Board of County Supervisor members are limping. They used their “budget-is-tight” gun to kill financially insignificant programs that aid seniors and troubled kids and in so doing, they have shot themselves in the foot.
For instance, the BOCS is closing the Manassas Senior Day Program.
They complain its subsidy of $230,000 a year is too much of a budget strain and that it competes with a private business.
First, it is nuts to think governments do not compete with private businesses; it is done at the federal, state and local levels all the time.
Experienced legal observers, such as the county attorney, should explain this fact of life to Board of County Supervisor members who try to blow the competition smoke in our eyes.
Second, how much strain does this program really put on the county’s billion dollar plus budget?
The Manassas Senior Day Program subsidy would cost about 1/20th of 1 cent per $100 of appraised real property value. For the average single family home owner it is about $1.77 per year or less than
1/2 a cent a day. Compare that tiny amount to the social indifference being shown those citizens and families who use and need the respite care of this program.
It is not about competition nor the subsidy amount. It is about the marked indifference to human priorities that citizens see in their supervisor’s decision. It is that deep gut feeling that says “Its just not
right.”
WILLIAM H. WESTHOFF
Woodbridge
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