Or … Pat Herrity’s Interesting Relationship with the Truth

Why Sharon

• She has chaired the Board of Supervisors’ budget committee for 17 years. As chair, Sharon has worked behind the scenes to craft a county budget that works and balances the needs of the county’s many different constituencies. This is not an easy job – Fairfax County is required by law to have a balanced budget.
• She helped cut property taxes by 35%, helping to ease the burden during tough times including during the nineties when the economy was not as strong.
• She has the experience and the ability to balance the County budget while also protecting priorities like schools.
• Created and chairs the VRE to ensure that the rail to Dulles is built and thus reduce traffic in the county.
• Proposed cutting her own office’s budget to save the County money.
• She works with all her colleagues, Republicans as well as Democrats, to achieve a win-win budget.
• Much of Sharon’s work takes place behind the scenes, most of us never see how varying and opposing positions are ultimately brought together.
• Under Sharon’s budget leadership, Fairfax County has retained its triple-A bond rating from ALL of the rating agencies, which means that it saves hundreds of thousands of dollars on interest payments. Very few counties in the entire country have this rating.
• She has served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for 21 years – experience matters.

Why Not Pat

• This is Pat’s first term on the Board of Supervisors and he hit the ground running – away from common sense and reality.
• Pat has missed a number of critical votes on the board – 103.
• In his short time on the board, Pat has developed a reputation as the non-team player.  He consistently throws out ideas and comments that have only a passing relationship with the truth and refuses to engage in dialogue.  When the board doesn’t go along with him,  he either leaves the room or votes against the entirety of a program – even when he agrees with most of it.  Pat doesn’t try to work out a compromise.  He just grabs his toys from the sandbox and skips out.
• For all Pat’s vaunted financial experience in the private sector, he doesn’t seem to understand the underpinnings of the County’s financial situation.  He accuses Sharon of (along with Gerry Connolly) running the County into the ground and growing the deficit.

Here’s the Reality

Fairfax County has been hit hard by the national and state financial downtown.  The County does not have a current deficit. Remember, by law, it’s budget must be balanced.  However, because of the tremendous drop in revenues since the last budget was passed, the County WILL have a deficit IF it funds its programs, services, and school system at the level that exists today.

By law, the County’s ability to raise general fund revenue is restricted.  (Virginia is a Dillon Rule state where counties may only pass laws and ordinances and levy taxes where specifically given enabling legislation by the general assembly.)  Fairfax County’s general fund revenues come primarily from three sources:

• personal property taxes
• real estate taxes
• sales tax

No one is buying houses; no one is buying cars; no one is buying….

Pat is against lots of things.

• He is opposed to the County’s work to ensure affordable housing and wants to see the ‘penny for housing’ abolished.
• Pat is on record saying that the County is the largest landlord in Fairfax County.  It is not!  (Lately, he’s waffling and saying that the County is ‘among the largest landlords.’)
• Pat is opposed to the County’s program to ease the foreclosure crisis.  He is on record saying that ‘it should be left to the market’.
• The board of supervisors currently has 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans serving. In order for the board to function effectively it needs a fair and able leader who can bring about compromise. Pat Herrity has proven that he will be unable to provide this kind of leadership. Time and time again he has voted against legislation solely because he was unable to reach a compromise.

If you haven’t yet decided who to vote for, who to lead Fairfax County in these tough times, decide now for effective, experienced, cooperative leadership.

Vote Sharon Bulova for Chairman: Tuesday, February 3rd.