Godawful Del. Tim Hugo (R) Bill Would Screw Arlington, Lavish Big $$$ on Super-Rich People, Weaken

[TexasTowelie]

Godawful Del. Tim Hugo (R) Bill Would Screw Arlington, Lavish Big $$$ on Super-Rich People, Weaken Local Autonomy vs State AND Set a Horrible Precedent – VETO!

For those of you not familiar with him, Del. Tim Hugo (R-Fairfax/PW County) is a particularly slimy/odious (see Special Interests Dominate Delegate Hugo’s Finance Report, New Story by Michael Pope Highlights How Predatory Lenders “Capture” Virginia GOP Delegates Like Tim Hugo, The NRA’s Favorite Virginia General Assembly Republicans, etc.) Virginia House Republican. This past November, Hugo came super close to losing his seat (to Democrat Donte Tanner), leaving him as one of the most vulnerable Northern Virginia Republicans left standing after the 2017 blue tidal wave here in Virginia.

Given all that, you’d think that Hugo might spend his remaining time in office focused on things that help his own district, not on getting revenge against other places he’s mad at. For instance, there’s Arlington County, which Hugo wants to screw over in at least two big ways: 1) by turning I-66 into a toll road in BOTH directions, which of course would hit “reverse commuters” coming from DC, Arlington, etc.; and 2) by taking away local control even MORE from localities, in this case by forcing Arlington to lower its assessed value country clubs/golf courses for mostly VERY rich people (members pay around $70,000! per year to belong; who the heck can afford THAT other than the super-rich???). Brilliant, eh? Typical, though, for a slimy “swamp creature” like Hugo.

On the latter idiocy – truly one of the worst bills this session, by the way – what Hugo wants to do is to force Arlington to change the way it assesses the value of these golf courses’ land, in a way that will save the golf courses an estimated $1.5 million per year – and for absolutely NO GOOD REASON (and a bunch of bad ones). See Arlington County Board member Christian Dorsey talking about the potential negative impacts on Arlington’s schools and other important services of Hugo’s bill at 5:49:15 of this video (from the 2/24/18 Arlington County Board meeting). And why does Hugo want to hurt Arlington schools and other important services? Answer: to save VERY wealthy golf club owners and VERY wealthy members (again, who pay around $70,000! per year to belong) a bunch of money so they can get even wealthier? Brilliant move by the “swamp creature!”

The “arguments” (such as they are) for this godawful legislation, which believe it or not has actually passed both the House of Delegates (65-33) and State Senate (Thursday, by a 27-13 vote) – with Democrats mostly (why not ALL?!? hello???) opposed and party-of-the-wealthy Republicans UNANIMOUSLY voting “aye” – are really, really dumb, by the way. According to the bill’s proponents, Arlington County should be forced to change the way it’s been assessing the value of these golf course for decades, because supposedly the way Arlington does this is not consistent with other jurisdictions in Virginia (you ask: who cares? and why is that relevant in any way?). Of course, the fact is that Arlington County is a dense, urban(ish) county — the smallest self-governing county in the United States, actually. It’s also a county that’s right next door to the nation’s capital, with multiple Metro stops, a superb school system and other public amenities, and tons of people clamoring to live there.

Read more: https://bluevirginia.us/2018/03/godawful-del-tim-hugo-r-bill-would-screw-arlington-lavish-big-on-super-rich-people-weaken-local-autonomy-vs-state-and-set-a-horrible-precedent-veto

[bpj62]

1. Two Golf Courses in Arlington.

I grew up in Arlington and there are only two Country Clubs, Washington Golf and Country Club and Army-Navy. The bigger issue is his attempt to put a permanent toll on I-66. The 9 mile stretch of highway isn't even in his district. Hopefully Northam will veto the bill.