The lefty part of the blogosphere, led by Not Larry Sabato, are salivating at the news that Democrat Albert Pollard is running to replace the retiring John Chichester as State Senator for the 28th District. The taxpayers of Stafford, the Northern Neck, and southern Fauquier should be decidedly less pleased about the prospect of the former Delegate returning to Richmond.
Much will be made of Pollard’s strong electoral performances in 1999, 2001, and 2003. I would note, however, that said elections were held before Pollard cast the most important (and egregious) votes of his career.
In 2004, Pollard voted repeatedly to impose higher taxes on every single Virginian - higher sales taxes (recorded votes) and higher car taxes (recorded vote). The sales tax vote was the most well-known (the tax rose to 5% from 4.5%), but the car tax vote was probably more damaging to voters in the district he now wishes to represent. Here’s the Summary of that bill (LIS):
Modifies the Personal Property Tax Relief Act of 1998 by setting the total statewide reimbursement amount at $950 million for tax years 2006 and thereafter. Each county’s, city’s, or town’s share of the $950 million for each such tax year shall be determined pro rata based upon the actual payments to such county, city, or town for tax year 2005 as compared to the actual payments to all counties, cities, and towns for tax year 2005.
In other words, whatever reimbursement your county received from the state in 2005 would determine your reimbursement for 2006 and beyond with no account for population growth or inflation. In fact, when Delegate Mark Cole proposed to amend the bill to allow these factors to raise the reimbursement level (and thus prevent an erosion of the car-tax relief), Pollard helped defeat it (recorded vote).
So if you live in a rapidly-growing suburb of Washington, DC, you will be slammed with much more painful car tax increases than other parts of the state. Are you listening, Stafford County?
Pollard has not faced the voters since he helped impose higher taxes on them; all his goodwill in the Northern Neck will mean little to Stafford voters who will see ever-increasing car-tax bills thanks in part to him. This is more than enough reason for the voters of the 28th District to choose John Van Hoy over Albert Pollard.
March 15, 2007 at 11:03 pm |
Mr Pollard is of course a Democrat.. Let him run on repealing the Car Tax.. oh, Please, oh Please!
That is the grand lie of the left, and so called ‘moderate’ Pubs…
If they hate the Personal Property Tax Relief act so much, then have some guts and run against it!
March 16, 2007 at 12:23 pm |
What should really help Van Hoy is that he is a business conservative as well as a movement conservative. Chichester survived becasue the business community steadfastly supported him (business Republicans are often moderate), protecting him from defeat. But he alienated them with his tax hikes, and Van Hoy represents both a business and movemnet conservative.
I Van Hoy cna rally the business and movement consituency behind him, there is not a single Democrat that can beat him.
March 17, 2007 at 12:15 am |
Graziano is the only viable candidate in this race. He set up an exploratory committee to take out Chichester a few years back and the Senator was worried. Since Chichester announced his retirement, Graziano is getting calls to re-enter. He has complied and will be on the ticket. For those who don’t know him, he is a pragmatic conservative who is an Iraq veteran, former congressional staffer and a small businessman in Stafford. He will not seek tax hikes but will work for an efficient government.
April 9, 2007 at 3:52 am |
One thing that you don’t know or realize about Al Pollard is that he votes in the best interest of his constituency. He may have a controversial record to you, but when he votes it is in an attempt to follow the general belief of who he represents. I realize that all of you who are members of the Occupied-Virginia area up there north of Fredericksburg feel that your the only important part of the district. Yeah you all have that I’m from NOVA (which should be another state anyway) attitude and believe that you are all that matters in our state… Those rural areas don’t mean anything.
The problem comes when there is a realization that the 28th has always and will always hold its strength in the Northern Neck Region (king George county and south east down to lancaster county) of the district where small business is the only way of life. I wish the best of luck to the other candidates, because they are going to have a surprisingly interesting time gaining the support of the NNK region since they will not naturally fit in.
Have fun with the of party hardliners because the rest of us remember the experience we had with Al and what he can do for us.
April 9, 2007 at 5:37 am |
BS,
Thanks for completely missing my point; for if small retail business is indeed the life-blood of the northern Neck, why would they support a Senate candidate who voted to raise the sales tax?
I would humbly submit that while Pollard will probably carry the 99th, it won’t be by nearly enough to counter the rest of the district. If I did live in the 99th, I wouldn’t be proud of Pollard; I’d feel betrayed by him.
December 11, 2007 at 11:33 pm |
[...] In his final term, he blew that reputation to smithereens. First, he voted for the massive Warner tax hike of 2004, which included a resuscitation of the car tax, but that’s nothing compared to what he said [...]