STOP SPENDING is a bumper sticker. Let’s take a look at what it means on a local level for those of us living here in Prince William County in Northern Virginia.
I have been asking around about 287(g) and Secure Communities. I uncovered a little more than I intended. See for yourself–
Very few law enforcement agencies participate in 287g – maybe 70. This can be largely attributed to staffing needs. Most agencies are losing staff or remaining flat and can’t devote cops for that when they’re not getting additional officers. This has been the case in PWC for several years. Promises were made, promises where not always kept by the BOCS.
What hits us even harder is the defunding of the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force. The Northern Virginia Gang Task Force was de-funded two years ago – Frank Wolf had obtained the funding via earmark. Then he pledged not to vote for earmarks. I wonder who encouraged that pledge? Could it be the Grover Norquist crowd?
In the past, the earmarked funds were obtained and turned over to DOJ to administer as a grant. Regionally, that did more for getting criminal illegal aliens off the street, according to continued discussion with those involved with law enforcement. All of NoVA participated in that program which was brilliant as it leveraged resources throughout the region.
The program is still functioning at a much lower level and replacement funding is being (unsuccessfully) sought throughout the region. The county presentation included a request of $25k to support the program. How many of the local STOP SPENDING crowd will nix that plan? Jurisdictions assign one or more officers to the NVGTF and are reimbursed fully for that officer. This method prevented the loss of an officer to the jurisdiction. Now some funds are offsetting a small portion of the officer cost making it difficult to assign a body.
Remember back during the illegal immigration fracas we were told to invest our money in things we had control over? This is a perfect example of why we were told to do that. The Feds can cut off funding in a heartbeat. They can also pull a 287(g) program as STOP SPENDING becomes the reality that stops on our door step.
287g is merely a tool. The Northern Virginia Gang Task Force is a weapon! They lock criminals up through that program – human trafficking, drugs and of course the machete gangs of various ethnicities. That’s where a majority of criminal illegal aliens are also.
Hopefully the Republicans and Tea Party will see the error of their ways and that STOP SPENDING without a gradual plan is just stupid. If your roof needs repair, you repair your roof, even if you have to borrow the money. That is how we must think when it comes to criminal activities. We need to keep control of our limited resources rather than thinking we are buying happiness and a solution to our problems. Politicians need to assess the problems and come up with solutions rather than turning everything into a sound bite. (Corey!)
We are losing the federal support. Local law enforcement and others are trying to get local support. Many of us are tired of hearing that this is Obama’s fault. That is just an asinine statement. Let’s lay the blame where it belongs, including at the local level if money ins’t appropriated to keep the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force fully functional.
Something for Corey and others to think about–gangs and criminal activity care little about boundaries. What happens in City of Manassas or Fairfax might as well be happening right here. That’s the reason that a regional task force is superior and the best bang for our buck.
NOrthern Virginia Gang Task Force– more information
I actually agree with you.
But when you can’t even borrow money, the spending needs to stop SOMEWHERE. So, what shall we prioritize so that we can continue to get federal funding for “x”?
Because we’re not borrowing anymore. No one will lend us the money. We are printing it. Just think how well we could have funded this program with a fraction of the “green loans” that were scammed away.
Well, you had to go ruin that atta boy. Everyone sees the other sides waste.
I would think that everyone would want to control illegal gang activity.
Moon, I agree with most of what you wrote here too. However, I think there are ways of meeting priorities and still restraining spending.
$25,000 to support the The Northern Virginia Gang Task Force or $60,000 for Manassas Ballet. Hmmmm, I wonder which would have the most positive impact on the quality of life for the most people in Prince William County.
That’s just one example. Citizens are going to have to dig deeply into the budget, if that’s possible given the wagons Peacor has circled around any real information to keep citizens in the dark. If we actually had a transparent County government that was interested in the well-being of citizens instead of cronies, we might be able to address some of these problems.
Why must it be either or? Maybe the ballet doesn’t need quite as much money. Many people love the ballet and it is a source of pride having their local ballet. I am not one of those people. I am neutral. If I were going to howl about something I would howl about the nearly $200k given to a private club that conveniently comes off and on as a park authorrity group like…magic. It serves less than 100 kids. You tell me.
Everyone has their own reasons for and against things. What initially got my attention on Rainbow was their gift of 45 acres rent free for 40 years. County property. How did that happen? would it have happened if Rainbow didn’t have a “godfather” and godmother? they are already sitting on millions of freebies from the county and they still want more. I want effen trash cans for a park in my district and they can’t afford trash cans.
Back to the task force….Cut spending always goes after the less glamorous expenditures.
What atta boy? And why is it ruined? What did I say that was objectionable?
