preserve the status quo at the expense of you, the taxpayer.
As a result taxpayers and businesses are moving out of Fairfax County, as shown on the site www.howmoneywalks.com.
If you favor fiscal sanity and cultural traditions, few of your choices come November will likely not be elected. So for the upcoming primary, you might consider voting for "who is the least bad" in each district -- just in case. For example, the Democrats have 5 candidates each for Providence and Hunter Mill Supervisor races. With Linda Smyth and Cathy Hudgins both retiring, you in those districts can help moderate the Democrats' choice for the November race. (The only disadvantage to a Republican voting in a Democrat primary is the possibility of not being chosen as a delegate for a Republican convention. If your voting pattern has been consistently Republican, except for this one year, you will probably not be denied the delegate selection.)
In our questioning of candidates we find all the Democrats in favor of AOC's Green New Deal, but with no cost or benefit analysis. The Democrat candidates also favor "One Fairfax", which includes "equalization" policies such as busing (coded as "changing boundaries"). So "Location, Location, Location" becomes meaningless.
The Democrats have their candidates listed nicely, with links to each candidate's web site. Also, check the Sun Gazette, Connection, and other local papers for the various townhall discussions that have transpired for the contested races.
The November results portend serious changes in Fairfax County and Public School leadership, so make your decision to vote on June 11 accordingly.
PostScript: Here is an important reminder for those who sat out
the primaries: George Soros succeeded in buying two more district prosecutors,
paying $580,000 to Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and almost $400,000 to Steve
Descana, commonwealth's attorney candidates for Arlington and Fairfax
Counties respectively. So illegal aliens will not have to worry about
prosecution in those two jurisdictions.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by David Swink
Most of you probably don't visit the fcta.org web site very often. After all, taxes and local issues are boring. As FCTA's webmaster, I can sympathize -- most single-issue web sites are places to go when you're suffering from insomnia. But since webmasters get bored too, this one has taken a different tack.
Of the 2600+ articles posted on out site thus far: So nearly two thirds of the articles posted deal with National, World, Health, Environment, and other issues of interest to this webmaster, and hopefully to you, dear reader. These articles are not so much news, as they are thoughtful opinion and perspectives you won't find in the mainstream media.
The best source for serious perspective comes from The Washington Times (daily) at 19%, and The Epoch Times (weekly) at 4.4%. The Washington Post, at 4.4%, often provides good local coverage, as do the local weekly papers (Sun Gazette, Connection, and Fairfax Times), at ~4%. British papers often provide more thoughtful content than the U.S. print media. The Drudge Report is great for locating other good content.
You can find articles of interest on the FCTA banner's drop-down menu. Or you can press the "Post by Date" button on the home page, and view our archive of 2600+ titles list chronologically -- newest first -- where you can type in a string of characters (lower case is fine) in the search window to narrow the list to what you're looking for (e.g., diabetes With this in mind, we hope you will take a look once again at the FCTA site and find find the aforementioned "Perspectives" to your liking.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Fred Costello and Bill Peabody
Fairfax County spending is up three times family incomes since 2000 due to uniquely expensive compensation. Age 55 retirement and pre-social security supplemental payments are among the many generous payments not offered in other counties. The county pension is underfunded by over 5 billion. (Your share is over $13,000, based on 370,000 taxpaying households.)
FCTA's own Dr. Fred Costello has designed a plan that brings compensation in line with the private sector by saving over $3,000 a year per household, based on 370,000 taxpaying households. The specifics can be viewed here. We summarize the annual savings below:
Schools -- Immediate annual savings: $28,123,979, Per household: $76.01 Schools -- Long-Term annual savings: $578,757,070, Per household: $1,564.21 County Gov't -- Immediate annual savings: $54,406,006, Per household: $147.04 County Gov't -- Long-Term annual savings: $190,195,449, Per household: $514.04 County Contingency Funds annual savings: $339,630,304, Per household: $917.92 GRAND TOTAL . . . . . . . . annual savings: $1,191,112,808, Per household: $3,219.22 Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you! -- by Fred Costello and Bill Peabody
We know we're spending too much and taxes are driving people of means away from Fairfax County. Compensation is over 78% of the budget. so it needs to be the focus. School test scores are going nowhere.
