If You Are Still Thinking of Voting For A Democrat For House of Representatives This Year, Consider This . . .

Nancy Pelosi has a $19,000 per MONTH apartment in Washington D. C.

Guess who pays for it?

YOU DO!

Vote David McKinley and Spike Maynard for Congress on Tuesday. Pelosi is unacceptable!

Commercializing Welcome Centers, Rest Areas Could Ease WVDOH Financial Burden

Forty some odd years ago NASA realized that a ball point pen would not write in space. They worked on the problem and spent over a million dollars to make a ball point pen that would write in zero gravity.

They were successful and developed a beautiful pen at great taxpayer’s expense, but NASA solved the wrong problem. The problem was not to make a pen write in space, but to just “write” in space. The Russians realized that they only needed to write in space, not use a ball point pen and simply used a five cent pencil instead of wasting a million dollars. The lesson is the first thing you must do to be successful in solving a problem is make sure you have identified the true problem.

At the end of November the amount of expected revenue for the West Virginia highway fund was down $14.6 million, mostly because of the poor economy. Immediately there was talk out of Charleston about raising taxes, but the tax rate is not the real problem. The real problem is the rising cost and reduced revenue. Until these problems are solved, the state’s Department of Highways will continue to have problems even in good economic times. The state must get creative on generating additional revenue and cutting cost.

There are 22 welcome centers and rest areas run by the WVDOH. Each costs approximately $500,000 a year in annual maintenance for a total of $11 million dollars. Two of these on the West Virginia Turnpike have a Federal exemption to allow them to be commercialized, which is pretty common on toll roads. However they also occur in a few other places on non-Toll Road Interstates, such as I-95 north of Baltimore, MD.

Commercialization of West Virginia’s other twenty rest areas and welcome centers could provide a partial solution to the WVDOH funding problems. As these are leased to private companies then a $10 million drain on the WVDOH would disappear as responsibility for the maintenance would shift from the state to the private companies. There would also be a revenue stream generated from the lease agreements. A drain on the state highway fund would be turned into revenue generation, all without putting any additional burden on the taxpayers.

There would also be employment benefits for the state. Each rest area at a minimum would end up with a fast food restaurant and a convenience store/gas station. The average fast food chain restaurant employs about 60 persons and the convenience store 10 persons. This would generate approximately 1,400 private sector jobs across the state from entry level fry cooks to well paid manager positions. As an example; if the two rest areas in Braxton County were commercialized in this way, the Braxton County unemployment rate could drop from 8.3% to 5.3% making it the lowest in the state.

The benefits do not stop at increased employment and reduced operating cost to the state. The free market approach also creates new tax revenue streams into the states coffers. The 1,400 new employees and the new businesses created will pay income taxes to the state. There will now be property taxes paid to the counties at the rest areas on the equipment installed where before there was none. Most important to WVDOH is the gasoline sold at the new filling stations will pay new taxes directly to the highway fund without raising taxes on struggling WV families.

In these hard economic times West Virginia must work to solve the correct problems and reduce the burden of taxes on all the people of the state in the process. We must look for new solutions to old problems and stop thinking the only solution is increasing taxes.

Blast from the Past: Tax Man Max

Today is the day for a Tea Party

Rainy Day Fund Should Not Be Taken Literally

West Virginia's unemployment compensation fund has taken a stronger hit this year than anyone anticipated. Predictably, the knee jerk reaction of Democrats is to raise taxes. Of course the taxes will hit hardest the small businesses who employ most of the people in the state. Increased costs mean that these businesses will have to lay off more workers, thus increasing the strain on the fund.

Republicans argue that since we have reached unexpectedly tough times, that instead of crippling our small business community, we ought to remove some money from the Rainy Day Fund. Doing this reduces strain on the economy while meeting the obligations of the state.

Critics contend that the Rainy Day Fund is for severe times and natural disaster cleanup.

It may not be metaphorically raining hard in West Virginia yet, but creating burdens that will result in huge job losses across the state is a bad idea. We cannot predict the course of the economy. We also do not know how many businesses are working on a razor thin margin.

Let's give businesses and workers in West Virginia a break. Don't tax even more jobs out of existence.

