The battle rages on: Fimian accuses Herrity of hiking taxes, Herrity fires back **UPDATED – Fimian responds
By Alan Moore | Wednesday, April 28th, 2010 | PoliticsYou can always tell that it’s getting close to crunch time in an election by the rhetoric of dueling campaigns. With the Republican primary in the 11th congressional district less than six weeks away, both the Fimian and Herrity campaigns are pulling out all the stops.
Yesterday afternoon Keith Fimian sent out an email blasting Pat Herrity, accusing him of raising the property tax rate in a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors vote one year ago yesterday. Claiming that Herrity voted with the “liberal Democrats,” he cited a vote that raised the property tax rate for homeowners from 92 cents to $1.04 per $100 of assessed value (page 5, item 10).
“Politicians like Pat Herrity argue that because Fairfax County homes went down in value, the tax rate increase was not a tax increase at all. And I say that is nothing more than political double speak. The fact is, Fairfax homeowners are paying as much in taxes or more on homes worth far less.
“Just months before voting for the property tax rate increase, Herrity actually criticized the county budget as wasteful and the tax rate, at 92 cents per $100 of assessed value, as too high.
“Politicians like Pat Herrity just don’t get it. Gerry Connolly is raising taxes in Congress and when Connolly was Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors he also voted to have Fairfax homeowners pay more in property taxes. In the middle of a recession when people are worried about their next paycheck, Herrity had the opportunity to take a stand against high taxes. Instead, Herrity joined forces with career politicians like Sharon Bulova and voted for a tax rate hike.”
In less than 90 minutes the Herrity campaign responded with a detailed rebuttal. Asserting that Fimian is resorting to diversionary tactics due to his standing in the polls, Herrity said that he could no longer sit idly by while his record was being distorted.
“They [the attacks] began before I even announced my candidacy with attacks on me and my family. This week he unleashed a whole new assault of lies and distortions. I will no longer stand by while a man I once considered a friend wallows in the political mud.
“Anyone who tells you that I have ever supported raising homeowner taxes is simply not telling the truth. They are using the same deceptive, smoke and mirror tactics Gerry Connolly did because they know the facts are not on their side.”
Herrity goes on to analyze the numbers, once again charging Fimian with fuzzy math.
“For starters, he is using the same faulty logic Gerry Connolly used when he said he gave homeowners in Fairfax County a decrease in their taxes when the tax rate dropped from $1.23 in FY 2000 to $.89 in FY 2007. The actual taxes the average homeowner paid doubled from $2,407 in FY 2000 to $4,846 in FY 2007. I ask you is this a tax decrease as Gerry Connolly claimed????
“The fact is that since I joined the Board in 2008 the tax bill of the average homeowner in Fairfax County has gone down $117 ($352 adjusted for inflation per Fairfax County’s FY2011 Advertised Budget Plan book). As I discuss further below – I do not believe this is nearly enough and have voted against 2 of the 3 budgets.
“The fact is the county’s general fund expenditures will be lower than when I joined the Board.
“I have only voted for one of the three budgets that came before me as a Supervisor and that budget reduced the tax bill of the average homeowner. I voted against the other two because I believed they did not do enough to relieve the tax burden on our citizens. Even so I have put spending reductions on the table to reduce taxes every budget year:
• In FY 2009, I presented my own budget that cut spending by over $60 million and reduced the average tax bill by $163 – this proposal was defeated 8-2. I voted against the majority’s budget which only cut $16 million in spending and increased the average homeowner tax bill.
• In FY 2010, the year referenced in Keith’s attacks, I worked to craft a budget that cut approximately $100 million in real spending and reduced the average homeowners’ tax bill. Thanks to my efforts this budget also eliminated Gerry Connolly’s pet program, the Penny for Affordable Housing. That year I also successfully led the effort against the school admin building (Gatehouse II), the meals tax, the vehicle decal fee, etc. None of that would have happened without my leadership.
• For FY 2011, I voted against the Democrat majority’s budget because it increases homeowner taxes and does not contain enough spending reductions. For the third year in a row I put millions of dollars of spending cuts on the table that would have allowed us to reduce homeowner taxes.
Stay tuned, this is bound to get more interesting the closer we get to the primary. I always take note of these types of things for when the nomination process is over and the loser says nothing but nice things about the winner. I just find it interesting that candidates will eventually act as if battles like this never happened for the sake of party unity. Just one of the many ironies of politics.
**4-29 update – Keith Fimian just sent out a response to Herrity’s latest rebuttal:
Sometimes the facts tell the whole story. Here are two simple facts about Pat Herrity’s record on property taxes.
1. The official minutes of Fairfax County Board of Supervisors show Pat Herrity voted with every Democrat on the board to “set the real property tax rate at $1.04 per $100 of assessed value. As a result of this action, the real property tax rate for calendar year 2009 will increase by $0.12 over the real property tax rate for calendar year 2008 of $0.92 per $100 of assessed value.” Supervisor Herrity voting “AYE.”
Read for yourself on the Fairfax County Government website. http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/bosclerk/summary/2009/09-04-27.pdf the vote is on the top of page 5.
2. The Washington Post wrote, May 1, 2009, “Local officials have promoted their efforts to keep the average tax bill from rising. But not everyone was spared: More than 150,000 households in Fairfax County alone will owe more than they did last year.”
This is not rhetoric. It is fact. Pat Herrity can object to the facts, but it does not make them any less true. Pat Herrity voted to raise the real property tax rate on Fairfax County homeowners by 12 cents per $100 of assessed value. This rate change amounts to $550 on the average homeowner in Fairfax County.
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11 Responses to "The battle rages on: Fimian accuses Herrity of hiking taxes, Herrity fires back **UPDATED – Fimian responds"
As for the other candidate always saying nice things for unity, it does not always happen.
