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According
to Steven
Pearlstein, a business columnist, Virginians are
“prone to boneheaded decisions that make simple
things complicated and complicated things nearly
impossible.” Like Virginia pundits, the first
example that comes to his mind is the car tax. But
Pearlstein’s ire is directed at the financing of
the Metrorail extension to Tysons Corner and beyond.
It’s
the “best investment of public dollars that you
could imagine, “as development will cluster at
Metro stops and generate $80 million in new property
tax value for Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
According to Pearlstein, this development will be
mostly offices, stores, and apartments, “the kind
of growth that generates relatively modest demands
for extra spending by local government.”
Like all the other development?
Of
course, boneheads in Virginia don’t quite see it
the way Pearlstein does, as a “veritable bonanza
for public finance.” They don’t want to finance
this “bonanza” in a straightforward manner;
instead, “state and local officials have come up
with a backdoor financing scheme meant to fool
taxpayers into thinking they can get all the
benefits of the project without assuming any of the
risks -- a fiscal fantasy that renders the project
politically vulnerable when the costs escalate, as
they inevitably will.”
Costs
have escalated—by 20 percent in a matter of months
and before one spade of dirt has been turned—but
Pearlstein dismisses that minor blip and the plan to
tax the rail corridor more. Every Virginia taxpayer
should pay for this “big dig,” and private
investment plans are rip-offs. And he drives the
stake through: “Outside of Virginia, people are
generally clever enough to be suspicious of free
lunches.”
It’s
enough to make me long for pundits who stick to one
target.
An
Outrageous Stretch
I
should be careful for what I wish for. Jeff
Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
stuck to one target—Jerry Kilgore—in the single
most unfair column I think I have ever covered. What
does an obscure Richmond area delegate’s
fundraising letter and a day laborer facility
proposed for the Town of Herndon have in common?
Nothing, except that Schapiro links them in a
breathtakingly outrageous stretch of Kilgore-bashing
and Tim Kaine promotion.
Schapiro
takes Kilgore’s position opposing illegal
immigration—a position some say is supported by 80
percent of Virginians--and calls it “nativist,
spiced with resentment and fear,” “rooted in
ostracism rather than assimilation,” and “a
coded appeal to voters.”
Instead
of noting that Tim Kaine was keeping a low profile
on the hot button issues presented by the Town of
Herndon controversy, he suggested that Kaine use his
fluency in Spanish to exploit supposed Republican
fissures “to mobilize the Hispanic vote for
November.” The only saving grace of Schapiro’s
column was his recognition of blogger John Behan’s
sensible analysis at Commonwealth
Conservative.
Reflections
on Immigration and Herndon
Former
Democratic Delegate George
Grayson, a William and Mary Professor
specializing in Latin America, offered a series of
“myth-busting” observations on immigration from
Mexico in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. One myth
Grayson exploded is the claim that illegal
immigrants pay more in taxes than they take in
government benefits. In Arizona, illegal immigrants
cost $1.3 billion more than they pay in taxes.
Grayson’s piece covered the national issues
impacting the Town of Herndon controversy.
Charles
Greenfield, executive director of Legal Services of
Northern Virginia, offered a defense of the Town of
Herndon’s approval of a day-laborer center. In a Washington
Post op-ed,
he concentrated on local issues, not the larger
issue of illegal immigration that animated opponents
of the center.
Exposing
Potts
Bart
Hinkle of the Times-Dispatch followed up the
profiles of Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore that made
him our “Columnist of the Week” last
edition with a withering
look at the many faces of Sen. Russ Potts,
“independent” candidate for governor. To see a
tough but fair expose of Potts’ shifting positions
on Virginia’s op-ed pages that routinely lionize
the “independent” Winchester candidate was
refreshing, to say the least.
More
pundits ought to pay attention to Norm
Leahy of the One Man’s Trash blog, the only
place where Potts’ cheering section in the media
is held accountable for their shameless efforts to
put the spoiler candidate into the debates.
Is
There a Kaine Campaign to Analyze?
Unless
one reads John Behan’s Commonwealth Conservative
commentary on Tim Kaine, such as this
example [dead link. -- editor], one might wonder if there were anything
other than anti-Kilgore, pro-Potts issues in the
gubernatorial campaign.
Bob
Gibson of the Daily Press started out
discussing Kaine’s unclear message, but quickly
tired of it and moved to more familiar Kilgore
criticism and Potts-boosting.
For
News, Read Sports
On
Tuesday, state and Henrico County officials will
host a NASCAR delegation in an effort to convince
them to locate the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Virginia.
Only Richmond Times-Dispatch sports columnist John
Markon bothered to comment on the secrecy
regarding financial incentives that may be dangled
before a group already dazzled by the big money
offered by Georgia and North Carolina.
Uncanny
Parallels
Speaking
of Henrico County, the county became a national
laughingstock for their $50 iBook sale and riot. The
best commentary on this sad situation came from our
own Barnie Day. Ever a
student of history, Barnie found remarkable
similarities between the behavior of the iBook mob
in 2005 and the retreating Southern mob in 1865.
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August 23, 2005
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