Defending the Indefensible: Pork

In this video the Utah Senator is trying to defend why we should be paying to kill crickets in his state. Please watch.

Tax Cheat Congressman Charlie Rangle (D) Cornered

Protestors Rally Against Bailout

Del. Craig Blair pushes for Drug Testing before receiving welfare

Individualized Democratic Tax Cut For the Liberal Wealthy and England Shut Down By A Snowstorm

In 2002 Tom Daschle declared war on President Bush's plan to make permanent his groundbreaking tax cut plan. We now know that those cuts laid the foundation for seven years of prosperity.

Daschle fought hard against tax cuts. Like most Democrats, he screamed about "tax cuts for the wealthy." His primary goal was preventing the repeal of the estate tax from becoming permanent. Tom Daschle while in the Senate wanted to make sure that the government got its hands on fifty percent of every estate upon someone's death.

We also now know that Daschle did not exercise such diligence when paying his own taxes. Call it the Individualized Democratic Tax Cut For the Liberal Wealthy. It is very simple. Wealthy liberals choose when and if they pay their taxes. Easy as pie! Now three powerful Democrats nominated to high office by Obama have been revealed to have owed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Daschle owes over $128,000.

$128,000 is about three times what the average American earns in three years. One year of that salary makes an American well off. Daschle owes that much in taxes.

************************************************************************

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Winston Churchill said this during World War II, a testament to the grit and determination of Royal Air Force fighter pilots downing German bombers as they tried to annihilate German cities. During the Blitz, Britons continued to work and live as normally as possible. Everyone strove to overcome relentless attack from a bitter enemy.

The Germans should just have sent snow.

A snowstorm brought London and much of the rest of England to a halt this week. Was it two feet? Three feet? No. Four inches. Four inches of snow did what the Luftwaffe could not. Everyone stayed home from work and the country was paralyzed.

Pretty laughable for a major city this side of Atlanta to get shut down by four inches of snow. It might even have political fallout in a country that has wedded itself so much to laws addressing the myth of man made climate change.

Water Studies are money down the drain

Is this the time when the taxpayers of Mineral County collectively say, “We told you so and thanks for wasting our money?” When the County Commission announced they were going to spend taxpayer’s money on a water study of Knobley Mountain to see if there was a sufficient supply for future growth many of us wondered aloud why? If you have lived in Mineral County any length of time you know there are natural springs all over Knobley. You know there is a bottled water plant in Fountain using spring water and the city of Keyser has a dam on Limestone that they can’t empty because water from Knobley Mountain springs keep refilling it, despite their efforts.

Now the county wants to do a bigger water study and at bigger cost as well. DHHR notified the county they are making available $92,000 to assist with the study. That is just to assist, because the cost of the total study is going to be some where around a quarter million dollars.

If they spend this quarter million of your tax dollars; we already know what they are going to find. We will find that Piedmont gets its water from Savage River in Maryland, the Elk Garden area gets its water from Grant County, and Ridgeley and Wiley Ford are connected to Cumberland’s water supply for now. This means that many of the people of Mineral County don’t even rely on water from within the county. History will also show that even in the worst drought, the Keyser and New Creek water systems have never ran out of water. Also keep in mind that the Limestone Dam is a water reservoir for the city of Keyser that is no longer used and they can’t seem to empty it, because to much water flows into it.

The study will also find that Jennings Randolph Lake has 41,000 acre feet of water in storage that is enough to supply every man, woman and child with 100 gallons a day for over 13 years if the river stopped flowing to day. There is an additional 51,000 acre feet used for water quality management, so we are looking at over 27 years worth of water if it didn’t rain for the next 27 years and nobody in Mineral County uses any of that water now!

So basically the County Commission wants to spend more taxpayer money on a water study to learn what we already know; that we don’t live in the Sahara Desert and Mineral County has plenty of water resources to tap if we need. Perhaps Mineral County has so much water because the drain is plugged up from the County Commission stuffing money down it.

It is time for the County Commission to stop wasting the taxpayer’s money on water studies. If you want to spend our tax dollars on water, then we believe you should spend it on providing additional water and water safety. Connect the different water systems in the county together, so that in an emergency the separate water systems can help each other. If a chemical truck were to wreck and spill its contents into New Creek, then a connected system would allow Keyser to bring in water from Elk Garden or Piedmont. If water quality becomes and issue in Fort Ashby, then water could be supplied from Fountain or elsewhere in a connected system.

