by The Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince William County

If you were listening closely to the chest thumping Chairman Stewart engaged in at last Tuesday’s BOCS meeting, one could easily think life for the average family in the County was pretty good.

Pretty darned good in fact.

PWC is climbing the ladder of the “Wealthiest Counties in the United States” survey on personal wealth. PWC’s newly found lofty status has PWC moving up to seventh on that list.

If you listened to Chairman Stewart and his hand-picked Handmaiden “who will do anything I ask her to do” Melissa Peacor, the official song of Prince William County is “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

The Sheriff had a plain-spoken Aunt Mary who seemingly lived to throw cold water on any news of the family maybe being able to expect a little improvement in our economic circumstances. Times were always tough for the Sheriff’s family, so even a glimmer of hope for a better week next week was always a way to boost our hopes and expectations.

But Aunt Mary’s inevitable comment: “That is a bunch of malarkey. You are all living in La-La Land.”

And it usually was true, we were.

And truth be told, The Sheriff kind of enjoyed a few moments in La La Land because, frankly, it felt better spending time there than in reality.

Chairman Stewart is living in his own nifty “La-La Land” in his belief that the County is doing anything at all to contribute to a personal net worth statistic for homeowners in PWC. There is one significant economic factor that directly drives any movement of Prince William County on this index.

The Federal Government.

The fact is, the economy of the entire Washington DC region is heavily dependent on the spending of the federal government. Our primary industry is government.

So while the manufacturing and service industries in the private sector are faltering from the effects of the Great Recession, all of those regional economies dependent on private sector employers are struggling mightily from the effects of a teetering national economy driven largely by excessive deficit spending over the past three decades. That means the incomes of families drop in those regions.

Sorry to pop your bubble Mr. Chairman, but you did not build any personal income gains in Prince William County.

If anything, you have robbed homeowners of a significant portion of their personal net worth with excessive taxation used to fuel excessive spending by the County.

Any movement by PWC on this “La La Land” wealth index is achieved largely on the backs of others who are suffering from the real economy.

Wow, that makes The Sheriff’s chest swell with pride.

The underlying strength of the Prince William County economy is based on jobs that are directly dependent on Federal government bankrolling jobs and military spending that bolsters federal employment, consulting companies and suppliers in the region.

That spending behavior is why the Federal government is now technically bankrupt, and the Piper is knocking on the door looking for payment.

That will mean fewer jobs in the Federal government, less spending, and ultimately a less rosy economic outlook for Prince William County when the harsh reality sets in on the Federal budget.

But Chairman Stewart likes to live in the moment.

To the Chairman, this wealth calculation is the clear signal to up the ante on spending by PWC government. And that means higher taxes for all the commoners – you wealthy commoners you.

Supervisor Principi, whom The Sheriff suspects may have a bit of the Aunt Mary gene, tried his own form of “That is a bunch of malarkey” speech.

Supervisor Principi pointed out that while we are seeing movement on the wealth index, the number of families dipping under the poverty level is increasing. Of course, those would be the families whose jobs are in the private sector where government spending does not prop up the business and jobs and wages are cut back because of the recession.

The BOCS has already signaled they will be slapping homeowners with an average 4% tax increase every year for the next five years. Budget Dominatrix Peacor told Supervisor May that was because they project inflation would be at that level in each of those years. Supervisor May asked the critical question on what the County budget-miesters projected the assessment increases to be, and Budget Director Casciato and County Executive Peacor both confirmed the homeowner’s assessment increases were projected to be less than 4%.

Supervisor Candland then pointedly asked which of the many inflation indexes was being used by the County for the revenue estimates in the budget, and the staff confirmed PWC uses the CPI-U as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Chairman Stewart quickly jumped into the discussion to complain that the BLS had recently stripped food and fuel prices from the formula and that was suppressing the actual costs. Mrs. Peacor quickly parroted her support for Chairman Stewart’s explanation, and lamented that food and fuel costs certainly were big cost factors for the County.There they go into “La La Land” again.The BLS actually publishes an index that measures the inflation rate on the goods and services purchased by local governments as opposed to the market basket of goods and services consumed by the average family of four, and the metropolitan inflation index is typically one-half of the CPI-U.

When Chairman Stewart and Melissa Peacor pulled their Laurel and Hardy Act on the deficiencies of the inflation index that excluded the volatile jumps in food and gas costs, they didn’t give any thought to the impact those costs have on families in Prince William County.

With more than two-thirds of workers commuting out of the County to their places of employment, there is a dramatic and disproportionate negative impact on family budgets. But not one peep about that miserable impact on families from Stewart and Peacor, only how it impacts County government.

But then, the truth be told, that is all they are concerned about.

That, and sending out trumped up (and very expensive) citizen survey on how happy everyone is with the services provided by the County, and the opportunity to live in the County with the highest tax rate in Virginia.

Oops!

They didn’t ask that question about living in the County with the highest tax rate in Virginia.

Wonder why?

by The Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince William County

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