Could we keep it short? There’s science to do.
Never too old to climb the dinosaur.
A few weeks ago, I marked my calendar with a public lecture at Virginia Tech that I wanted to attend. Astrophysicist Evalyn Gates, executive director and CEO of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, will give a talk titled titled, “Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy” at 7:30 p.m. in the Graduate Life Center. (Full details here.)
For those who don’t know, I’m a bit of a science geek. I was particularly keen to attend Gates’ talk because I spent many winter Saturdays at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in my youth, touring the facility, climbing on the dinosaurs outside and taking classes.
Alas, my plans might be in ruins. The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will hold its public hearings on the budget and advertised 12 cents per $100 of assessed value tax increase on Thursday evening at 6:30.
The odds of that session going short are slim. Past meetings have seen vocal constituencies on both sides of the issue turn out to air their concerns. I’ll be there because I’m writing my column this week about the increase.
In the interest of self interest, I have a modest proposal. Supervisors already know that there are a bunch of people, a lot from the Blacksburg strand, who want the tax increase and probably more. They also already know that there are a bunch of people, a lot of them Tea Partiers, who don’t want a tax increase that large, maybe none at all. So let’s spare everyone the parade of speakers and just gauge how many turned out.
Open the public hearing and ask, “Would everyone who opposes a 12-cent increase please stand up and boo.” And they can all do that. Then, “Would everyone who supports a 12-cent increase please stand up and cheer.” And they can all do that.
We could be done in like 10 minutes and all head to the dark matter talk where we could forget our differences about a tax increase that, in the grand scheme of the cosmos, is quite a small thing either way it goes.
March 28, 2012 - 11:08 AM
Works for me. After all, the “all taxes are bad” crowd is just going to say the same things they have always said — “I can’t afford these taxes, I’ll have to sell of some of my land that has been in my family since it was granted to us by the King, this tax rate is unbearable for senior citizens on a fixed income” (never mind that the county has a generous tax relief program for senior citizens, those with disabilities, and now for disabled veterans). This year there may be some new talking points thanks to the national tea party sticking its nose in a local issue. Those who really don’t like the higher tax rate but see it as inevitable due to the school construction projects and the need to pay for education and public safety will stand up and say so. In the end, it probably won’t matter much since we all know how the supervisors stand. The only suspense will be whether someone throws out a vote to try to lower the tax rate and whether there are two or three votes in favor.
At least your plan would avoid a long and ugly night of tension and name calling. Too bad it won’t fly because “the public must be heard.”