So we now know the players; who should we vote for and why?

I am a democrat, but Boulva is the budget chair and we are in horrible times. She voted for a county employee furghlow, but has 16 years on the BOS.

Herrity has stood up to Jack Dale with the Admin Building, voted against an employee furghlow. He is new to the BOS, but seems to be shaking things up.

Thoughts?

My vote goes to Mrs Bulova.

I'll never forgive Herrity's crooked father who was largely responsible for turning Fairfax County into the mess it is today.

While doing some research, I learned that the FCPS system educates only 51% of children under the age of 18. FCPS is the major portion of our budget.

Our School Board insists it needs more money to meet the needs of special needs students (i.e. ESOL), while private schools now number 80 and more parents are considering home schooling. Bulova has promised to "support our schools," even it means increasing the property tax rate to the highest in the region. This despite FCPS continues to decline in quality but increase in cost to operate.

Herrity promises to tear the budget apart and do a line-by-line. Any new propsosals will have to be accompanied by verifiable justification. That we have a BOS candidate who recognizes the waste in our budget and willing to cut at the line-item level rather than a knee jerk reaction gets my vote.

Bulova made me a good wrist watch. Vote for her.

BULLova is just another Connolly. Spend us deeper into a hole and blame
everyone else. Developers rule. Herrity wants to post FFx finances online so
we can judge for ourselves. Great idea. All I see with BULLova is same'ol same'ol.

Anybody know where both of them stand on illegal immigration?

ARDF Wrote:
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>
> Anybody know where both of them stand on illegal
> immigration?

Does it matter? Immigration is a FEDERAL issue.

Radiophile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ARDF Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > Anybody know where both of them stand on
> illegal
> > immigration?
>
> Does it matter? Immigration is a FEDERAL issue.

It does matter and very seriously. PW County has the right idea. Lets
do the same here and send them packing.

Junes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While doing some research, I learned that the FCPS
> system educates only 51% of children under the age
> of 18. FCPS is the major portion of our budget.
>
>
> Our School Board insists it needs more money to
> meet the needs of special needs students (i.e.
> ESOL), while private schools now number 80 and
> more parents are considering home schooling.
> Bulova has promised to "support our schools," even
> it means increasing the property tax rate to the
> highest in the region. This despite FCPS
> continues to decline in quality but increase in
> cost to operate.
>
> Herrity promises to tear the budget apart and do a
> line-by-line. Any new propsosals will have to be
> accompanied by verifiable justification. That we
> have a BOS candidate who recognizes the waste in
> our budget and willing to cut at the line-item
> level rather than a knee jerk reaction gets my
> vote.

My vote is for Pat Herrity because he is a new face and will be for change.

Bulova will be the same old BS,increase taxes, waste money and continue to run FFC into the ground.

Maybe Herrity can do to the FFX budget what Bush did to the US budget and what Gilmore did to the VA budget!

Sorry guys, Republicans have lost my trust for the next four years at the least barring a live boy/dead girl incident on the part of the Democrat. Minarchy is like communism, a nice ideal but one whose alleged practioners are unable/unwilling to achieve.

I don't think I am alone on this either.

Junes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While doing some research, I learned that the FCPS
> system educates only 51% of children under the age
> of 18. FCPS is the major portion of our budget.
>

That's a surprising figure - do you have more information? Does your 80 private schools include pre-schools? does your 51% include kids under school age?

as a fiscal conservative I'll vote for Bulova. We just can't afford any more "borrow and spend" debtpublican fiscal policy.

As a lifelong democrat, Herrity will be the first Republican I ever vote for.

I like him. He does not go along with the crowd-he asks tough questions and does not care if someone's feelings are hurt.

He wants to keep taxes down and cut the bloated budget. He strongly opposed Gatehouse II for FCPS which would have cost us $130 million in new debt plus interest-Bulova supported it in closed session and then switched her vite when she saw she was on the losing side.

