Why does Loudoun County seem to be the only local government against the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA)? What makes Loudoun County different from the rest of Northern Virginia?
If you lived in Loudoun County, what would you think of the roads in Northern Virginia? What is the difference between Loudoun County and Prince William County? The difference is that the residents of Loudoun County pay for the roads they drive on when they commute to work.
Are you familiar with the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway. Loudoun County residents know these toll roads work and in fact generate plenty of cash for road improvements. Why should they pay more? When the NVTA taxes them, they will be getting taxed a third time; thus they will be taxed once by the state for roads they do not get, once to pay tolls for the roads they actually use, and once more by the NVTA for roads for developers that they do not want.
Why did the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) vote to grant taxation authority to the NVTA (here)? Unlike tolls, when we just give the politicians our money, we have little control over how they spend it. We pay and HOPE they will give us what we need. The politicians enjoy such naivete from us; developers like it too.
Note that the Below The Beltway has offered its take on this too (here).
I would definitely like to know who the no vote was. Only the Washington Post would not bother to report such a detail.
You know, I noticed that as well, they didn’t say.
But I bet you dollars to donuts it was Jon Stirrup.
Normally I’d expect Corey to be with him, but Corey’s quote yesterday suggested he thought we had to pretend to like taxes or else the NVTA would punish us by building roads we didn’t need rather than listening to us and building roads we DID need.
When you are an unelected board, you can use your power for revenge without worrying about the consequences.
I heard for the first time this evening about the NVTA planning to steal money from homeowners in NOVA. I want to help with any effort to challenge the constitutionality of this NVTA. Please post anything you know about such efforts.