Maud From August 2007
From the Washington Post:
"You can't condemn the McMansions out of hand," said Maud F. Robinson, a Vienna Town Council member who has lived in the town for 55 years. "It's the American dream to build and rebuild." Nonetheless, she said, she worries that rising property values will drive out longtime residents who can't afford the taxes." All these people who are of retirement age -- I hate to see them forced to leave," she said.
Do you feel like you now better understand Maudasaurus' position?
Comments
>>she worries that rising property values will drive out longtime residents who can't afford the taxes.
I'm a little confused on this point. If you bought your property for $35-50k and it is now worth $400-500k plus, can't you afford to borrow against some of that equity to pay any increase difference in your real estate taxes?
Posted by: Town Green | May 19, 2007 12:32 PM
Give Maud credit. Her goal is not to be logical or make sense for that matter. Her goal is to confuse old people into submission and in turn hold onto the only thing that matters in her life - that chair in Council chambers. She is very good at saying much, but doing nothing. That has turned out to be a great political strategy for her, but a terrible strategy for those residents of Vienna who would like to see progressive thinking and policy. Frankly, she and her tactics are sad.
Posted by: Historic Vienna | May 19, 2007 01:45 PM
Who is this Town Green person? Now, we're supposed to hock our house to pay the taxes. That's the dumbest comment ever on this site. If the Town wasn't stealing from our pockets with huge unnecessary taxes, we could afford to live here. Will someone explain why it's more expensive to live in Vienna than Fairfax County? I'll give you a hint. Maybe, the Town isn't run very well and they are wasting your money on a bloated bureaucracy and pet projects that we don't get much out of. Has the Town ever told us just what the Town Green really costs? They won't because of the heat they will get. Wake up Vienna, these people are picking your pockets.
Posted by: Disgusted | May 26, 2007 04:21 PM
Town Green I can see why Disgusted would be irritated with your tax cost analogy. When houses were thirty thousand dollars gas was probably less than a dollar. Bread 39 cents and a postage stamp 10 cents. If you take your salary of then and multiplied it by 14 you would come up with the same worth. Same with the value of the houses. The house you live in is only worth what you paid for it except for the inflation factor.
Posted by: wyltn | May 26, 2007 06:42 PM