$400k More of Our Tax Money to the IDA

When will the madness that is the Halifax County IDA end?

Our knowledgeable Supervisors have decided to 'loan' the IDA $400,000. Keep in mind that 'loan' is a loose term with these people and we should go ahead and expect that repayment will never happen, or if it does happen the terms will be very different from what is printed in today's Gazette-Virginian. After all, all they have to do is have another vote later to change the deal.

The most interesting part is that the parties involved tried to receive some Federal money, but they didn't meet the requirements:

IDA Interim Executive Director Patsy Vaughan said the Riverstone tenants – Virginia Tech and Tetra Tech – were unable to meet certifications needed to borrow the federal funds.

Virginia Tech can't meet the requirements to borrow Federal money? HELLO???? Is anyone even listening or reading what Ms. Vaughan said???? Virginia Tech, a state supported school, can't borrow Federal money, yet we're willing to hand over $400k to them. Does that strike anyone else as odd?

I think we need to send our Supervisor's to Joe Gasperini's basic finance class at the high school.

Are You Ready for Your Water Bill Increase?

Just when everyone's budgets are already spread thin, our public servants are itching to hit us with another increase. If you read the article in Friday's Gazette (beware, you'll have to scroll down to find it*), you'll see how they're rationalizing it. What bothers me the most about it is that they have over $100,000 owed to them by people who's service hasn't been cut off! I don't know about you guys, but the last time I was late (by just a few days) they didn't have a problem shutting my water off. I would think that the 'sewage only' customers would be even more inclined to pay on time. If you have raw sewage backing up into your home, it's time to pay the darn bill.

But wait! What they don't tell you is that there is no way for them to shut off the sewer service. Once a home is connected to the sewer, it's always on. That's why they aren't disconnecting those people! There is no real incentive for those patrons to ever pay their bill if there is no chance of having the service disconnected.

Ahhh... the smell of free sewage service in the morning. There's nothing else like it.

*Note to the Gazette-Virginian: Please, please, please either make your articles have static URL's, or at least change the archive pages so that readers can click a link to auto scroll to the article they're interested in.

New Rules for the Comments

Congratulations. You've worn down my patience and comments can no longer be completely anonymous. You must now have either a Google ID or an OpenID account to post a comment.

I apologize to those who were posting and maintaining the proper level of civility. I really wanted to leave the comments open to anonymous posters because I thought it would be the best way to incite real, honest exchanges. Silly me, huh?

New New New New Cell Phone Policy in HCPS

So, the school board approved a new cell phone policy. You can check it out on the Gazette-Virginian website (don't expect the link to work past Friday morning).

Question:

What good is a new policy when the old policy wasn't being enforced, or at least it wasn't being enforced consistently?

Best quote of the entire article:

Board member Stuart Comer asked about text messaging, to which Randolph replied he is unaware of a significant amount of text messaging during the instructional day.

Is that man delusional or does he expect us to believe this crap?

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Edit: Enough with the name calling in the comments. Say whatever you want, but keep jerk, idiot, and all other names out or your post and on the playground where they belong.

I have received several emails from readers that want to know who I am. For my own job security and safety, I cannot divulge that information. However, I will confirm the following facts about myself:

• I am a middle aged man.
• My political views typically align with the libertarians, but I lean to the left on a lot of issues.
• I am not employed in the law enforcement community.

Regardless, my identity isn't the important thing. It's the issues! I welcome anonymous posts for the simple reason that I respect everyone's right to privacy.

Keep those comments and emails coming, and recommend this blog to all your friends!

Right Wingnut Agrees With Left Wingnut

I read Tom McLaughlin's opinion piece with great interest every week. More often than not I agree with him, but I found this week's article especially interesting. He received an email in which an admittedly 'conservative' reader agreed with his previous article concerning the pending Ag Development tax cut.

I'm glad both sides of the aisle are able to see this thing as a huge mistake, not only for the reasons McLaughlin pointed out (they have no idea how much it will cost), but for the reason his emailer brought up. Anyone that thinks this isn't a ploy by our Board to cut their own taxes needs to pull their head out of the sand. Tom should poll the Board members asking them how much they stand to save on their personal tax bill if this measure passes. Those numbers would probably astound Halifaxians to the point of revolt. I will go out on a limb and say that if all the supervisors who's tax bill would be lowered by such a change were forced to forgo their vote we would only have a couple of supervisors voting. I don't know about the rest of you, but that sounds immoral and illegal to me.

The problem is that no one will ever ask the questions that need to be asked. Neither of our newspapers will step up, and if we're waiting for our supervisors to forfeit their votes on the grounds of conflicts of interest we'd all be waiting until the end of time.

We've put the foxes in charge of the hen house, my friends!

Thine Supes Taketh Away, Then Giveth Back

What the Hell?

The Board of Supervisors originally cut the IDA's budget, but this week they decided to give them $43,000 back for the office manager position. What brought on such a unanimous decision?

You can read The News & Record's report here, but don't be expecting too many details.

A Picture Worth Sharing

I ran across this picture today and couldn't suppress a hearty belly laugh (and I have plenty belly). I don't think people want to somehow attach a grasp of the English language to citizenship. How many natural born Americans could pass the English portion of the GED test?

It's the Ecomomic Stimulus Check Again, Stupid

I've been ravenously reading the blogosphere for all opinions on the recent ecomonic stimulus checks being sent to almost all citizens. This essay seems to sum up the mess our economy is in, and how and why this band aid will not fix things:

Apparently, the U.S. Treasury’s gift is supposed to send my wife and me off to the nearest big box store for a flat screen TV. Or perhaps we’ll celebrate the bonus with dinner at a restaurant littered with black-and-white photos of yesteryear. Inspired by the Lassie-era pictures, we’ll toast to new beginnings, to economic stimulation — and to stuff!

Please go read the entire essay and the comments. I think most of it is right on target.