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t 30 million in tax revenue over the next 10 years now the first thing you need to know is that such estimates are always rosy we d love to see guv nor bob s numbers we bet it includes things like the gas taxes those 300 executives will ring up over the next 10 years lest we limit our criticism to the gop governor however it appears that the liberal democratic bastions of arlington and fairfax are also falling all over themselves to get northrop to put its corporate offices in their jurisdictions a fine use for the kiddie sports tax the arlington board just approved posted by x curmudgeon at 9 55 am 1 comment louisiana oil slick it could happen here now that the drill baby drill folks have succeeded in getting virginia s offshore areas on the fast track for approval to prospect for oil it s worth looking at the disaster unfolding off louisana s coast in the wake of the huge oil rig explosion last week a massive oil slick is spreading off the gulf coast growing daily as thousands of barrels of new oil pour forth from the devastated rig efforts to contain the slick have failed so far putting louisiana s and other gulf coast states fragile coastline at risk the amount of oil estimated to be off virginia s coast is equal to a few weeks of total u s consumption could a disaster like that lurking off the louisiana coast strike virginia of course it could and it would only take one to negate the entire value and benefits to virginians of any oil drilling off our coast of course by the time that happens bob mcdonnell and his cronies will be long gone it will be a future generation of virginians whose beaches are at risk of being spoiled whose livelihoods in the tourism fishing seafood and other businesses could be destroyed and whose property values could be brought crashing down posted by x curmudgeon at 9 38 am 3 comments thursday april 22 2010 from wallowa to arlington we had occasion this past weekend to meet our soccer counterpart from wallowa county oregon it was interesting to compare notes wallowa is on the northeastern corner of oregon the dry open part of the state it s a bit larger than arlington but aren t they all arlington 26 sq mi wallowa 3153 sq mi so wallowa has an area more than 100 times that of little ol arlington plenty of space for soccer fields when it comes to population however the shoe is on the other foot arlington with roughly 210 000 residents has 30 times the population of wallowa at about 7200 yet wallowa is soccer crazy they have about 225 kids playing soccer there compared to our 4500 proportionately they d have about 7000 if they had arlington s population it s all a matter of perspective ask elementary school soccer kids in arlington to practice a mile from their school and we ll get a bunch of emails objecting of course the way traffic is in arlington 1 mile could be 20 minutes in wallowa the teams often have to travel several arlingtons away just to play each other in the regular county recreation league all soccer in wallowa is travel soccer the wallowa valley soccer association has a nice website however one can t help but notice the barns and mountains in the background of the soccer fields soccer in wallowa is also a bargain only 25 per player less than half what we charge the great thing is that we put one of our third grade teams up against one of wallowa s the kids wouldn t miss a beat quickly booting the ball around having a good time and wondering what the after game snack would be posted by x curmudgeon at 5 41 pm 1 comment monday april 19 2010 arlington county s misguided kiddie tax one of the many hats the curmudgeon wears these days is that of president of the arlington soccer association asa serves more than 5000 kids in arlington and falls church with various soccer programs and activities all year round and is celebrating its 40th year of service to the community this year as president of asa the curmudgeon has been spending quite a bit of time lately fighting against a youth sports player fee that is under consideration by the arlington county board bear with us here as we explain why this fee is unfair and bad policy the county board will decide the fate of the fee this saturday if you want to reach them with your views it s easy you can email all five members at countyboard arlingtonva us the fee under consideration would be 8 per player per season starting with fall 2010 sports the fee was put forward by the parks dept as part of its budget for the 2011 fiscal year the acting county manager however did not include the fee in her proposed budget instead it was included as an optional tier ii revenue item that the board could adopt to add more money to the budget the rationale of the parks dept for the fee was that it is necessary to implement a cost recovery policy adopted last year by the county board that p olicy was adopted without the county board ever having a public hearing on it which is pretty unusual in arlington the cost recovery policy itself however is pretty reasonable on its face it says that the parks dept should recover 65 of the direct costs of youth sports programs in the county in other words as a matter of policy arlington thinks youth sports are of sufficient importance to the community to merit up to a 35 taxpayer subsidy so far so good the problem is with how the parks dept has interpreted the policy some youth sports programs such as basketball are run in house by the parks dept for those problems the policy is pretty simple figure out the cost of the program and then set fees so they will recover roughly 65 of the costs in fact the parks dept has set fees at a level where they recover nearly 100 of the costs of basketball they now say they ll just let the fee stay the same for a few years until it gets closer to the 65 target other youth sports programs such as soccer and baseball are run by private non profit groups who are affiliated with the parks dept through formal agreements in those sports the non profit organization pays most of the direct costs of the program referees equipment uniforms administrative personnel etc while the parks dept provides facilities fields mainly and pays the costs of maintaining those facilities and administering them in determining the cost recovery target for those affiliate programs however the parks dept has completely ignored the direct costs paid by those programs treating them as if they don t exist instead the parks dept has demanded that the affiliate programs cover 65 of the portion of their costs that are covered by the parks dept using that as an excuse to propose the new player fee assessed only against players in affiliate programs the parks dept interpretation turns the cost recovery policy on its head if all the costs of asa s youth soccer program are added together then the fees parents already pay to asa for their children to participate cover roughly 80 of those costs well above the 65 cost recovery target but the parks dept claims it gets 0 cost recovery for these programs because parents don t pay a separate fee to the parks dept thus a policy that was supposed to embody a strong community commitment to youth sports is used to reduce support for such programs and serve as the basis for a new tax on soccer and baseball parents the county board could easily put a stop to this charade by stepping in and telling the parks dept that is has misinterpreted the county s policy but hungry for revenue at least some