In short the County Commission should spend the taxpayer’s money wisely or not at all.

Can Plumbers Make $250,000 a Year? Certainly They Can.

Obama tripped up again with an amazingly ignorant statement about, of all people, plumbers.

John McCain has decided to take his campaign to the kind of people that make up part of the backbone of America, small businessmen. Joe the Plumber may be a campaign strategy, but he is also very real. Obama laughed off Joe the Plumber just like he laughed at rural Americans as "clinging to guns and religion" out of fear. Such is the attitude of liberals, laughing off beliefs that exist outside of their urban world.

Many small businessmen are placed in that higher tax bracket from which Obama wants to steal money. They work endless hours and their minds rarely stray far from the needs of their business and employees. When liberals think of businessmen, they think of fat guys sipping martinis by their poolside, not plumbers going on emergency calls at 3 AM.

My wife's uncle was a plumber for many years. His income exceeded the $250,000 threshold. Obama would have definitely wanted to steal his profits. The man worked hard, went out late at night to help people in trouble, but also used profits to support little league baseball teams. Most small businessmen and professionals support local sports teams and always get hit up every time there is some kind of fundraiser. If taxes go sky high on these individuals and businesses, will the federal government step in to support little league? Do we want the federal government involved in little league? Obama might, but that is a bad idea.

When the so-called "wealthy" make extra money, most of them put some right back into their communities. Do they live comfortably? Yes they do, because they earned it by working hard. If small businesses and professionals get more profits stolen from them by the government, they will be less likely to be able to spare as much to support their communities. Many will have to let employees go. Counties such as those in the Potomac Highlands depend heavily upon small business for employment. We cannot afford to lose one job because one man decided that a certain group of people make too much, and now he can steal it to distribute among his constituency.

Under an Obama Administration, some groups will get more federal money, especially if they showed the tendency to vote Democratic in the past. The defense industry will not be so lucky. In recent history, Democrats have slashed defense budgets. That could mean the loss of defense related jobs, something that Mineral and surrounding counties depend upon.

Senate candidate Howell signs no-tax pledge

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Gary Howell

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 304 790 9292

Senate candidate Howell signs no-tax pledge

KEYSER — Gary Howell, Republican candidate for the 14^th State Senate District, today announced he has signed the State Taxpayer Protection Pledge, promising to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

The pledge is promoted by Americans for Tax Reform, which was founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan.

“Promising to oppose taxes is an easy call for me,” said Howell. “The people of West Virginia are already over-taxed and over-regulated. Burdensome taxation stifles growth and smothers entrepreneurship. By reducing and cutting taxes, our economy will grow and good jobs will come to the 14^th District and the rest of the state.”

Howell knows about growing a small business. For more than 17 years, he has been the owner and operator of Howell Automotive in Keyser, a leading supplier of auto parts. In 2003, Gary was named “Exporter of the Year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration. He was honored by the West Virginia Motor Sports Council in 2005 for promoting West Virginia across the country. Last year, he was honored with the Governors Commendation for International Market Entry, recognizing his success in completing sales with the Philippines, South Africa, Aruba, Belgium, Greece, Spain and Sweden.

A lifelong West Virginian, Howell received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from Frostburg State University's School of Business in 1990. He is seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Jon Blair Hunter.

The 14^th Senate district covers all or parts of the counties of Barbour, Grant, Mineral, Monongalia, Preston, Taylor and Tucker.

Holding Taxes Down

It seems that politicians always want to raise taxes. The reason is they like to spend money. It is easy to spend money when it is not your own. What we need are laws to control spending for those politicians that forget they should take greater care when spending other peoples money.

The way to do it is to limit revenue. If government gets an increase in revenue, they just spend it. In Mineral County personal property taxes have increased substantially, and the government just spent it all.

I would suggest that any budget increases within the county be limited to the previous years budget plus inflation and population change. The government doesn't need to grow any faster than inflation. This limits government to its current size. Allowing for increases based on population also is reasonable. Any increase in population will require an increase in services, but not an increase that is greater than the growth rate.