What are FCTA's plans to correct this?
BOS Candidates
We are losing two supervisors that voted against most spending hikes. The only remaining friend of the taxpayer is Pat Herrity.
Jason Remer, a conservative, is seeking to replace outgoing John Cook. Remer is a P/E with the math skills needed for budget math. His opponent is James Walkinshaw, a Connolly clone who favors lofty green ideals and gun control. (Someone needs to remind him that the job is limited to county issues.)
Gary Aiken is seeking to replace Penny Gross (who has voted for all spending programs). Aiken has actuarial skills and firm budget plans.
We will review candidates as they declare. All the remaining Democrats voted to continue allowing county workers to retire at age 55.
School Performance
The $300,000 a year school superintendent never seems to mention scores or STEM achievements. The school board promotes equity, which may result in more students receiving better grades while dumbing down the curriculum. Why not make teacher compensation more merit based? After all if they leave teaching for the private sector all compensation is merit based.
In the meantime FCTA will be at the town halls, budget meetings and anywhere else we can spread the word.
Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance is fighting for you!
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - April 2021
Please email your school board representatives and request
transparency on Critical Race Theory and pay for employees who were
not working during the COVID lockdown. You may find your four
school board representatives at
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/myneighborhood. You may find
school board email addresses at
fcta.org/Misc/elected_reps.html. You can also say that for "Cultivating
an Anti-Racist School Community," the school board should drop "whole word"
reading instruction and return to phonics. If you do email board members,
please cc or bcc contact@fcta.org.
Thank you.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - March 2021
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - February 2021
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - January 2021
FACT: The supervisors can reduce the tax rate to offset the assessment
increase, although they never do.
FACT: If your assessment increased, your real estate tax will increase
even if the rate is unchanged. For example, last year (2020) the real
estate tax rate was unchanged but residential assessments increased,
so most homeowners had a real estate tax hike -- during the pandemic.
FACT: If your assessment increased, as it usually does, your real estate
tax will increase by more than 2%. For example, in 2018, supervisors
increased the tax rate by 1.9%. However, assessments increased 2.6%,
so the tax increase was 4.6%.
FACT: Your real estate tax will increase, unless the supervisors
decrease the tax rate enough to offset the assessment increase, which
they never do. For example, in 2006 when Congressman Gerry Connolly
was county chairman, the supervisors reduced the tax rate by 11% but
real estate taxes increased by 8% due to a large assessment increase.
FACT: Your real estate tax bill is based on the real estate tax rate AND a
stormwater rate, which was added in 2010. So, your bill was based on a rate
of $1.18 instead of $1.15 since the stormwater rate is 3 cents per $100 of
assessed value. The supervisors sometimes raise the stormwater rate but
tend to only talk about the real estate rate.
FACT: This ignores assessment increases.
Fairfax County housing prices increased in 2020. How much they increased
we will not know until the county mails assessment notices on Feb. 23.
On March 9 the supervisors will announce the "Advertised FY2022 tax rate",
which is the maximum real estate tax rate the supervisors can approve when
they finalize the budget on April 27. The advertised rate does not include
the stormwater rate.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - December 2020
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - November 2020
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - October 2020
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - September 2020
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - August 2020
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - July 2020
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - June 2020
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - May 2020
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - April 2020
1. Check the premise; 2. Consider the source; and 3. Follow
the money.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - March 2020
For the last three decades, America's regulatory climate, bureaucratic red
tape, unfettered trial lawyers, high corporate tax rates, and cheap foreign
labor have combined to drive much of our manufacturing base overseas, even
to hostile nations like China. So when something unexpected occurs --
whether inflicted intentionally or not -- the supply chain for everything,
from pharmaceuticals to cabinet hinges and airplane parts, is severely
disrupted and beyond our ability to self-correct.