board members have seemed to signal support for the new fee mind you if the fee is adopted the money won t be used to enhance youth sports programs to the contrary it will go to restore budget reductions in other areas such as tennis court lighting this is a sore subject because adults who play tennis in arlington really do pay 0 of their costs and that s the county s policy likewise users of the county s 8 dog parks or community canine areas pay no fees to use them either in fact the parks dept has been reducing its support for affiliated youth sports over the past two years first it shifted field lining responsibilities to soccer and baseball asa didn t object to this given budget realities but it did result in an additional 25 000 year expense for us that s 5 per player then in the current budget cycle the parks dept eliminated a stipend that had been used to cover insurance and other costs eliminating the stipend will cost asa another 22 000 year almost another 5 per player again we did not object to this reduction which amounted to 14 of the parks dept s costs associated with the youth soccer program that s a big cut on top of the similar cut a year before clearly asa is feeling it s share of the budget pain at the same time field maintenance has been reduced new fees imposed for use of lights in the winter higher fees extracted for summer camps we run we understand this times are tight and we have to do our share but adding a new fee just for players in affiliated youth sports is not fair that s just a tax on those parents with the money being used to fund other programs we re not against the other programs but the money for them should come from the county s general taxes not a perverse tax on children s sports some people in the parks dept and in groups grubbing for the money have argued that it s only 8 as if it couldn t be that big a deal but it s not only 8 if you have three children and they play the fall and spring seasons of soccer and maybe a couple also play baseball or softball it s more than 60 that s more than the average homeowner s tax increase based on the proposed new property tax rate and while some soccer parents such as the curmudgeon could easily afford it there s a lot of working class families that will find it quite a burden those are the families we don t want to lose the parks dept says it won t impose the fee on families that qualify for financial aid but our data show that many who would qualify don t apply and there s concern about the paperwork burden we hope sanity will prevail in the county board this coming saturday when it votes on the fee a couple of board members have indicated their opposition to it we hope the rest will pay attention to the couple hundred emails they have received from soccer parents on this issue just the tip of the iceberg surely arlington county can achieve its budget goals without disproportionately penalizing children who play organized soccer on the county s fields posted by x curmudgeon at 5 31 pm 1 comment monday april 12 2010 the experts are forecasting an actice hurricane season hurricane season officially begins on june 1 but now is the hurricane forecast season when the so called experts see if they can do better than a coin toss in predicting the severity or lack thereof of the coming season historically most of the april predictions are not much better than the flip of a coin but there are reasons this year to worry about a severe season in march sea surface temperatures one of the main ingredients of strong hurricanes were at a record level for this time of year higher indeed than last june the early part of last summer being quite calm in hurricane terms for the full scoop check out dr jeff masters summary here if the experts are right this could be a season like that of 2005 posted by x curmudgeon at 10 44 pm no comments friday april 09 2010 why tiger s doing well at the masters as usual the media had it all wrong what with the conventional wisdom that tiger would fare poorly at the masters after his exile from golf and all the issues and emotions on his mind yet his first day was his best first day ever at the masters the reason is simple think about it this year he doesn t have to worry about any girlfriends one less thing on his mind none of those intrusive thoughts should i get her a gift should i text her or sext her should i try for a threesome will she still like me if i shoot a 74 nope for once tiger s mind is clear and focused posted by x curmudgeon at 12 45 pm no comments wednesday april 07 2010 disremembering history the mcdonnell way so this is virginia gov bob mcdonnell s idea of inclusiveness reviving confederate memorial month a certain segment of white southerners are quite romantic about the civil war we wish we could send them back there that s richmond above the reality would not be quite so happy let s review a small but vocal powerful and wealthy group of southerners plantation owners perpetuated an economic system that could succeed only through the barbaric practice of slavery as an increasing number of people in states not dependent on this doomed to fail economic system began to clamor for its end and an end to slavery this small group of southern planters manipulated their neighbors into succession and ultimately a civil war more than 90 of southerners stood nothing to gain from either slavery or war despite bold predictions that the confederacy would succeed and would prevail in war succession was an unmitigated disaster for the south millions of men were killed or disfigured huge swaths of the south were laid waste to cities were in ruins families were torn asunder the end of the civil war hardly brought an end to the ruin that had descended on the south for another dozen years federal troops occupied the south much like american troops today occupy liberated iraq after the end of reconstruction the south struggled economically for another 100 years it is true that ordinary confederate troops most with no stake in slavery fought bravely against long odds in many battles but the politicians who led them were fools taking them down a disastrous path if you want to commemorate the civil war do it with a burned out falling down building occupied by scarred and disfigured people that would be an appropriate memorial bob mcdonnell is the latest in a long line of virginians who take foolish pride in the commonwealth s most shameful period posted by x curmudgeon at 3 46 pm 1 comment newer posts older posts home subscribe to posts atom landstrike terrifyingly realistic landstrike s fan box landstrike on facebook blogs we like bacon s rebellion barticles belly of the beast blognet news virginia blue commonwealth blue dog blueweeds craig s musings daily whack job forbard howling latina johnny camacho monkey girl not larry sabato nova middleman random acts of insensitivity the direction the green miles tidewater musings vb dems virginia political blogs virginia progressive vivian paige waldo jaquith what s up arlington sites we like james webb for senate born fighting senator webb daily kos truthout how to save electricity politics 1 real clear politics home microturbine wind generator ace green challenge nova home solar energy nathalie dupree building an affordable solar home followers about me x curmudgeon in summer 05 after 21 years of law practice in a large firm i quit to pursue my true passion writing i m 51 years old married with two children boys ages 12 and 15 i watch too much televis...