Three million pizzas to go

It’s spring again, and in Prince William County that means it’s time for the beggars to come out of the woodwork and plead for the county to take more of our money from us to spend on their pet projects.
This past Tuesday the county held a public hearing on the proposed 2009 budget. I was able to watch some of the festivities on cable and offer the following observations.

First, I was pleasantly surprised when the first woman I heard thanked the Board of Supervisors. I’m used to a lot of people yelling about how important their particular spending program is. But several people took the approach of praising the board for their wisdom in giving money away to “deserving” people, meaning those for whom the speaker was requesting more funding.

But it would be nice if these supplicants would thank the people who are actually paying for the programs, rather than the board, which simply gives our money away. It’s the taxpayers of the county that are being asked to give an extra large increase in tax dollars so that no program will be left behind.

I would love to see just one person turn around, face the camera, and say “Thank you, kind people of Prince William County, for electing people who will take your money and give it to my cause.”
Sometimes I think robbers are more civil, because at least they acknowledge whose money it is they are taking.

Second, it’s easy to spend other people’s money. You can tell this by watching the board members describe the difficulty in deciding which programs NOT to fund. Last month several members voted to use their own discretionary funds (more of our money) to keep one program going for another month.

Third, can we all agree that we love firefighters? A lot of firefighters were there talking about how they love serving the people of the county and how much better they will be able to perform this service if their programs receive the full amount of tax dollars requested.

We all would like to have quick response time when our houses are on fire. But we won’t build a fire station in every neighborhood just so nobody has to wait more than a minute if their home is burning down. Of course, that could take the entire operating budget for the county.

I’m not saying we spend too much on the fire department; just that it is possible to reach a point of diminishing returns, where the next dollar would be better spent somewhere else. You do have to draw the line somewhere. Drawing that line is not an evil act by an uncaring board, whether we are talking about our schools, the police and fire departments, or some other well-loved program.

Lastly, some business owners reminded the Board that since business property has not depreciated like houses they are facing tax increases of over 30 percent, on top of increasing costs for gasoline and other expenses. Last week, discussing this increase, Supervisor Maureen Caddigan said “I don’t see any negative impact from the $1 rate on business.” Supervisor John Jenkins added it was just another “cost of doing business … and [no] cause for concern.” Well, these owners have a real concern.

Last night Sharon Pandak, former county attorney and twice candidate for board Chair, put the debate over the tax rate in “perspective,” although probably not in the way she intended. Describing the argument over an extra penny or two in the tax rate as “needless,” she said “It’s only a couple of pizzas each month.”

There are an estimated 130,000 households in the county.

If each family skips two pizzas each month so they can afford to pay an extra penny in taxes, that would be 24 pizzas per house, or about three million pizzas each year, depriving local pizza shops of over thirty million dollars in revenue, plus quite a few delivery jobs. Since I don’t imagine Sharon delivers pizza in her spare time, this probably isn’t a big deal to her.

But when a politician tells you that fighting against an increase in your taxes is “needless,” you should ask why, if it’s such a small amount, they can’t figure out how to do without, instead of forcing you to tighten your belt.

Charles Reichley has been a Prince William County resident since 1981. He can be reached at critically thinking@msn.com.