We hear tales of woe about people "living paycheck-to-paycheck", and how
families and small businesses won't be able to make it without government
assistance. While this may be true is some cases, it should not be the norm.
Most people, if they were to act prudently, can set aside enough income to
weather a month or so of rent or mortgage payments upon sudden disruption
of normal income.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - February 2020
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - January 2020
Magill's Famous Pizza & Buffet / 7201 Little River Turnpike / Annandale, VA
Cost: $10 all you can eat. RSVP, questions: Bill Peabody, email, or 703-302-0041
*** CANCELLED due to Snow Forecast ***
For Discussion: "The Virginia General Assembly's 'Woke' Agenda"
FCTA has been busy analyzing the Va General Assembly Bills for 2020, and emailing
and calling state legislators. As a special service to our members and breakfast
attendees, we will hand deliver your message to the politicians in Richmond. We will
have envelopes and form letters, or bring your own, available to you at the breakfast.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - December 2019
Unrelated topic: FCTA found and posted this gem last month...
"The History and Future of Climate Change" (5:31 video + transcript)
at fcta.org/Misc/Environment/
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - November 2019
With local and state election results in, Conservatives in Fairfax County
and rural Virginia have a right to be depressed. Big money from Michael
Bloomberg, George Soros, and Hollywood succeeded in turning our Board of
Supervisors, the School Board, and both houses of the general assembly Blue.
So residents can undoubtedly expect more crusades for "social equity"
and "gun control".
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - October 2019
To emphasize the importance to Fairfax County residents of the upcoming
local elections, FCTA's Fred Costello has written a 7-page report entitled
'The Destruction of Fairfax County', as well as a 2-page summary;
links listed below along with the Fx Co Comprehensive 2019 Ballot:
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - September 2019
We're holding our annual luncheon on Saturday October 19 at the same
location as last year, with the same menu choices, details below:
377 Maple Ave W (Route 123) / Vienna, VA -- RSVP: luncheon@fcta.org
Meal $25 Luncheon: Caesar Salad + Lavazza coffee, tea, sodas
Beef Medallions with Cognac Sauce + red skin mashed potatoes & roasted veggies
-or- Breast of Chicken with Wine Sauce + pasta & roasted veggies
-or- Vegetable Moussaka
Topic: "Fixing Fairfax County's Economy"
1st speaker: Joe Galdo - GOP candidate for Chairman, Fx Co Board of Supervisors
2nd speaker: Arthur Purves - FCTA president & GOP candidate for Va 32nd Senate
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - August 2019
America's public schools are nothing to brag about, with student achievement
ranking behind that of most developed countries, while the amount of money
we spend far exceeds that of those other countries. And while Fairfax County
likes to claim its schools are top notch, such is not the case, except for
its TJ magnet school, which could legitimately claim world-class status.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - June 2019
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FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - May 2019
1. ~26% deal with Fairfax issues, half of which is authored by FCTA.
2. ~9% deal with Virginia issues.
3. ~65% is left, in the category I call "Perspectives".
These are arranged in order from top to bottom, on our home page.
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - April 2019
-- Reduce raises to match household income: $8,559,056
-- Reduce materials cost to match student: $55,854
-- Delay salary increases by 4 months: $19,509,069
-- Require $2000 deductible in health insurance: $48,314,200
-- Raise the retirement age to 66: $324,000,000
-- Return ERFC to legacy version: $206,442,870
-- Reduce raises to match household income $9,820,038
-- Tie pension COLA to actual cost-of-living: $2,336,988
-- Reduce litigation reserve to 3x 2005 value: $15,000,000
-- Reduce school transfer to realize cost reductions: $27,248,979
-- Require $2000 deductible in health insurance: $23,081,400
-- Terminate the DROP program: $37,402,527
-- Delay retirement benefits to start at age 66: $129,711,521
-- The adopted budget is often 1% below the advertised: $44,378,629
-- Starting balance (not needed in reduced budget): $166,824,206
-- Managed reserve (typically 3% of the budget): $128,427,469
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org
FCTA's MONTHLY MESSAGE - March 2019
Thanks for your support.
FCTA.org