Loudoun Station & Moorefield Station

Donzi -

I respect your vigilance about the proposed tax districts. Admittedly I was one of the lemmings that blindly supported Metro. Until you shed light on the proposed tax district. And for that I thank you.

I, too would support a small County wide .035 tax increase to help fund Metro. I think the BoS made a grave errors when they decreased our property taxes. This was a short-sided financial ( and political) decision, that has long term consequences.

I would also support a hybrid/blended County, State and Federal funding plan, with one absolute caveat; MWAA/MWATA and the prime contractor must agree to have an onsite IG and the IG will be required to run an audit every 3-6 months.

County Funding: Utilization of General Funds, TOT (hotel/occupancy tax, versus giving $2M of that tax way to the Redskins), a County wide C & I and small increase in property tax (the BoS return the property tax rate to 2010 levels).

State: General Funds from the State Budget, NVTC & NVTA funds. $150M has already been set-a-side for Phase II

I strongly disagree with VA's Dept of Rail & Public Trans Director, Ms. Thelma Drake's new policy of giving funds directly to WMATA. If the State can fund $500M to various roads to "no-where" (Rt 460 Norfolk and the Charlottesville by-pass) then they need to adequately fund NoVA transportation projects

Federal: For Phase I, the feds provided $900M in funding. And based on the scale and scope of Phase II - the feds should earmark at minimum $375M

But for me the Loudoun Delegation (State Senators & Delegates) did not fight hard enough for the funding of this project during the 2012 Legislative Session and this put Loudoun County at a unnecessary disadvantage.

For far too long NoVa Counties (like Loudoun) continue to pay more than our fair share to the State in tax revenues, but we barely get a 1/5 of our tax dollar back to our County. Our State Senator (except Herring) and House of Delegate members didn't have the back bone to fight and I mean fight like a dog for our County's transportation funding needs.

 

YES PEA YES!!!! All of it yes, let's postpone and fight to do it right.