Thursday, May 10, 2007; Page VA08
A Bad Deal for County And Taxpayers
The main reason the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has met behind closed doors [Metro, April 27] three times lately is to hide the terrible deal they made with developers at taxpayers' expense.
In 2004, the supervisors approved the creation of a tax district for businesses along the route of the Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner and Reston to finance the county's 25 percent share of the costs. In return, the corporate landowners expect to receive approval for lucrative high-rise rezoning.
The supervisors' big blunder was to cap the costs to corporations at $400 million and make residents pay the rest. That's an additional $200 million to $275 million to be paid by Fairfax County taxpayers, based on the recent contract that estimated the project's total cost at $2.4
billion to $2.7 billion. And the county's share of any cost overruns will be paid by taxpayers, too.
So that's why the Board of Supervisors is hiding behind closed doors in this election year.
These are also reasons Charlie Hall is challenging Supervisor Lynda Q. Smyth in the Providence District primary June 12. Mr. Hall is focused on transportation and development concerns, as well as citizen involvement in county decisions. At least Charlie's door will be open!
Mark Tipton
Fairfax
Post a Comment
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.