Reducing real estate taxes is in taxpayers’ best interest Re: “No tax relief for Fairfax County homeowners,” March 10
An annual analysis of Fairfax County’s budget by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy contrasts it to the recommendations of the Cole Commission established under the leadership of Tom Davis, former chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The primary recommendation was to restrict growth in spending to the rates of inflation plus population growth.
The model shows our schools are overspending by $140 million in fiscal 2011. We need to fund full-day kindergarten, cover student AP and IB test fees, and other priorities. I have not heard any candidate, including incumbents, recommend cuts in education spending.
Your commentary mistakenly stated the current rate is $1.09 per $100,000 of assessed value. As a candidate for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, I propose we reduce real estate taxes to 77 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. We will achieve this tax reduction when Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly commit to fairly treating Fairfax County taxpayers — who subsidize other Virginia taxpayers by $1.1 billion annually.
Will Radle
Franconia
Editor’s note: The Fairfax County Web site (fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/tax_rates.htm) lists the county’s residential real estate tax rate as “$1.09 per $100 of assessed value.”
Walking, biking to school is actually safer
Re: “Report: Md. schools fail to support walking, biking,” March 6
School officials in Maryland may fear liability risks if kids commute on two feet or two wheels, but our in-depth review of the law shows liability doesn’t need to be a barrier.
In truth, the liability risks are generally smaller than many risks schools routinely take on during field trips, sports programs and the like.
Allowing kids to walk or bike to and from school provides enormous benefits: healthy kids arrive at school focused and ready to learn and miss fewer days of school. It also cuts down on traffic and air pollution. In fact, children are actually safer walking to school than having their parents drive them.
School districts sometimes refuse to take steps that would improve children’s health because they want a guarantee they won’t be sued if anything goes wrong. There are no guarantees. But when the benefits so clearly outweigh the risks, schools shouldn’t let fear hold them back.
Sara Zimmerman
Public Health Law & Policy
Oakland, Calif.
Posting Ten Commandments doesn’t endorse religion
Re: “Posting Ten Commandments violates Constitution,” March 13
Contrary to David Drachsler, James Madison recognized religious freedom as a fundamental right that precedes the state and one that cannot be severely curtailed or denied by it.
As Pope John Paul II put it, religious freedom is the “first freedom … the premise and guarantee of all freedoms that ensure the common good.” Church and state are distinct, yet always interrelated in efforts to build a just social and civil order.
In coining the phrase “wall of separation of church and state” in 1801, Thomas Jefferson never intended that social and political issues be divorced from codes of morality. He merely meant that the U.S. government be prevented from establishing one or another church as the “official” religion.
The Ten Commandments are not the private domain of any one church. On the contrary, they are universal principles already existent in primitive form in the first democracy of ancient Greece, according to what the ancients called “unwritten law”.
Paul Kokoski
Ontario, Canada
