OK, now, we hope you're sitting down because the Kilgore campaign has come out with its much-touted, super-duper tax relief plan for Virginia homeowners. Well, maybe it's not so super-duper, as it turns out. Amazingly, Kilgore has managed to do three really dumb and also hypocritical things at once with this plan. First, in calling to "cap real estate tax assessment increases at no more than five percent per year unless the property is sold or improved.," Kilgore esentially is advocating massive government interference with the free market. Look, I don't like paying higher taxes any more than anyone else, but I am VERY happy that my home value keeps going up. I mean, seriously, would I prefer that my home value be going down? Duh, I don't think so! And will Kilgore's proposal "cap" assessments if and when real estate values start to decline? Will the "conservative Republican" candidate then call for even MORE government interference in the market? I could have sworn that real Republicans didn't believe in this sort of thing (can we say "rent control?"). Where does this slippery slope lead, and where does it ever end?
Second, the whole Kilgore plan requires a long, laborious, and highly uncertain process aimed to amending the state constitution. At the earliest, such an amendment could be on the ballot in November 2008, but that's assuming two separately elected General Assemblies approve it first. Good luck! And even then, who knows what property values will be doing by 2008? For all we know, they will have plummeted, in which case this whole exercise will have turned out to be nothing but political posturing by a candidate pandering to voters and saying anything in order to get elected. Nice try, Jerry "Pander Bear."
Finally, as the Kaine campaign has pointed out, Kilgore's artifical cap on assessments "raises questions about the impact on the resale value of Virginia homes." No thanks, Jerry, I would rather see my home rise in value every year, enabling me to borrow against it with home equity lines or to choose to sell and cash in on its increased value than to have you tell me what price I should get for it.
The bottom line for me is this: the Kilgore plan is dumb and dumberer, and as a homeowner here in Virginia I want absolutely no part of it. Why don't you keep your hands off my rising home value, Mr. Kilgore, and worry instead about the real problems facing Virginia -- education, health care, sprawl, transportation gridlock, crime, your own slimy campaign (e.g., Scott Howell's "joke" memo; the eavesdropping scandal), and so much more? That should keep you busy for a while, and keep you away from more "dumb and dumberer" ideas like this one!
But I think the central argument that Kilgores plan is like rent control is a good one. When you talk about rent control, you immediately think of shanties and slums that are kept in ill-repair and are infeste with drug dealers and the like. Let us continue to call Kilgore's plan the rent control plan for Virginia home owners. Make sure that folks know that under Kilgore the value of their property will be kept down.
"Jerry Kilgore wants to prevent you from making any money from your porperty. Tim Kaine believes in letting the free market continue to work to make your assets grow. Support Tim Kaine's commonsense efforts to save homeowners money on their property taxes, and oppose Kilgore's rent control style efforts to destroy Virginia property values."
I think an ad along those lines would do a great job in weakening Kilgore's support in NoVA suburbs.
My blog: View from the Dinosaur