Now if the government receives more money than the increase from inflation or population allows, then government will be required to give that money back to the tax payer in the form of refunds. After all it is our money they are taking, they should be giving the access back.

This has worked in other states and should work here to control out of control tax increases and government expansion. It is only common sense to not take to much from the taxpayer.

A fee is just another tax

Politicians try to avoid the word tax when ever they can. They like to use words like user fee, impact fee, license fee, etc, but let's face it is just another tax.

There is a movement in Mineral County to impose new taxes in the form of "fees," but we are smart enough to know these are just more taxes on an already over taxed population. Mineral County is one the highest taxed counties in the state, and we have little or nothing to show for it.

The latest assault on the tax payer is being pushed by those trying to stop new economic development in the county. There are now rumblings of sub-division impact fees in the county. The fees would be paid by the developer, which in turn will tag the fees on the price of the land raising the cost to the end purchaser. That additional cost of the property will be recorded as part of the assessed value, and the new land owner will pay property tax on that piece of property forever. It is away for the county government in increase the taxes on everybody, and slide it in under the radar.

It is not just user fees that cause property assessed value to increase to benefit the coffers of the county. Additional unnecessary requirements put on the developers in the name of progress, do little more than increase the taxes on the end land user. The politician likes pretend that the develop pays these for these requirements and fees, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Let's look at what really happens; A developer purchases 10 acres of land, and wants to put in 10, one acre lots. He plans to sell each lot at $20,000 per lot. The county comes in an puts in a $10,000 impact fee, and requires the developer to put in an unnecessary storm water run off pond for an additional $10,000. The developer simply divides $20,000 by 10 = $2,000. He then adds the $1,000 to each $20,000 lot making them $22,000 lots.

The person that purchases the lot pays for the impact fees and the pond, not the developer as the county politician claims. Not only does the new land owner pay the impact fee, but he pays tax on the additional assessed value forever, and has to live with the mosquito's that breed in the unnecessary pond.

Addition fees and requirements are just another way for politicians to raise taxes on the taxpayer, and call it something else. Mineral County cannot afford any additional taxes, even if they call them fees.

The Great Bailout and Taxes

The Great Bailout and Taxes

In a recent conversation with my dad he said that he never thought that tax revolts would occur in his lifetime, but for the first time, he is beginning to anticipate that a tax revolt is not too far away. I was a bit taken aback, but then began thinking about the possibility, and he may have a valid point. Consider two extremes – 0% taxation is total freedom, 100% taxation is essentially slavery. At what point are we all simply indentured servants to Uncle Sam? Right now, if you are actively working for a paycheck, it is likely that about half of the money that is paid by your employer to you is going to Uncle Sam. For some it is a little less, for some it is a little more.

Don’t believe it…? Are you taking into account your employers 7% of matching taxes that are paid and not even shown on your pay stub? How about gasoline tax? Who nets more money from your gallon of gas, the oil company or the government? Did you think about normal sales taxes? How about the approximately 22% of business taxes that has been found to be passed to consumers in the ordinary cost of goods?

This leads to a big question, are we all really working until lunch everyday just to raise enough money to pay taxes for the privilege of…working?

How is this possible? It's easy, no one knows what he or she pays in taxes. So, at what point does that amount become so exorbitant that people start to seek the information that is out there and figure out what they are paying? Can we always blame businesses for gouging consumers without looking at what the government is taking in? Thus far most Americans seem OK with taxes and small tax increases because the government is supporting our troops, building roads, funding schools, and helping less fortunate people. So we do our duty, complain a little, but cough up because at the end of the day it isn’t worth going to jail over taxes (which is what happens if you don’t pay, is it not?)

But then a program is proposed that just doesn't make sense and people like me get extremely irritated, such as, the mortgage bailout. In case you are not aware? Some people, mostly in Southern Florida similar areas bought property they couldn’t afford in fast appreciating markets, sat on it too long, and now they can’t unload it for the windfall profits that they were hoping to obtain. They now face foreclosure because they simply cannot afford the payments. President Bush announced an effort to allow the government to guarantee the loans of these people while they ride out this dip in the market, or continue to sell their property for a smaller amount of profit. Make no mistake, this isn’t mom and pop at the end of a thirty-year mortgage getting ready to be thrown out, these are people that bought way too much home thinking they would get to re-fi before the bigger payments hit, or re-financed at the appreciated value of their home, i.e. took out a bunch of cash and bought other stuff without understanding what they were getting into. After all, there was no end to how high their home values would go, right? Wrong, now their investment (a home is usually referred to as a person’s largest investment) is crashing and they can’t get away from it.

