Home Is Where The Heart Is

I've bragged many times about my home county - Prince William County in Virginia. My oldest daughter graduated from the #1 High School in the nation. A few years ago the county passed a tough anti-illegal alien law. A lot of neighboring counties predicted huge increases in law enforcement costs and proclaimed themselves "immigrant friendly." Instead, expenses dropped in both education and medical as classrooms and emergency rooms saw significant decreases in numbers as undocumented families left for, you guessed it, those "friendly" counties. Crime is down 30% too (not a direct result, but it had an impact).

Today we got the "County Report", and I read that the Board of County Supervisors reduced the real estate tax rate again to keep a promise that our tax bill would stay below 2007 levels.

What do we get for our money? Three new schools. Ten new full-time police officers. Needed road projects. Park and library expansion and improvements.

How can they do that when our taxes are 30% - 50% lower than surrounding counties? Well, for the last four years the Board of Supervisors has bit the bullet and cut spending. Painful reforms were undertaken. Priorities were set (schools, roads and public safety.) The county has 10 high schools, all were ranked in the top 6% in national rankings. I mentioned the drop in crime above. I recently participated in that event where a whole bunch of us volunteers worked to build some new hiking trails in coordination with the Parks Authority.

If you ever read the news and wonder when everyone went bat-shit crazy, I can honestly tell you that not *everyone* has. At least, not around here they haven't.