More information about Home Help Program
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Corey Stewart
Published: August 24, 2008
I would like to respond to Shirley Collins letter to the editor of Aug. 21, regarding the Home Help Program that the Board of County Supervisors is considering.
The proposed program will allow the county to invest its funds, something that the county would have done anyway, and does not expend taxpayer dollars. The county will invest in certificates of deposit
from a participating bank(s), which will in turn provide mortgages for a maximum of 10 years at a reduced interest rate to selected participants.
This is another first-in-the-nation proposal developed by Prince William County and an example of good government at its best.
The proposed Home Help Program will benefit the community in multiple ways. It will reduce the number of unsold and vacant homes on the market. It will give our teachers, firefighters, police, and public
servants the opportunity to live in the same community they serve.
Due to the recent housing market boon, 40 percent of all county employees, 50 percent of police employees and 60 percent of Fire and Rescue employees live outside of the county. That sends our tax
dollars to neighboring localities.
With the turn in the real estate market, the county is currently faced with an overabundance of unsold homes. This has severely impacted the county’s real estate market and the incumbent source of
revenue from real estate taxes.
The county believes we can wed improvement to our workforce housing situation and mitigation of our declining home value problem and kill two birds with one stone.
On May 20, the BOCS received a briefing regarding the proposed Home Help Program. The board unanimously supported the initiative and directed staff to put together a proposal. The Home Help
Program is not a done deal. A Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued for interested lending institutions and they were due back to the county on Aug. 21. Staff will then present an update to the BOCS
on Sept. 23, with recommendations for the program. The BOCS must approve the program before it can be finalized.
I would invite Ms. Collins and others who have questions about the Home Help Program to contact the Finance Department at 703-792-6700. And, as with any community issue, residents are encouraged
and welcomed to speak during Citizens’ Time at the board meetings or to speak to any of their board members individually.
COREY A. STEWART
Chairman, Prince William Board of County Supervisors
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on September 01, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Sorry phdee and Blue_doggette everything you publish here and on other sites is the public domain. Are you trying to hide something. Nice try on the anti immigrant bs again phdee. ROTFLMAO. Blue doggette why would you try to burnish your pro illegal credentials with thinking somebody is stalking you? You can ask most people on the street how they feel about illegals? Unless of course you ask illegals. LOL. Name calling is the last resort of someone who has no argument. Bring it on. LOL Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( blue_doggette ) on August 29, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Yes, you have a right to file FOIAs but the question becomes why and when do you get declared a nuisance? Some people just do it to spy and snoop on others.
CC: I promise you, you don’t know jack about me unless you are stalking me. Are you a stalker? Come on, fess up. Meanwhile, stop making unsubstantiated comments.
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Posted by ( phdee ) on August 27, 2008 at 3:19 pm
zcx & mmarin: Seems like you have admitted that you track, monitor, spy upon, follow, and attack this person - and probably more - like a good facist. How would you know that a person wrote or contcted a govt party, causing you to have the need to file a FOIA request? Do you have a “standing” or open FOIA request with PWC govt.? I recognize ZCX is a racist, hatemonger, and anti-immigrationist, who constantly makes allegations he can’t support, and that a secretive, follow citizens type of govt would appeal to him; thus he tries to act it out.
Have you"spies” and “informants” ever tried to get a real life and leave citizens alone.
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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on August 26, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Blue_doggette i know more about you by what you have posted in these forums, as well as your posts on other websites and blogs. What i have seen and heard from you, 9500 liberty, MWB, Meche, La Raza, and Nancy Lyall as well as MS-13 the killer front group of illegals and any of the other illegals and pro illegal apologists on here is enough to sicken me to the core. It must stop and it will stop even if we have to militarize the borders. LOL Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( mmarin ) on August 26, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Blue,
Since you were born and raised in Virginia than you know as Virginians we’ve never trusted our government and as Virginians we demand that those elected to serve us be held accountable to the body politic at all times.
Sunshine laws allow for that. FOIA gives every citizen that power - to hold corrupt government employees and elected officials accountable to the people for the fraud, waste, and abuse they might levy.
If the government is doing nothing wrong then they have nothing to hide from a FOIA request. FOIA wouldn’t need to exist if government we’re more open to the citizens.
Nothing stops you from writing a letter to your supervisor; praising or denouncing something he or she may have said or voted for. But, for darn sure that record is now public and should be open to requests. What are you and this government employee hiding? Are you getting special favors? Are you providing a bribe? No one knows unless the records are open for inspection.
When you communicate with an elected official it *IS* the business of the people and not just your own.
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Posted by ( phdee ) on August 26, 2008 at 10:09 am
ZCX: you are constntly making wild allegations you have never supported with any proof, facts, etc. (Of course, you don’t have any.) But you won’t take my repeated challenge to you. That is, if you have the facts and proof that someone - legal or illegal - is violating the lasw (any law), then go to the police or other authority, take your evidxence and make a sworn affadavit. Now you know as well as I do that you cannot do so because it is a felony to knowingly make a false affadavit. You’re just a big blow hard and phony.
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Posted by ( blue_doggette ) on August 25, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Chris Cummings, you don’t have a clue who I am associated with. Don’t even pretend to know. Who mentioned immigration? YOUUUUUU.
MMARIN, Born and raised here in VA. You are probably one of those transplants. We both know that some people have a great deal more transparency than others and probably exactly what I am talking about. I shouldn’t have to steal into my supervisor’s chambers in the middle of the night to talk to him/her. If I write to my supervisor thanking him for voting a certain way, you should not be privy to my gesture.
There are some people who have nothing better to do than snoop into the business of others.
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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on August 25, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Blue_doggette it is clear what your biases are since you are affiliated with 9500 Liberty and their pro illegal cabal. Nancy Lyall and MWB please take notes your are just as responsible for this “National Nightmare”. Enjoying higher taxes, poor emergency room care, and higher health insurance costs must be a liberal pro illegal apologists way of life, as well as the obvious crime problems which to this day are continually denounced as not common in the illegal community. Hint, hint, being illegal is a crime, being illegal and having a job is a crime, being illegal and having a drivers license is a crime, being legal and aiding and abetting an illegal is also a crime. If only the police would enforce the laws. Illegal immigration probably would disappear almost overnight especially if all illegals are living in constant fear of being arrested. LOL Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( zcxnissan ) on August 25, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I respectfully disagree blue doggette i received a relatively fast email reply from Mr. Stewart and Mr. Covington in the only time i have asked a question of them. Fairfax is floundering in red ink because they are giving away their money to illegals and letting legal immigrants suffer in the process. Fairfax County especially towards Alexandria is a third world cesspool. LOL Chris Cummings
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Posted by ( mmarin ) on August 25, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Blue,
I disgaree. You CAN contact your supervisor. You are just arguing that the comminication is not privledged. If you want privledged communication talk to your priest or healthcare provider. Otherwise, conversations to a government official should ALWAYS be public.
Transparency in government makes sure that government acts in an honest, legal and fair manner. The entire principle of this nation is that we as the citizenry don’t trust government and we must check it in case it ever tries to become tyrannical. Open record laws support that concept.
What part of ‘Sic semper tyrannis’ do you not understand?
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