Taking a slam at green loans when it could have just as easily been something else. I guess I don’t see why you had to go anywhere but talking about the topic.
But it wasn’t that awful there Cargo, it could have been worse.
Would you cancel the NVGTF to save money?
Who appointed Grover Norquist as Grand Guru anyway? Why are Republicans following him around like simpering puppies craving some attention? If his platform (a simple “no new taxes”) is so popular, let him run for office and expound on the details of how simply saying “no” solves problems in our nation or local communities.
Frank Wolfe better think about what is better for his constituents – participation in an effective program or pats on the head from Norquist whose mantra leaves nothing to compromise. The NVGTF is an organization which shares info, operates across boundaries, and puts criminals behind bars. (Its funding doesn’t have to be pitted against the Manassas Ballet or the Hylton Center. Civilized societies can fund both.) Wolfe should realize that it’s better/cheaper for jurisdictions to share resources than to operate individual agencies dedicated to the same goal.
“Civilized societies” cannot always fund both. When government fails to exercise responsibility, prioritize, and make choices, the burden fails on the taxpayers. The “choice” such governments make is to shift their problems to their citizens.
When Prince William County funds both, essentially failing to exercise fiscal responsibility, I am compelled to pay the price, or face fines or imprisonment. When I need extra revenue, I must offer something of value in return to people so they will voluntarily pay me.
Gang enforcement is a public need that justifies taxation in the public interest. Corporate welfare to developers to build another road so they can profit from building more townhouses is not. Frivolous expenditures such as Manassas ballet is not in the public interest. If people want to attend ballet performances, they can pay for it with their own money.
Government irresponsibility and failure to make choices deprives me of resources to buy what I consider essential for my business to be able to provide my services to my clients, or to provide for the standard of living of my family.
Yours is one person’s opinion. People in this civilized society like having some culture. Now, I will grant you that the City of Manassas puts on a better highlighted show of culture than the county does. Perhaps the central location allows this to happen.
However, you are taking the tone that no one in Prince William County likes having a local ballet. To me, that is Tea Party thinking. Now let’s set the stage here for a minute….do you want to live in an area that boasts a gang task force but nothing cultural?
Talk about aliving up to the Manass-hole reputation. Why don’t we just volunteer to let them build a prison in our backyard while we are at it?
Prince William County is the 9th richest county in the United States. There is no reason we should have to live this spartan life. I am not asking for our cops to drive Volvos like Falls Church cops do. Nor do I want to be embarrassed by where I live because we are seen as a bunch of cheap-skate Bo-hicks.
@Moon-howler
Moon, I’m all for culture. However, I’m against paying taxes to subsidize someone’s else’s ticket. I used that as one example of frivolous spending. We’ve discussed Manassas Ballet at length here and I don’t want to go there again. My point is that government can spend free and easy when it’s someone else’s money. As far as I’m concerned, people are free to start as many ballets or whatever they want as long as they don’t send me the bill.
I’ll remind everyone of the class act that is Alan Cors of the Wartime Museum. Recall that he pulled his request for County taxpayer money when he realized how opposed people are to such spending for things that aren’t needed. I congratulate him for that stand, and wish more power to him and success for his venture in raising private funds to support it.
@Moon-howler
Would I cancel the NVGTF?
Maybe. Depends upon what other needs are more necessary. I’m not familiar with what is going on up there. I’m speaking in general terms. Would I want to? No. It sounds like a good program.
And how is talking about the “green loans” as a scam, leaving the subject when its tied into spending. Re-prioritize the loan money for Solyndra and finance actual needs, not wants.
But, ok….pick ANY gov’t project that is a want and re-prioritize to YOUR heart’s content.
My point is that we can’t pay for everything we want and we can’t borrow anymore money.
So…what do you do then?
Government ought to figure out what are priorities are and then fund them.
Policing is a core service (but something like a mounted unit is a frill in my opinion). We can argue that feeding the poor is a core service but providing a senior care center should not be.
I think leadership is about confronting these ugly issues and figuring out what we do with what little we have.
My wife told me once that some days she had to figure out if she could spend money on a large refillable tea from Chik-Fil-A because she didn’t want to have trouble coming up with her rent. When we talk about increasing taxes we need to remember the cost of that ballet has to also be borne on the backs of the people that think a happy meal is a luxury.
Taxpayers are a limited resource, too.
I’m curious about whether the majority of people really think they’re worse off then they were several years ago or are they parroting the Republican Party’s soundbites which are politically motivated – to gin up fear and make the Prez and Dems look worse. I’m sure that there are people who bought more house than they would have qualified for given more traditional financing standards. There are a lot of impatient people who think they deserve everything whenever they want it. That doesn’t mean that the teflon-coated and stainless steel ladened manse should be theirs however and that they shouldn’t shoulder much of the responsibility for having bought it. I can understand why people who are saddled with a mortgage that they have trouble paying are worse off, but I wonder if most people, particularly here in the DC area, feel as financially stressed or are they just embracing the fear that the Repubs have bellowed about in the hopes of defeating Obama.
