Two weeks ago the teachers lined up to implore the Board of County Supervisors to set the tax rate high enough to handle the needs of the school system, a hand crept out of Silver Lake, asking for more county money money. The executive director of Rainbow Theraputic Riding asked the county for $85,000 that woudl go to capital improvements. It would put in a bathroom and pave the parking lot. The parking lot needs paving because it is hard to push a wheel chair over gravel.
All of these improvments sound like a good idea. However…..who should be paying for them? Rainbow Riding serves just over 60 kids. Should the tax payers be footing the bill? We say no. Money for special projects like this should come from fund raisers. Too many county employees have gone without raises and worked overtime to just willy nilly hand over $85,000 for a program that serves less than 100 children.
Perhaps Rainbow Riding needs to consider putting in wooden ramps and walks to help with the rough gravel problem. That would serve them in the short run while they earned the money for a more permanent solution to the parking lot problem. This might be a good time for some of the wealthier patrons in the county and surrounding area to make a tax free donation to this worthwhile organization. Regardless of how worthwhile an organization is, we can’t pay for them all.
The county is much too free with its cash as it is. Discretionary funds are out of control, we are sinking thousands into the tank museum and supporting the Hilton Center for the Arts well beyond what most citizens think should be happening. Still other residents have complained about the large amount of money given to Manassas Ballet by the county.
Certainly the county can chip in small amounts for arts and charities but at what point do we put a ceiling on these things, especially during economic down-turns? Didn’t we just have to give nearly a quarter of a million dollars to cover the costs of the Sesquicentennial? There has to be some control over who gets to stretch their hand to the county for funds.
I agree wholeheartedly. Regardless of how worthy a cause Rainbow Riding or any other non-profit might be, taxpayers should not be required to support them involuntarily. That is especially true in cases of obvious conflicts of interest such as Supervisor Covington’s wife serving as President of Rainbow Riding and Manassas Councilman Wolfe’s wife serving as a paid staff person and director of Manassas Ballet.
Recall also that the $250,000 recently given in support of the Sesquicentennial was bailout money to cover the shortfalls that occurred because of the organizers’ inability to deliver on their promises to taxpayers. They had already received over one-half million taxpayer dollars.
Manassas Ballet’s Form 990 for their fiscal year ending July 31, 2011 is now available. I haven’t had time to analyze all of it but one item jumped out. In Part II of their Schedule G, we see that their main fundraising events, the Ballet Ball and the golf tournament, lost $13,448. Revenues for these events were only $19,418.
Manassas Ballet is simply not an organization that enjoys broad public support. Its base is a small group of “in-crowd” people in Manassas and PWC who have figured out how to party on the taxpayer’s nickel.
The Wartime Museum has just asked for another million of taxpayer money. Their latest 990 is not out yet, but last year they raised less than $30,000 for a project with an estimated cost of $100 million. Nonetheless they continue to pay their CEO about one-quarter million per year.
When is this nonsense going to end? No raises for teachers, police and firefighters but we have money for this BS?
Doesn’t that tank museum’s director get some huge salary? I resent being asked to support everyone’s pet project. I would give the tank farm $0.
Ah I see you already answered me about the director. We need to shelve that project. No one more penny should go into it. No more taxpayer money to Rainbow either. They already get money from the county.
What are we doing for the Senior Center? I rarely agree with Bob Marshall but I sure support his (and Mrs. Marshall’s) efforts on that one. When one is caring for an aging person at home, the day care center might be the only break one gets during the week. Caring for a person who can’t care for themselves at home costs upwards of $500 a day if you have to call in an agency. That is minimal care. Minimal. The senior center is a lifeline to area families. Yet they were told NO while leisure activies were given tens of thousands of dollars. Shame shame shame!
Doesn’t Manassas Ballet have performances at Hylton? When does the Tank Farm open? Truthfully, I don’t care what happens with Manassas City Govt. I figure it isn’t any of my business. I don’t pay taxes over there. Retail stores etc is another matter. I do go to restaurants in the City. I hope their shrimp supply and the margharitas stay real fresh.
Moon – PWC taxpayers (you and I) foot most of the bill for the Hylton Center, Manassas Ballet, Manassas Candy Factory, etc. The Tank Farm (Wartime Museum) claims that they will open on Veterans Day in 2014. However, their own projected cost of the project is $100 million (up from the $50 million they were claiming before the BOCS approved it). As of their last 990 filing they had only about $3.5 million in assets, of which about $3.0 million were just pledges and promises (not money in the bank). We should see the new 990 any day now so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as to raising funds since the BOCS approved the project. However, I’m making no bets that they will raise sufficient funds and will strongly oppose any taxpayer bailouts.
Why are we footing the bill for the Candy Factory? What does the County get out of it? @NTKz?
That Tank Farm is a crock and should never have been accepted by the BOCS.
👿
The quarter of a mil, just had to be mentioned. That’s the one that really gets my blood boiling. I just think back to that plea for the same amount of money, with NO plan or accountability for the money.
The time has come for the type of spending to come to an END! We are the only remaining locality operating with such funds.
I agree with both Moon and NTK on all they’ve said about this. I’ll never forget speaking in between the Marshall’s at Citizens’ Time, and oddly enough all three of us were in a AGREEMENT.
Our kids in public schools have to hold fundraisers to be able to go on trips or other special projects. So why on earth shouldn’t these worthy non-profits do what we ask of our own children?
Silver Lake…The Park Authority is no longer is it’s own “entity”. Could this be the beginning of the end of county parks? Are we going to have public/private partnerships for parks? If there’s NO money for trash cans, there’s certainly not a 100K for a non-profit, albeit a worthy organization.
