27% Pay Increase for Members of the Board of Supervisors
No. I don’t think politicians should have the power to give themselves pay raises. What’s more, does anyone other than them think they’ve earned a pay raise? Crime is rising, schools are worse, poorly planned growth creates traffic and sprawl, and now they want a 50% increase in property taxes and a 27% pay increase. The first step in restoring sanity is to say, “no way.”
Property Tax Increase
Does anyone think we’re getting our money’s worth now? Why would we throw good money after bad? Higher taxes will hurt our economy, drive our old neighbors out of our communities and hurt us all by increasing the already exorbitant costs of living here.
It’s not that our county government is taxing too little, it’s that they’re priorities need to be realigned and spending brought in line with correctly aligned priorities — fight crime, improve schools, manage growth, and restore trust and integrity in our county government. Until a lot more about those things, I’ll oppose even the mention of new tax increases.
Public Safety
Crime is a growing problem for our children, our wives, and our older neighbors. But the police force is short 40 officers in the Dranesville district alone, more than 200 officers short county-wide.
We need a renewed commitment by our politicians at every level to make the safety of our people their number 1 priority. More police, better training, and prosecutors who don’t hesitate to prosecute.
More Recreation and a Better Environment
They go hand in hand. We need to preserve green space, add recreation opportunities for our children, and make Fairfax a better place to raise our families.
Education
Many people believe the Board can’t do anything to help students and parents with our increasingly contentious and underperforming education system. That’s wrong.
The Board provides 52% of the budget to local schools. We should use that to leverage more accountability from those responsible for education in Fairfax County. We can also pursue policies that make parents partners and not just spectators. We can use legal means to pressure underperforming schools, ally with like-minded state legislators to get reform from Richmond, and work more closely with Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares to increase transparency and hold school boards accountable.
Public safety isn’t confined to our streets and neighborhoods either. We have a growing crime problem in our schools. We need to get more officers on the force, and more enforcement in our local schools. The safety of our children should be our highest priority.
People who say the Board can’t do anything about our failing education system are people who don’t want to do anything. That’s kind of complacency hurts our children’s education now, and penalizes them for years to come.