Ok, so Loudoun County has advertised that it spends $12,780 per student in 2009 (this is approx. $7k less than the amount spent in Arlington or Alexandria).

Private schools are providing an education at approx $8k per student, as is the case at Dominion Academy in Leesburg.

Shouldn’t we demand more from our local government?  They are spending 50% more per student than their private counterpart.  Perhaps government should get out of the education business?

What’s even more depressing is the reported $13k spent per student for the Loudoun Head Start program that is only half a day.  Compare that with approx. $7k at Dominion.

While not sure how accurate it is, Wikipedia reports that Loudoun County serves 50,000 students from K -12th grade.  If Loudoun County issued vouchers to attend any school and we assume that the chosen schools had same/similar tuition as Dominion, that would be a savings of approx $4500 per student. If only 20% (10,000 students) chose to participate in the voucher program, that would save the county…hmmm…10,000 x $4,500 = $45,000,000.  Not too shabby.

Wooohooo!!! Loudoun County made the Drudge Report!!!  With what?  Zig zag lines that were added by VDOT to roads with high traffic pedestrian areas.

“It is a low cost strategy to get motorists to slow down as they approach the bike trail and pedestrian path,” says VDOT’s Mike Salmon. “While at first motorists may be a little disoriented, the main point is to get them to pay attention and slow down through that area.”

Hmmm…Why not lower the speed limit?  Just a thought.

No?  Maybe?  Who knows!  The DHS recently submitted a report titled “Rightwing Extremism:  Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” to state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide.  While the report does not define or describe what constitutes rightwing extremism, it does identify circumstances that may encourage it (basically everything that is going on now…as long as Obama is in office, apparently).  Read it here.

I for one am going to contact my local law enforcement to find out how they are using this information.  Leesburg Virginia police contact information may be found here or you can e-mail the Cheif of Police.

If you find any information from your city/county/state, please feel free to share by leaving a comment.  I’ll let you know if the Leesburg Chief of Police has recieved a similar report on “leftwing extremism”, but I’m not so sure leftwing extremism exists.

Loudouners, get ready to pay more taxes.  If your a fiscal conservative, shut your mouth, as these tax increases are for The Children.  I understand that during tonight’s public forum on the budget, resounding applause was the response to mentions of increase in taxes to benefit the most glorious of all recipients–The Children.  So, higher taxes are needed in order to sustain the current level of funding for education in Loudoun.  Let me see if get this straight.  Am I to believe from the Loudoun County Government that for past xx number of years (any number will do here) the education budget is the most efficient and provided the most benefit with the least tax dollars?  I don’t buy it.  I just don’t.  How did we not spend to our means and tax dollars at that time.  We need to tighten our belts, not steal the clothes off our taxpayers backs!  Who are these people!?!  Am I the only who is completely disappointed with the county government and their lack of fiscal creativity or honesty.  WTF?  I hope my son doesn’t pick up this government’s bad habits!

Well, I say to those who support paying higher taxes–you are more than willing to pay higher taxes and you can go ahead and pay my share.  It’s called the Legacy Fund.

Virginia Senate Committee has passed a smoking ban for restaurants and most public buildings.  However, a bill affecting so many constituents will not have to be passed by the voters. The only say the voters will have is whatever influence they can effect through their phone calls, e-mails and letters (so make it count).  The only other states who enacted smoking bans as a result of a public vote are Arizona and Ohio.  One question I want answered is what portion of the Virginia budget is going to be cut to pay for enforcement of this proposed law?  If this is going to add to the budget, then I can only assume that higher taxes will pay for it.  And what will happen to all of the government enacted projects whose budget is funded by tobacco taxes?

Thank goodness the government is protecting me and my family from second hand smoke.  I certainly couldn’t make a decision to stay away from it on my own!

This is how the referendum will be worded:

QUESTION:  Shall Loudoun County, Virginia, be authorized to levy a tax, pursuant to Virginia Code Section 58.1-3833(A), on food and beverages sold for human consumption by restaurants and on prepared foods sold ready for human consumption by grocery stores and convenience stores, in an amount not to exceed 4% of the amount charged for such food and beverages, to be used exclusively for school construction projects and school construction debt service?
(     )  YES

(     )  NO

The way it should read is this:

Question: Shall Loudoun County while facing a downturn in our economy, make that downturn even worse by a) making Loudoun County residents and visitors to our county pay MORE for their meal out and b) making sure that restaurants have less money in their pockets to pay their employees. This money is to be used “for the children” though, so even though there really won’t be any extra money, and could potentially make our debt even worse with the added possibilities of closing restaurants, you should feel better that we “care” enough to raise taxes on the hospitality industry in Loudoun.
( ) YES
( ) NO

Anyone that thinks that our Real Estate taxes are going to somehow be miraculously lowered by creating a meals tax is in a dream world. It doesn’t work; it’s never worked. Look at Maryland.

