Although he’s almost certain to lose to Pat Herrity in the 11th CD Republican primary on June 8, Keith Fimian isn’t going down without a fight.
On April 27, 2009, Pat Herrity voted to raise the real property tax rate from $.92 to 1.04 per $100 assessed. A whopping 13% tax increase in just one year! This amounted to an increase of about $550 on the average Fairfax County home.
Pat Herrity and other politicians say that because Fairfax County homes went down in value, the tax rate increase was not a tax increase at all. More political double speak. Fairfax homeowners are now paying as much or more in taxes on homes worth far less.
From sane peoples’ perspectives, of course, raising the property tax rate to compensate for a decline in home values is simply prudent fiscal management of a county budget (which must, of course, be balanced). With Republicans, however, it might as well be “communist” or “socialism” or “unAmerican” or something heinous like that. Over at the aptly named Too Conservative blog, head honcho Vince Harris seems to think that Herrity might fall into one of those infamous categories, but the Too Conservative commenters strongly disagree (sample comment: “How ugly. Shame on Keith. Day by day, he’s losing all respect that we had for him. No matter how low he goes, he’ll never be our Congressman. How sad.”).
Meanwhile, Democrats are enjoying sitting back, popping some popcorn, and watching these two Republican’ts savage each other. 🙂
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