I agree that Bulova is Connelly Part II. We need someone more fiscally conservative during these tough times.

If you vote for someone solely on the basis of their party, without looking at what they stand for and their individual record, you get what you deserve.

They will vote for ANYONE with a D next to their name. Jerry Connelly is the perfect example, so are the 10 democrat school board members. Voters in this county vote for whoever the democrats tell them to vote for.

Unless you want an increase in taxes to support schools that continue to go down hill, vote for Herrity.

suprised Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Junes Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > While doing some research, I learned that the
> FCPS
> > system educates only 51% of children under the
> age
> > of 18. FCPS is the major portion of our budget.
>
> >
>
> That's a surprising figure - do you have more
> information? Does your 80 private schools include
> pre-schools? does your 51% include kids under
> school age?


My information comes from the Fairfax County Government Web Site. You have to work through the site, but all the information is there - of course not in "one handy" place.

The information is all inclusive for children up to the age of 18. If you back out age 5 and under, the enrollment in public schools increases to 67% (using the Census as a guide).

Like you, I was surprised too. I thought Faifax County's "stellar" school system would draw a far greater number of students.

na



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 04:55AM by Junes.

BorrowAndSpendDebptpublicansUnite Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> as a fiscal conservative I'll vote for Bulova. We
> just can't afford any more "borrow and spend"
> debtpublican fiscal policy.

Oh B&S Bulova is hardly what you would call a "fiscal conservative." She is for increasing the real estate tax rate to increase revenue for an already bloated budget. She is for add-ons to supplement revenue (gas tax, increased sales tax, etal).

I am the last to vote for a candidate because of party affiliation. Actually, I rather enjoy splitting a ticket, which drives the candidates wild. My only regret is that we can't split the Pres/VP ticket.

Herrity is a fiscal conservative, without depriving the county of what it needs. He recognizes that we CAN live within our means and still live well once the pork is removed from the budget.

The Fairfax County budget is fat with duplicity. Although the budget doesn't specifically allocate funds for illegal aliens' programs by line item, it does allocate funds indirectly via local charities.

One Reston group receives as much as a quarter million each to "minister" to the needs of “the needy” but spends most of its time in Herndon. The General Fund is peppered with line items that are vague but all funneled into programs to assist "the needy" regardless of legal status. Example: The Board allocated $175,000 for a day labor center in Herdon, with the intent to set up at least four more throughout the county – is it any wonder tax payers were irate and closed it down. There are no other day labor centers in the country, yet the county still allocates a half million dollars each year for these centers.

Nearly $2M is allocated for the health safety net, which provides Kaiser HMO cards to "needy" residents (regardless of status). This is tied directly to the barrage of complaints about illegal aliens abusing the intent of the ERs, using them as their FREE Primary Care Facility. If any of you have been to the ER lately, you probably noticed most have returned to some semblance of normalcy – but not without a hefty price to the tax payers.

The County allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars for FREE translators to non-English speaking residents. Making English the official language of the County would not eliminate this "service." The service would not be "for fee," as many services will be in the future.

Herrity understands that Fairfax County tax payers are caught in the middle and being squeezed hard. We are the milk cow for the Commonwealth, "mandated" educators for an ever growing number of non-English speaking students, the gateway to Dulles Airport, and the scape goat for a Congress that can't get off the dime and pass and immigration reform bill that can be approved on both sides of the aisles.

Much of the County's ills are directly related to Connolly and his aspirations for "greater things." Herrity can't turn it around over night, but at least he recognizes that change is necessary. Bulova will be the dutiful Connolly soldier and carry on.

My personal wish is a county-wide E-Verify mandate. In a few months, Obama plans to begin an infrastructure upgrade program that will create an estimated 2.5 million jobs over the next two years. He says this program is to put "Americans" back to work. I would like to be assured American citizens in Fairfax County are the ones who get those jobs - at livable wages.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2008 05:10AM by Junes.