Real Estate is not a liquid asset, never has been, never will be. It's one of the reasons for the buyer beware motto when one is purchasing property. Now after subsidizing the cost rebuilding Southern Florida and coastal areas in post-hurricane season every year (if you don't think we are doing this just look at the price of lumber and construction materials in your area), we are going to bail the homeowners out of their bad investments? Or at least hold the fort down long enough to let them ride out the downturn.

Are we going to bail out business owners whose business fail in low-income parts of the country? Or investors who buy hot stocks and lose their shirts? Nope, just the people who guessed wrong on the housing market in over-valued areas. It is easy to get caught up in thinking that we are "helping" people, and as I have said most Americans believe in helping their fellow man or woman. We seem OK with taxes going to help people, so why is this any different? The difference here…these people are living BETTER than we are!!! That’s right, they are living in nicer houses, with fancier cars, toys, furnishings, etc in parts of the country that most of us only get to visit for a week on an overpriced vacation. Will the average American be OK with losing half of their income each day only to subsidize a person in a million dollar home in Southern Florida, driving a Hummer and/or Mercedes while he/she is driving two used cars and living in a modest home in this area because the cost of living was more manageable? Should those of us who didn’t over-buy, didn’t make a mistake, and didn’t wait too long to get out be footing the bill for those that did? Should those of us who moved to more rural, more consistent areas continue to subsidize big city and coastal living? I hope not.

Capito says taxpayers should not pay to house illegal aliens

If your going to immigrate to the US, then you need to do it legally. Many of our ancestors came to the US for a better life, and most came legally. Apparently until Shelley Capito closed the loop hole illegals were getting housing assistance. The loop hole was located in the Section 8 Program.

Congresswoman Capito stated, "Loopholes in current law, like this housing assistance loophole for illegal immigrants, act as a magnet and invite people to enter our country illegally. We should not be rewarding those who have come here illegally by awarding them taxpayer-funded services intended for law-abiding citizens.”

The congresswoman closed the loop hole by adding an amendment requiring two forms of id to prove the housing assistance applicant was a legal US resident. The problem is not one being faced by West Virginians alone. In the Denver, CO area over 20,000 illegal aliens received FHA home loans. She explained, “We must take this opportunity to strengthen a successful federal program to ensure this benefit is only provided to legal residents.”

Both WV Congressmen Alan Mollohan and Nick Rahall voted to continue to allow illegal aliens to receive US taxpayer assistance. The Capito amendment passed 233-186 blocking future housing benefits to illegal aliens.

Recycling Just Not Feasible

In principle, recycling is a good idea. Reusing already processed materials over again can reduce stress on the environment in the form of resource extraction and garbage. However principles must always balance with reality as the Hampshire County Commission has discovered.

When studying the Monongalia County model Hampshire County's leaders concluded that even with a $100,000 start up grant, a program could not maintain itself in the long run. Hampshire shares the same problem as the rest of the Potomac Highlands counties studying this issue. A disbursed and low population combined with prohibitive expenses means recycling end up being an intolerable financial burden. Not to mention that recycling requires more than just the placement of bins. People need to spend time separating the various components and also need to refrain from simply dumping all their garbage in the bins.

Recycling has grown so prevalent around the country that a low level of demand exists for these products. It is not worth the money for a private firm to pick up the materials from rural areas when cities provide a glut. Most local governments also cannot afford to pick up the tab when they cannot even pay enough money to maintain a full complement of sheriff's deputies.

The best hope for the idea of recycling lies in the forms that people can do most easily. Promoting the reuse of plastic containers or glass jars instead of purchasing Tupperware type products is one way. Others recycle old auto parts. They keep non running vehicles on their property for parts to maintain cars that do still run. This conserves valuable metal resources.

However at this point, expecting the taxpayers to pick up the tab for recycling just is not feasible for rural West Virginia counties.