Category: D.J. McGuire

Time for some carpetbagging commentary:

Everyone in the Lee Hill District, regardless of whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, should be voting for D.J. McGuire for Supervisor.

Why? While this race has been characterized as a referendum on VRE in the media, VRE is just a small part of the issues facing citizens in the Lee Hill District.

While everyone else is cutting back in their personal and business budgets (because of the way the economy is going) with pay cuts, less hours, and less jobs, Gary Skinner believes that you should do with less while the government does with more.

There have been nine property tax increases in Spotsylvania in the last thirteen years.

Skinner has supported five tax increases (including increases on property, personal property [car], and business furniture, but excluding VRE) during his two years on the Board and has helped to enact three. In one case, Skinner voted against a personal property (car) tax increase because the rates was too low.

All these increases were passed on 4-3 margins, so it shows how important a single seat is.

Last year, when the revenue were coming up short in the Spotsylvania, what did Skinner propose instead of cutting the county’s budget? A midyear tax increase. Thankfully, the other supervisors realized how bad this would be for the county.

At which point does the government have to do with less? With Skinner in office, it looks like never.

While Republicans and even a lot of Democrats (including former Governor Doug Wilder and Delegate Albert Pollard) all have realized how bad it is to increase taxes during a recession.

It kills economic growth and makes your county last on a list of perspective locations to locate a business. If your county has had nine property tax increases in thirteen years, it’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to get a tax increase at least every two years.

Would you build or start a business in a location like that?

D.J. realizes that if you want to attract businesses to your locale, you need make your county favorable to businesses, and you do that by keeping taxes low.

You also don’t enact draconian regulations regarding how a commercial property is supposed to look, something that Gary Skinner was a proponent of.

And there’s the outright logical flaws by supporters of Skinner and VRE. “Well, the gas price is the same in Fredericksburg (which has VRE already) and Spotsy!” Really, then where the heck is the money coming from?

Money doesn’t grow on trees and gas stations don’t print their own money (they’re not the federal government), so if they’re keeping the gas prices the same, that means they’re losing money (they don’t make money on gas to begin with), cutting personnel, or declining to upgrade equipment or infrastructure.

No matter what, it’s a bad net result for the county.

And why would you want VRE? To help a few thousands people to get a subsidy to ride on a train? And do you realize how bad VRE is and how hard it is to get to your place of work after you get to Springfield or Union Station? If you work in Manassas or Herndon, you’re SOL unless you want to be sitting on a dozen buses to get to work.

D.J. wants to bring jobs to Spotsy by keeping taxes low instead of subsidizing someone’s train ride. For every person that uses VRE, over 2.5 people use vanpooling. D.J. also wants to make it easier for vanpoolers by making it easier to create parking lots and keeping the personal property (car) tax low.

D.J. also wants to bring a fire and rescue station to the district (the largest one in the county), which currently lacks a single station. This is something that D.J. first proposed and to which Skinner immediately jumped on yelling “me too!”

It’s for all these reasons that people like Bill Bolling, Ken Cuccinelli, and local Congressman Rob Wittman have all endorsed D.J. McGuire for Supervisor and I’m happy to join with them in endorsing him.

For those that are unaware, fellow blogger D.J. McGuire (aka The right-wing liberal) is on his way to victory in his campaign for the Lee Hill Supervisor seat in Spotsylvania County. I also did a post awhile back detailing why he’s the best candidate for the district regardless of whoever decides to run against him.

He had the following statement regarding the recent announcement that the Fredericksburg (technically, Spotsylvania County) GM Powertrain factory would be closing:

D.J. McGuire, Republican nominee for the Lee Hill Supervisor, released this statement in reaction to the announced closing of GM’s Powertrain plant on Tidewater Trail.

Like many other Spotsylvanians, I was disappointed by the news of the closing of General Motors’ Powertrain plant. I see the plant every day on my way home from work, and it has been a symbol of the county’s openness to success in industry and prosperity for its citizens. I am sad to see its apparent demise. Just three years ago, GM was investing more capital into the Powertrain factory, so this action also comes as a surprise. Given GM’s current status, I hope and expect that both the company and the Obama Administration will be very open about the reasoning behind this decision.

Of course, GM is in need of serious adjustment, and no one can be certain what action, if any, the county could have taken that would have led to a different outcome. However, this is a good time for Spotsylvania to reflect on its recent actions, which certainly didn’t improve the outlook for business in general or the Tidewater Trail plant in particular.

Since GM’s last infusion of capital into the Powertrain plant, property taxes were raised 11% (on average); the personal property tax rate was raised more than 25%; and the business furniture/fixture tax rate was raised 19%. While avoidance of these recession-aggravating measures may not have saved Powertrain, at the very least it would have reduced the risk and the cost to GM for keeping it open – and would certainly do the same for future users of that space. Moreover, if (however unlikely the possibility) the plant was closed for more political reasons, the aforementioned tax increases could very well provide Washington with some of the justification it would use to claim otherwise. It certainly won’t help the future users of that plant, or any other businesses struggling to get through this recession here in Spotsylvania.

In any event, it is time for Spotsylvania to recognize its place in the national and global community, and to acknowledge that it cannot over-tax, over-spend, and over-regulate in a vacuum. That is why, should I be elected Lee Hill Supervisor this November, I will:

• Refuse to support any real estate tax rate above equalization
• Keep a close eye on county spending to avoid future tax increases and where possible allow for reductions in tax rates, be it for real estate, BPOL, furniture/fixtures, machinery/tools, heavy equipment, personal property, etc.
• Work with my fellow Supervisors and the Planning Commission to scale back (and, if possible, repeal) the recently imposed commercial design standards (a.k.a. the “HCOD design standards”) as soon as practicable

The GM Powertrain plant may stay open until late next year. I cannot say whether or not the above plans will save it – and truth be told, it would not be sensible to bend county policy simply to aid one employer. However, we can (and I believe we must) use this as a wake-up call to make Spotsylvania a friendlier county for established and rising businesses – including the business that is and/or will be at 11032 Tidewater Trail.

For more information, contact D.J. at dj@djmcguire.com