Let’s face it, Silver Lake just isn’t someone’s pet project. Every time I think about no trash containers out there I see red. Then every time I see that middle school from Silver Lake I see red. It is encroaching. The county needs to erect some sort of barriers or plant some serious fast growing trees.
That park is already beginning to look like trash. No one wants to go to a park and have to see and hear a school. The school isn’t trash. It is a beautiful school. However, it and a lake supposedly dedicated to passive recreation really can’t co-exist that close. It makes me sick.
Of course, No one wants to have to wait for all the cars coming up from the ball fields and splash down to get out of their own drive way either. Way to go, Prince Lame-O County.
I really must take a field trip to Silver Lake. I’ll try to this weekend, perhaps have the Queen practicing driving on “country roads”. I’ve not been there since it’s reopened to the public. I would like to know what the “real” long term plan is for Silver Lake.
BenLomond, driveways, and ball fields. Ah, the joys of warm weather at Ground Zero. I hoping that NO ball field lights are left on over night. Now, if those were street lights in Sudley…I might feel diffrently. 👿
Quarter of a million here, quarter of a million there. Can’t the BOCS understand that this adds up at some point? Help me out here, but I think I recall most of them declaring themselves to be fiscal conservatives. Really.
I find it amazing that a small non profit would request such a large tax payer funded donation. I hope the BOCS remains objective and denies the funds be included in the budget.
Wow, I’ve never been on a horse in my life. Maybe I need to run for City Council or something.
@Emma, I suggest our BOCS rather than the City Council for all the horse action. Our BOCS is very horsey, especially the business end of the horse.
@Chris, how about a link to the supervisor end of this discussion.
The director of the wartime museum, according to their 990 (like a 1040 for non-profits) for the year ending June 30, 2010, got $243,000 in compensation that year, proving again that “non-profit” does not mean non-profitable for a select few. It’s as good a gig as being county executive, another local who gets paid more than the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of State and I suspect has a bit less responsibility resting on her shoulders.
@Moe,
What does he do to earn that much money? Holy cow. That’s more money than Patton ever made.
Am a bit taken aback. Moonhowlings now censures contributors? Just want to know.
Yes, I know, my spelling is amiss. Look, read your own blog and see what is invited by the conversations. If you don’t want to allow comments that would shed some light on darker matters, then just have a kind of “nice person” blog. A church, for example, would be a good place for that.
Mike (if I may call you by your first name) – don’t worry so much about such corruption from our public officials, especially in PWC and Manassas. That’s how they seem to live, and I don’t think they will ever police themselves. Worry more about our kids and families, if the majority will be able to instill values beyond shooting “enemies” or expelling people that don’t look like “us” (whatever we look like). Sure, Mark is corrupt. I’ve known this for a long time, and it’s hard to fight a guy who lives his life that way. (redacted by blog owners), but don’t let’s pity ourselves. Let it go. The guy has a need, and it doesn’t have anything to do with art. It has to do with winning. He’s a “winner”. “I’m number one.” Let it go. We need to get back to what’s important for our children, for the world, and for real art. Wolfe has robbed the arts in Prince William County, and he pretends to be an artist. … I’m beginning to believe that he is … just that.
[Ed. note: we are not comfortable with people being called correupt. This tone must change. Comments about Mark Wolfe’s children are unacceptable.]
So you say, but such “tolerance” seems more like “weakness”. Why not just move the “Wolfe-man” out of office?
@Morris Davis
By the way, wasn’t his name “Stewart”, or something?
So when do we get to the problem of no symphony in our own county?
@David
First you have to get the county people to see that they have a problem. I don’t think many of them do.
Personally, I am a supporter of the arts in every community. Certainly a civilized society stresses the beauty in music, dance, and art.
Mike, we welcome your comments, as county folks, we just don’t usually take a position on the City’s affairs. I don’t see where you were “censored” as I am reading your comments 🙂
On a general note, the idea of cronyism, no matter where it takes place, is, and will remain troublesome.
@Moon-howler
More money than generals make even at wage levels today. Did the tank farm’s CEO even serve? Just asking.
@Moon-howler
I think if Patton knew that the memory of those who served and died was being exploited in the interests of political cronyism he would be slapping a lot more people than he did during WWII.
@Mike Lasouris
Self fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t censor you but having read your comments more closely Elena and I have changed our position. We do not feel comfortable with your accusations.
We do not allow people to be accused of illegal activities on this blog without proof.
It is one thing to accuse someone of impropriety, it another thing to accuse someone of criminal activity.
It sounds like this topic is important to you. I suggest you get your own blog and you can do what you want on it and take the risks you are willing to take.
This topic thread will now resume to Silver Lake and Rainbow Riding.
The tank farm was never about the phony-baloney faux patriotism it was presented as by Stewart (Corey) and Jenkins. It was always about (1) further enriching the Hylton family by expanding their development densities in Dale City; (2) finding a place where the owner of the “tank farm” (I think his name is Coors, or something like that) could dump his rusting relics so that he could free up his land for rezoning and development; (3) put a few dozen thousands of $$$s in Corey Stewart’s (and Jenkins?) campaign coffers from the Hyltons and those they control; (4) use taxpayer money to pay Craig Stewart (related to Corey?), the executive director of the so-called “wartime museum” an exhorbitant salary for doing, basically, nothing much.
@Blue Moon
Agreed on all points. I don’t think Craig is related to Corey, however.
@Need to Know Do we actually know that?