Who needs enemies?
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John Merli
Published: March 6, 2008
Case-in-point: Corey Stewart’s shrewd and divisive call-to-arms (figuratively, at least) to rid our local environs of that plague of all plagues — the ill-placed illegal immigrant. After presiding in Prince William County and other parts of Northern Virginia dating back to 1963, I never knew they were such a scourge on our way of life? Or did it mostly begin when Corey was old enough to run for office?
I’m sure if the rest of us had known what a threat these people posed in all the “downtime” they have when they’re not trying to eke out something resembling a living at minimum wage (or worse), I’m sufficiently confident we would have pounced on this plight on humanity much earlier than young Mr. Stewart did for us. Having the good fortune to have hit upon this volatile issue (among several he had originally listed in his early literature), Stewart struck a vein of discontent that he went on to exploit with breathtaking agility.
Make no mistake about it. The very first word in “illegal immigration” indicates to one and all that the problem should be dealt with, hopefully without the harsh and mean-spirited manner that some of its proponents have chosen.
But wait, what’s this? No money to pay for it? No adequate local funds to allow local police to begin questioning “suspicious-looking” characters when they’re stopped for other alleged offenses. So now we’re faced with paying for something that no one even knew we needed until rather recently. Thanks, Corey. Just send us the bill to pay for your new programs. Not to worry. We’re all independently wealthy.
Another case-in-point: The Virginia Supreme Court ruling last week that found Richmond’s spineless way of confronting serious transportation issues illegal. This has now resulted in axing the taxing rights of the special tax authority that had been “authorized” by lawmakers, subsequently leading to confusion all around,and a pending refund of fees and taxes collected for this special fund in the first two months of 2008.
Now here’s where it gets good, because the same government forces who favored this basically dishonest and circuitous way to collect public money for public projects like highways and bridges are the same ones who have to figure out how to reimburse those who have paid the fees. And what do you want to bet they’re going to ask you to show receipts for something you never thought you needed to save in the first place? And how much more money do you think it’s going to take to undo what they’ve already done? They make the mistakes and we pay for it. What a deal. So maybe we should put Corey Stewart and Company and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority together in the same room and not let them out until they both come up with workable plans to pay for their own schemes. And maybe in the meantime, the Virginia General Assembly will grow some backbone when it comes to levying taxes. (Don’t hold your breath.)
Exactly what is it about taxes that make politicians flee in horror, as though the rest of us are so simple-minded that we think civilization can thrive without some form of taxation? And sometimes, special projects require special taxes? No one ever likes it, but so what? And please do us all a big favor: Have the decency and fortitude to figure out what it will cost and where it will come from, instead of sticking your heads in the sand and hoping it all goes bye-bye. Politicians who perpetuate that approach to government should maybe go bye-bye themselves.
E-mail John Merli at{encode="j.merli@comcast.net" title=" "}.
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Posted by ( seb21 ) on March 06, 2008 at 9:20 am
Let me begin by saying I am a fan of your columns, Mr. Merli… but I have to respectfully disagree with you on a few points. Corey Stewart was simply addressing the growing desperation of the community in regards to illegal immigrants. The majority demanded action, and Mr. Stewart and others took that action. Granted, they should have planned it out more thoroughly than how they did, but they answered the call. We elected the ones who we believed would do so, and so they did. The NVTA is a different story. A backlash against an appointed taxation committee was inevitable. People feel as though new taxes are justified if they are reasonable and set in place by their elected officials. I believe that if the NVTA members were elected to their posts, the excessively large fees would never have come to pass, and a more sensible approach would have been taken to address the need for transportation funding. It is simply unfair to demand such exorbitant amounts of money from people who, if required to pay it, would probably suffer financial ruin as a result. Indeed, civilization cannot function without taxation. However, there are smarter ways going about taxing your citizens other than demanding thousand-dollar payouts from them over a speeding ticket.
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Posted by ( mrbill ) on March 06, 2008 at 7:06 am
so,if we’re black or white or hispanic we should comfort law-breakers? the msf(mwb) advocate law-breaking. so ,what are citizens supposed to do? the reason that our property values have fallen is the same reason they went up in the 1st place;greed. houses and families grew in pwc before 2000 ,but we’re targeted as racist?question msf not legal residents!
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