Opinion 

Getting rich through deception
The lies for riches of a select few: Redistribution of wealth through taxation  

The November road referendum campaign is beginning to look very suspicious to the casual observer. With all of the millions being raised and spent in the Tidewater and Northern Virginia regions, one can only surmise the return these heavy investors hope to get on their heavy investments.
Like banks, highway contractors, bonding houses and law firms.

Imagine you are the bank selected to hold the tax dollars collected by the state and sent back to the Tidewater and Northern Virginia communities. For the Hampton Roads region, the first year is estimated to be around $143 million. And as the bank selected by the Hampton Roads District Planning Commission, you will collect billions more over the life of the projects, which have no known completion date. Some believe this regional sales tax could run for as long as 63 years, and collect $125 billion from the taxpayers.

Or imagine you are the law firm handling the bonds as they are issued; $5.99 billion. Remember, each billion is a thousand million smackaroos, so we're talking big, big, big bucks. And don't forget the bonding houses that handle the bond transactions; hundreds of millions more.

And what do you the taxpayer get in return for all your hard earned money in 20-30 years down the road? A reduction in traffic congestion from the current level of only .5%. Read it again. Only one half of one percent.

We're going to make it easy for our Virginia representatives to understand.

Let's say our current highway mile has 1,000 cars on it during peak rush hour drive time. After 20-30 years of horrendous traffic congestion and backups caused by the construction of these projects, (an excellent example is the I- 64 construction on the Peninsula) the level of cars will have dropped by five, or down to 995 cars.

Traffic congestion relief? Naaa. Big money making bigger money off the unsuspecting taxpayers.

Think long and hard when you vote on the November referendum. If you think it's a bad plan, send it back to Richmond and tell them so.
If you think it's a good plan, then vote yes to raise your taxes.

But exercise your right. Vote on November 5.

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