In my own family only the folks who have bought more than they could reasonably afford are a couple paychecks away from disaster. Everyone else lived within his or her means and still has money to spend on entertainment and travel. And they do spend money on the arts as well – particularly my mother and her friends.
I think much of the hoopla around sequestration is political drama started mainly by the party that painted itself into a corner with the “no new taxes” pledge. It would rather see actual people and industries hurt than compromise with the Dems in an election year.
Two notable things happened today. First, I received the real estate tax bill for my office. Mrs. NTK and I ponied up money from our own savings to pay the down payment on a mortgage to own the office from where I operate my small business. We used no government support, no Small Business loans, and put no burden on the taxpayers. We took the risk and paid the bill ourselves without asking for any form of corporate welfare.
Second, I looked at InsideNova and saw that this money I need to support my family, save for my kids’ education, and improve the quality of services I offer my clients is going in part to pay for dancing Frankensteins:
http://www2.insidenova.com/entertainment/2012/oct/24/frankenstein-ballet-features-kim-reynolds-music-ar-2303365/
I dare anyone to challenge me for being pissed.
Drive down Antioch Road and head to Silver Lake if you want to be even more pissed …like 3-4 times more money.
Libraries are cultural also. Does that irritate you? I dont use the library but I love it that we have libraries. I know its there if I need to go.
@Censored bybvbl
And we all know that the Democrats’ soundbites have no political motivation at all, and are not intended to make Gov. Romney look bad.
I live in a home where I’ve been for about fifteen years and bought below my means in order to save and invest. Don’t you or anyone else dare to tell me I’m greedy of selfish for objecting to paying taxes for bailing out people who made stupid choices and bought beyond their means.
On the other hand, do things change? What might not be beyond your means one week could all change.
How are we bailing people out of their houses?
@Moon-howler
Ditto on Silver Lake.
No, I do not object to paying taxes for schools and libraries. I did not object even before I had kids. Schools and libraries benefit the entire community rather than greedy cronies looking for taxpayers to fund their hobbies, or developers wanting corporate welfare.
@Need to Know
“Don’t you or anyone else dare to tell me I’m greedy of selfish for objecting to paying taxes for bailing out people who made stupid choices and bought beyond their means.”
But are we bailing out those individuals? I think we’ve concentrated on bailing out banks.
We’ve lived within our means as well – have lived in the same place for 30 years, took out a short term mortgage which we’ve prepaid when we remodeled, have a decent savings and retirement income. We also want to be able to spend time and money on our hobbies and interests. But… I can’t afford to build a Hylton Center or a Hirschshorn Gallery on my own. I’m glad the money is there to support those venues.( BTW, without having kiddos in the schools, I’ve still paid to support yours if they attend public schools. I hope you appreciate my tax contribution and that all the little public school kiddos are studying hard and not wasting my money!) We all have our priorities but it appears that Repubs want to do away with mine and use my money for theirs.
@Censored bybvbl
Hmmm….compromise… when have the Democrats done that? Did they promise to cut spending? Where were those cuts described? What type of compromise is it when the Democrats refused to change THEIR position on taxes during a recession?
It takes two to compromise. Neither was willing to listen to the other, partly because they knew that they had set up a devil’s bargain to cut stuff, thinking the other side would blink. Of course, NOW they can say…”oh, but I didn’t want to cut that. The sequestration did it.”
Actually there was a lot of Democratic compromise. It was the wing nut element of the Republican party that held solid ground during the debt ceiling non-compromise.
@Cargosquid
Sure…both parties are looking for cover. To solve the problem of over-spending, they’ll have to cut spending and increase taxes just as any smart person would do if he or she had a lot of credit card debt. If I owed AmEx $2000, I’d have to do more than cut my spending. I’d have to pony up some money.
They have to cut spending FIRST. Otherwise, the cuts never get done and the taxes get raised. Cut the spending first. They need to prove that they are serious.
They have to meet their debt obligations first. I dont have a problem with raising taxes. It should have been done for the war.
No pain no gain. The very wealthy need to pay a couple of points more to help out.
@Need to Know
Communities rarely get culture unless everyone chips in and pays a share. Sometimes there is a benefactor to pick up the lions share but I dont think most communities are lucky enough to have one.
I really don’t mind paying for things I don’t use because it enhances the community and makes decent people want to live here.
@Cargosquid
I should have first asked you who THEY is?
