Lies, arrogance, mismanagement, waste and fraud necessitate tax referendum

Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance statement 

"We did not engage in this public debate because we thought it would be fairly conducted, or because we thought it would easy, or because we enjoyed being away from our families nights and weekends.  

" NO, we are engaged in this public debate because we believe in Virginia’s traditional values – accountable and fiscally restrained government.

"A Governor and General Assembly who abdicated their constitutional responsibilities to rank and fund the State’s priorities should be removed, NOT rewarded with new tax revenues.

"The people who work for us are telling you the voters - their boss -  the referendum is a take it or leave it proposition. 

"This outright arrogance is just one more reason to Vote No.   
   
"Building a highway system within the Commonwealth is a State responsibility.  We are not under taxed, we are under led.  The Governor and General Assembly need to revisit spending priorities, not pass the buck to the voters to increase taxes.

"If additional taxes are needed to finance transportation, then the General Assembly should do their job and approve a package of fair taxes (gas taxes, port taxes, corporate incomes taxes, etc.) to finance new road construction. 

" The fact that members of the General Assembly are not willing to raise the sales tax and be held accountable when they stand re-election is one more reason to Vote No. 

"Not withstanding the constitutional questions that have been raised regarding the Referendum question’s compliance with the Article X of the Virginia Constitution, The Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance has adopted Twelve Reasons why voters should “Just Say No to Increasing the Sales and Use Tax 22 percent”.

"The referendum on the ballot is really asking the voters to say Yes to the following:

 “I as a voter am willing to lower my personal living standards to finance $6 billion dollars of roads without any specific legally binding performance benefit from the public investment, with full knowledge that I’m exposed to additional unknown increased taxes for other purposes, and that recently VDOT cancelled and significantly delayed projects addressing immediate transportation needs that will not be funded.”

"When you consider the following, you can see without a doubt the issues is not one of not enough money, but not enough courage to make tough decisions to fund the real priorities.

" Total state spending has been soaring in Virginia in recent years.  Over the previous 4 years, state spending rose by close to 40%.  The state budget for the next 2 years just adopted in the last session of the legislature increased state spending by 7% over the last budget, in the midst of a purported grave budget shortfall.

" Why didn’t they use some of this increased spending to pay for supposedly critical transportation needs?  How can they come to us now and say we must increase our taxes for a basic public service like roads and highways after they have so recently been spending like undisciplined children on everything else?  They need our tough love No vote to change their behavior.

"In closing I make the following observation, our good friends in Northern Virginia have a light rail system financed by the entire nation, a mass transportation system heavily subsidized to include a regional gas tax, private toll roads, and an extensive road system, yet they still have congestion.  Why?  If you don’t adopt strong and restrictive land use policies, sprawl surpasses the added capacity and the situation gets worse.
 
" Show us one place where more roads and higher taxes have reduced congestion rather than promoted congestion at a higher level.

" The Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance is not opposed to building roads. This is not a debate about transportation. This is a debate on the need to increase taxes via a regional sales tax to pay for road building.  Our position is, “Just Say No to Increasing Sales Taxes”.

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