I am about to give up. It seems that people in Fairfax County do not care how high their taxes get. Tax moderation seems to be at the bottom, or near the bottom, of concerns.

If there ever was a year for homeowners to have a tax revolt, it is this year. Taxes have gone through the roof and hardly a peep.

Can you imagine this - in 5 or 6 years, real estate taxes double, or nearly double for some. The county is spending for all kinds of liberal pruposes - like $550,000 for the "arts" - just one example.

As another example, the politicials tell us that they are saving us taxes, while all along hiking taxes. Not one peep from voters - except me. I guess it's true. Voters really do not care.

I'm almost about to give up. I'm the only homeowner I know what gives a hoot.

The only problem is that, while the article states that the "status quo" in terms of what citizens WANT remains "a measured approach to growth," the reality "on the ground", if you will, is "unmanaged, runaway growth.

Given Richmond's failure to enact growth control legislation (killed in subcommittee on anonymous votes, if you'll recall), coupled with Governor Kaine's abandonment of the issue in favor of pushing new transportation taxes unlinked to growth control measures, our newly elected Town officials continue to lack adequate means to insure that development will not overwhelm local infrastructure.

Meanwhile, a Senate delegation is tooling around Northern Virginia to hype the tax plan. But giving hundreds of millions of dollars to developer-controlled local transit authorities is just going to result in new roads servicing developers' land speculation.

If you look at nothing else, look at this map of what happened in 2002:
http://www.nosprawltax.org/media/releases/2002-10-01Robbery.html

And it's already shaping up to happen again:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030902337.html?sub=AR

I remain dismayed by how little control citizens and their local officials really have over growth. Governor Kaine has sorely disappointed me. I'm glad we only have only one termers in Virginia. He should watch his own campaign ads again.

I believe we need to accommodate people closer to where they work and play and that does mean accommodating many more people in our area. However, I also believe that rhetoric has taken over from reality. We have to figure out how to accommodate these people without lowering the quality of life for all. The means making developers pony up. Requiring adequate public infrastructure would be a nice start, but the locals don't seem to have that power. What's up, Guv?