The gang task force needs to be funded. Period. Increase taxes if that is what it takes.
Americans pay a lot less in taxes than most western countries. I hate paying taxes by the way.
“They” are those asking for more money to “pay the deficit.’ Those people don’t EVER actually cut spending. They just raise taxes and create NEW spending. Which is what the Democrats were doing. Instead of cutting spending somewhere else, they wanted NEW spending.
I think that the gang task force does need to be funded. Again, what do we cut to pay for it. I don’t want my taxes raised. We have enough spending. Its time to prioritize. Out of 1.2 trillion in deficits, we can find something to cut and spend elsewhere? We need to raise taxes and create new spending?
It was Dick Cheney who spouted deficits do not matter – During the Bush Administration, we continued to spend – and Congress (Boehner, Ryan, Reid, Polosi, etc) voted for spending without funding. First time in history they voted to go to war and pay for it on a credit card – borrowed funds. The Bush Refund in 2008 – pay for with borrowed funds. It was all ok during a R administration – but when Obama says that you need to balance cuts with increases – they are all up in arms, all they want to do is cut more taxes.
When Romney talks about reducing income taxes, notice he does not talk about Capital Gains taxes and Dividend taxes BECAUSE most wealthy people do not earn the majority of their wealth from income – it is from capital gains.
And because Cheney said it, he was right? And that is also just more evidence that Cheney and Bush were NOT conservative.
The war was paid for with borrowed funds…because, at the time, we were in a recession. Keynesian economics, which the liberals state is the way to go…state that borrowing IS more effective that raising taxes. Also…funny how we could pay for all that and still have less than a 500 billion deficit. By the way….the other wars were paid for with borrowed funds too….bonds. Oh..which is that same thing as selling bonds to China, look at that.
Furthermore, it was NOT ok during the Bush administration. Why else is the Tea Party getting rid of….wait for it…..REPUBLICANS? Dividends are paid out of taxed money. Its ALREADY taxed. And Capital Gains…raise it and watch investment dry up.
Notice that when Romney talks about reducing income taxes…..that’s it right there. INCOME taxes. Dividend and Capital Gains taxes were put at that level by….progressive politicians. Go figure. Of course, those taxes can be raised. And the politicians that raise those taxes can be voted out when the economy drops farther.
Anyway…you’re in luck, Pat. The rates change next year. The Democrats are raising taxes on everybody, including dividend people. I’m sure all those retired people that live on dividends in retirement are going to be thrilled at doubling their tax load.
cargo said:
The tea party is getting rid of Republicans? Not sure that is the direction I see things headed.
Are you telling me that money from GE and EXXon has already been taxed? I don’t think so.
I believe people are clamoring for taxes to go up on wealthy income, not necessarily on dividends. I don’t think that a slight nudge upwards in a dividends tax is going to hurt investments. Where else would people put their money? Seriously. I don’t want it to happen either but still, it isn’t going to keep people from investing. Most retired people don’t “live off of dividends.” You have to be pretty wealthy to be able to just live off of dividends.
The money from GE and EXXON has been taxed. Its the law. And they use the law to have, ultimately, a benefit. Change THAT law.
Hey…a low flat tax with fewer loopholes benefits everybody.
Trust me, I am not clamoring for the capital gains to be raised. However, raised a point or 2 I can live with, as doing my fair share. I am not even close to being able to live off my dividends. I am more into “my dividends for the year bought me a new ipad.” Just keeping it humble here……
Oh, I forgot. The Tea Party is getting rid of Republicans….first.
Yes…getting rid of mainstream GOP and replacing them with Tea Party Republicans.
The GOP is the only party that will work to reduce spending, taxes, and the size of government. Even if it has to be dragged kicking and screaming into line with its lip service.
THEN, once those spendthrifts are gone, the Tea Party candidates can go after the Democrats.
I* expect real Republicans rather than the 3G newcomers will stomp the tea party into the earth.
@Moon-howler
How do you expect that to happen? It was the Tea Party that enabled the GOP to win AT ALL in 2010. Remember, it was the mainstream GOP that was wailing and moaning about the new Democrat dominance forever and forever. Of course, I think that some of the mainstream GOP like it when the Democrats are in charge. Those Republicans get to bitch and moan but don’t have to actually do any work and they can raise money. THEY aren’t bothered by the Democrat programs that get enacted…they’re in Congress.
I expect it will happen. That’s all. I really hope the Republican party hasn’t totally turned to the weird and bizarre.
If Romney wins and he caves to the far right, it won’t last. If he wins and he doesn’t cave and shows moderate Mitt, then the R’s might come back.
If Obama wins, I think that real republicans will start doing some kicking to the curb. The far right isn’t going to be abel to fool but so many people for so long.