Boyd: Taxing in his own way
Matt Deegan’s article [“In the Grip,” March 2] on the city-county revenue sharing agreement—and Rob Bell’s state budget amendment to change the terms of that agreement —was an interesting read. But it presents city and county positions as if both were equally valid. They’re not.
Probably the most accurate statement in Deegan’s article came from Ned Michie, a Charlottesville School Board member. Speaking to the current budget problems in the county, Michie said that “the keys to the county’s financial straits are in its own hands, because it is a wealthy locality with a well-below-average tax rate.” That is, indeed, accurate. As Board of Supervisors member Dennis Rooker pointed out in a letter to the editor to The Daily Progress a couple of years back, no locality in Virginia that approximates Albemarle’s affluence has a lower tax rate. In addition, the county allows 60 percent of county land parcels into the land use subsidy program even as jobs and production related to agriculture continue to decline and make up only a small part of the county economy. That subsidy costs the county nearly $20 million a year in lost revenues and places the tax burden on the other 40 percent of property owners. No locality in Virginia uses the land use subsidy more than Albemarle county does.
Ken Boyd claims that the Bell amendment to strip revenues from the city by altering the revenue agreement is about “principle.” But it isn’t the revenue-sharing principle that is guiding Boyd’s behavior, it’s his idea that taxes should never, ever be increased. As Boyd told a gathering of the Danville Tea Party recently, “I have never voted for a tax increase.” Boyd claims to have an “extensive background in banking and finance” so he is presumably aware that George W. Bush’s unfunded tax cuts—tax cuts he supported—added nearly $2 trillion to the national debt. He must also be aware that Bill Clinton’s 1993 tax increase on the wealthiest Americans—passed without a single Republican vote—helped to create balanced budgets and economic growth.
Ken Boyd is seeking the Republican House nomination for the 5th Congressional District. To get that nomination, he will not support any increase in the tax rate in the county, even if it’s needed and even if that’s what county citizens want. The Bell budget amendment, then, is not about principle, it’s about Ken Boyd’s potential political future. How parochial.
Mark Crockett
Kents Store
What would Jesus tax?
This delegate, Mark Cole, who wants to outlaw microchips for humans because its a sign of the antichrist is even crazier than you realize [“Ken Cuccinelli leads a charge to the far right,” Odd Dominion, March 2]. Does this double-digit-IQ goober think that if he passes legislation he would be able to prevent Biblical prophecy? Does he think that he sits at the right hand of God and tells him what to do? Amazing how many right wingers and tea baggers think they are the stewards of religion and yet can’t even understand its basic concepts.
Ellora Young
Albemarle County