realloudoun

Every two years, a wonderful supernatural creature appears in the dreams of Virginia GOP candidates to give them the magical power to build all the new roads they want, and never, ever having to pay for it.

Tea Party right wing wacko House delegate candidate David LaRock is merely the latest to have been the recipient of such nocturnal visitations from the Road Fairy.

Along with informing us that he has many, many offspring, LaRock’s near-daily campaign mailers have been touting Dave’s ability to grant us all our road wishes without costing the taxpayers a penny. Continue reading →

Last month, as we noted, the all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors, in another of its unrelenting efforts to make it as difficult as possible for the public to find out what they’re up to or what stupid things they have said in the process, voted unanimously to abolish written minutes of their meetings, effective this coming January.

State law requires local bodies to keep and publish minutes which, among other things must provide “a summary of the discussion on matters proposed, deliberated or decided, and a record of any votes taken.”

The Board, however, airily argued that the extremely convenient webcasts of its meetings that it posts online are the equivalent of such a “summary” — about like arguing that to find out the standing of your baseball team, all you need to do is watch a video of all of the games they have played so far this year.

Having provoked an understandably concerned reaction from citizens, Supervisor Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) posted on his Facebook page a huffy denial that the Board had abolished written minutes: Continue reading →

Not to make this Pick on Loudoun Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) Week, but Buona does have a knack for coming out with the sorts of pompous obfuscation that have endeared two-bit politicians to newspaper humor columnists from the founding days of our republic.

Discussing the Board’s decision last month to order the county staff to develop a budget option involving a completely arbitrarily chosen two cent cut in the property tax rate for next year, Buona “explained”:

“Last year we flew blind. If you don’t look at alternatives, we as supervisors don’t know where there are needs or where there might be excess.”

Apparently what this means is that whereas last year the all-Republican Board of Supervisors adopted a completely arbitrary cut in the property tax rate that left a $68 million shortfall in the school budget, THIS year they will consider TWO different completely arbitrary reductions in the property tax rate: one which leaves a $67 million shortfall in the school budget and another, a two cent reduction, which leaves an $80 million shortfall.

But at least they won’t be “flying blind”! Continue reading →

As noted the other day, Loudoun Supervisors Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) and Suzanne Volpe (R-Algonkian) think it is very, very unfair that officials in our county should have to turn down campaign contributions from developers who have pending applications for land use actions before the Board (what a normal person would call a “bribe”), when supervisors in other Virginia counties get to take such graft.

Buona, displaying his trademark hilarious wit and knack for felicitous turns of phrase, said of  the Loudoun law (which was sponsored by Democratic state senator Mark Herring): “Throughout the county, this is jokingly known as ‘the Mark Herring thinks Loudoun County is more corrupt than the rest of the commonwealth law.’”

Actually, throughout Loudoun County it is really known as the “‘We all remember what happened the last time we had a Republican Board of Supervisors’ law.”

But more to the point, Continue reading →