When Supervisor Pat Herrity, a Republican from Springfield,
claimed that there would be over $500 million of taxpayer-funded workforce
housing in Tysons Corner, Herrity was reaffirming the Republican Party’s own
“war” on the working class of Virginia.[1]
Herrity went so far as to say that taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for “luxury
amenities.”
Indeed, taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for “luxury
amenities,” and according to both the Northern Virginia Housing Alliance
(NVAHA)[2],
and the Coalition for Smarter Growth[3],
taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for workforce housing.
In a written statement released Friday, the housing
coalition stated, “To be clear, Fairfax County and its taxpayers are not
providing $500 million worth of subsidy in cash or otherwise for workforce
housing at Tysons Corner…It is priced into what the developers pay for the land
and into the deals that they structure as they redevelop their properties.”
But nothing is scarier to some folks in the Republican Party
than giving all Americans a fair chance at economic prosperity, even when it
doesn’t come at their expense.
While the Pat Herrity’s of the country feverishly denounce
and misinterpret “affordable housing and planning initiatives” as some kind of liberal bag of tricks, these
same individuals are more than willing to play crony capitalism with taxpayer
money (anyone remember the bank bailouts?).[4]
This isn’t to argue that the Democratic Party doesn’t engage
in this same form of capitalism. It is however to argue that the same party
which so vehemently and publicly opposes “taxpayer bailouts” is oftentimes the
political party that engages in them.
Allowing working class Virginians a fair and affordable
opportunity to live is what Virginia, and America, should strive for, not
enriching the already filthy rich at the cost of taxpayers.
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