| Sales
Taxes and False Advertising |
|
To the editor:
|
| The "Citizens for Better Transportation" should
be censured for false advertising. |
| The group's recent full-color brochure mailed to Northern
Virginia residents attempts to mislead voters by showing a
long list of road and transit projects and falsely implies
that they would all be carried out if Northern Virginia taxpayers
would give the state another $5 billion. |
| Rather than supporting this group, you should insist that
the group: |
| a. State specifically the cost of each promised project,
with ample room in their cost estimates for the overruns typical
of every state managed transportation project. |
| b. Identify priorities among the many projects and the schedule
for undertaking and completing each. Clearly, they could not
all be undertaken at once. |
| c. Clearly delineate the total cost of all projects. |
| d. Explain the proposed source of funds to complete the
projects when the $5 billion proves inadequate and/or identify
which projects would not be done when that occurs. |
| You should also insist that the group identify specifically
the individuals and organizations providing the funds for
its activities. The information available thus far seems to
suggest that the group is heavily financed by developers who
have already reaped huge profits while sticking taxpayers
with the bill to clean up after them and organizations that
are immune to higher taxes because their income is provided
by taxpayers (e.g. government and school officials, government
contractors) and utilities that merely pass the cost of their
taxes on to their customers. |
| The voters of Northern Virginia now know that its representatives
in the state legislature are ineffective and that they participated
actively in spending every nickel in tax revenue that came
from the strong economy of the 1990s. Now they want even more.
It's time to say no. |
| Glenn R. Schleede |
| Reston |