Vote “NO” for the love of God, and for more information please the site for Loudoun Taxpayers for Accountable Government.

One of the many times of the year when annual “best of” lists come out. Any time start seeing these in the middle of the summer I am happy because there is no real news out there. Anyhoo, note that Loudoun County had 58% job growth last year. I figure 10 years from now DC suburbs will stretch out to Marietta, OH.

If you would like to actually afford the house you live in, however, you may want to consider the H-town. Houston added 100,000 jobs last year (100.001, if you include mine). There are millions of Houston haters out there, typically those that work in the media, guys like Bill Simmons from ESPN who for some reason prefers to live in Los Angeles.

Over the course of the summer I’ve seen an Astros game and wandered into a free symphony concert in the park right next to my house. There are plenty of great concerts in the summer and a ton of theater seats. To all the haters on the coasts, please don’t move here and try zone us out and flip our houses and bust our economy…stay where you are, hate on Houston, and be miserable.

I’ve heard an interesting statistic TWICE over the last several months (one from a public official, and one from a lobbyist/academician):

That when you stack up Virginia with all of the other States from a “tax burden” standpoint, that Virginia is 47th out of 50.  This means that there are only 3 states that are more “tax-friendly.”  Isn’t that great?  My being a fiscal conservative lends me to believe that’s a good thing.  So I would call that a number 4 ranking not a 47.

There’s only one problem:  It isn’t true.  We do have a RELATIVELY friendly state for taxes, especially business taxes.  But 4th ranked we are not.  On individual taxes we usually rank (rank as in most “tax-friendly”) somewhere among the top 15-20, and on business taxes we were ranked number 8 for 2006.   We’re in the top half, but one thing strike me as odd:  Why would someone tout this statistic as a rationalization for RAISING taxes without any acknowledgment or analysis of whether there is indeed a connection between a higher tax burden and “better” government.

A few links on the subject:

http://money.cnn.com/ga….friendliest/8.html

http://www.taxfoundation…./show/335.html

http://www.taxfoundation…./show/1369.html

The real good news for business owners:  I did hear (from another public official) that we were the HIGHEST ranked State (according to Forbes) from an overall “Business Friendliness” standpoint.  Guess what?  That one was true:

http://www.forbes.com…bizstates-table.html

Anyone who would like to see the POSSIBILITY of a Huckabee nomination, need look no further than:

Right Smart

Personally, I think it would be a mistake…once again…to count this man out. At the VERY LEAST, he’s a serious factor at the convention for pulling together the party. Especially given a) Dobson’s endorsement, b) the demographic makeup of the majority of the States left, and c) the fact that there’s another GOP debate scheduled toward the end of February.

It is absolutely impossible for McCain to have the needed 471 delegates between now and the next debate at the end of February, because there are only 308 up for grabs between now and then…which Huckabee will undoubtedly win many of…conceivable a majority.

And thank you to Chuck Todd…who is actually paying attention to the Huckabee factor and not simply ignoring it to start writing about the general election. Considering the Obama factor, if Huckabee were to pull off winner-take-all Virginia (maybe a long shot, but with my Loudoun “Bully Pullpit”, and the millions of hits I get a day…) then this gets REALLY interesting.

Here’s my comment on Chuck Todd’s site:

Here’s the deal…Huckabee is NOT going to exit the race whether or not he loses Virginia…He’s going to stay in and gather up at least as many delegates as Romney has. Why in God’s name wouldn’t he do that?

He will DEFINITELY win more total delegates than Romney if he stays in…therefore he will DEFINITELY have significant clout at the convention.

McCain CANNOT win more than the needed 471 before March 4th…period. He will have to debate Huckabee (and Paul) later this month…period. There is good reason for this to happen because if Huckabee is GOING to concede, then the two can have a little GOP love-fest to unite the party around McCain’s Iraq agenda (while pissing off Ron Paul). Everybody wins.

But if Huckabee makes (yet another) comeback…(and winning Virginia would probably be required) then who knows?

Mr. Huber seems to think that the fat lady is clearing her throat, but the question is: Who is she voting for?