If only Keith Fimian could keep his attacks on Gerry Connolly like Pat Herrity has been doing since he got in the race.
For the record, I can’t vote for either of them, but it seems to me Pat Herrity is sounding a bit defensive and using fuzzy math himself.
Whether or not he raised taxes should only be judged by whether he voted for an increase in the tax RATE, not whether homeowners tax bills went up or down. All across Northern Virginia, the assessed values of homes have gone down – decreasing locality revenues and forcing even the most spendthrift counties (like Fairfax) to cut back.
If Herrity voted – even once, as he admits – to raise the tax rate on homeowners, he has supported a tax increase.That’s just the facts; no spin needed. And does he imagine that the Fairfax Board of Supervisors will reduce the rate once assessments increase?
The worst thing to do in a bad economy is raise taxes. Yet elected officials almost invariably assume that taxpayers can make up the difference when a bad economy shrinks their budgets – but who will make up the difference for taxpayers? our budgets are shrinking too.
DCH, by your logic, Gerry Connolly cut taxes when he was Chairman. Sure, people paid $2400 a year in taxes in 2000 and it $4800 a year in 2007 to fund record spending by the County, but apparently all that matters is a number on a piece of paper, not what people actually pay or how much the County collects.
Herrity’s math is indeed fuzzy. Regardless of his claims, my taxes went up. His bloogers continue to throw up gorilla dust, but he comes across as insincere and lacking character. Resorting to calling Fimian a liar is a fool’s errand. If the facts were in his favor, they would stand one their own. They don’t. He has no relevant experience that I want representing me in Congress.
VA Blogger,
The rate increase kept 99.5 percent of Connolly’s 2400 dollar tax increase in place. Is that something to be proud of? Shortly before voting for the rate increase, Herrity argued 92 cents was too high. Had he left the rate at 92 cents, people would be paying on average $550 less as Fimian correctly notes. If Herrity was being honest he’d send a mailer to voters saying: “Because I voted to raise the rate, you are paying $550 more than you would of it the .92 rate was left in place, but it is .5 percent less than what you paid before even though your house is worth 15 percent less.” And it is an average remember, so a lot of people so their real tax bill go up despite the value of their home going down. Let the voters decide if that meets their definition of cutting taxes.
My taxes went down. They actually went down enough that my mortgage provider sent me a check for the difference between the taxes and what was in my escrow account.
“Boss Herrity” – what you and the others who keep harping on this “$550 less” nonsense fail to recognize that had Herrity not taken the lead in 2009, the Democratic controlled board would have actually raised taxes. The .92 rate was NOT going to stay the same. It was going to go up – the only question was by how much. Instead of just making another protest vote, Pat took the lead, cut millions from the budget and allowed a rate increase that was small enough that the average homeowner didn’t see their taxes go up at all, and the county actually brought in less tax revenue than they did in 2009. That is, by anyone’s definition, a tax cut.
Where were you complaining about this when it happened? I don’t recall seeing ANYONE on the blogs complaining about Herrity’s vote in 2009.
Pseudonymous Fimian Troll (who I no doubt sparred with on a different blog when you posted under a different name),
If you’re going to construct a narrative, at least get your parameters and actors straight. Pat Herrity did nothing by himself; Republicans Pat Herrity, John Cook, and Michael Frey worked with the Democrats on the Board of Supervisors to present a budget that 1) cut spending for the first time in decades, and 2) reduced taxes for the average homeowner and collected less in tax revenue for the County. The alternative was not to leave the rate at .92 cents, as you falsely believe. It was to cast a protest vote, as they did in 2008 and 2010, and watch as the overwhelming Democrat majority pass an actual tax increase and not reduce spending. That’s why Herrity and the other Republicans on the Board received so much praise in 2009 from real conservative leaders (rather than self-serving politicians like Keith Fimian), and why he has so much support and is the heavy favorite over Fimian in the primary.
It’s been said that the power to tax is the power to destroy. And that’s what Pat Herrity is doing for many of us in Fairfax County – destroying our quality of life. Now because of Herrity we are paying higher taxes on homes that are worth less. How in this hard economic time, can someone saddle people with even more taxes? Added to an increase in property tax, is the new car tax, $33 dollars for every vehicle you own. Many families who live in this county have more that one car because it usually takes two incomes just to make ends meet here.
The bottom line is this. If you like more taxes, vote for Herrity, increasing our taxes is one promise we know he can keep.
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. But the Washington Post reports that “More than 150,000 households in Fairfax County alone will owe more than they did last year.”
As if a 12 cent rate increase wasn’t enough, Herrity turned around and voted for an additional 1-cent increase per $100 assessed for a Stormwater Service District.
Just months before voting to raise property tax rates by 13 percent, politician Pat Herrity “criticized the county budget as wasteful and the tax rate, at 92 cents per $100 assessed value, as too high.” But then he turned around and voted for the 13 percent increase anyways.
Pat Herrity raises taxes then denies it. He’s just a typical politician.
APRIL 16, 2010
Pat Herrity also SAYS he “never” voted to raise taxes, but in December 2009, he voted to create a Dulles Rail Improvement District which will impose $330 million in new commercial property taxes.
Herrity continues to argue that the landowners in the Dulles rail corridor wanted the tax increase to deflect his role in this large tax increase. The fact remains, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized this large tax increase and Pat Herrity voted in favor of raising taxes.
Herrity’s attempts to deflect blame for the tax increase is simply more political double speak from a career politician.
See the Washington Post coverage of Herrity’s $330 million Dulles Rail tax increase here.
Pat Herrity raises taxes then denies it. He’s just a typical politician.
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