Ok, I couldn't stay out of this...
1. Lynchburg Taxes
2. LUCR
3. McDonnell
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There's no defending Lynchburg City's tax rates. They're excessive. The money is wasted. The citizens suffer.
That being said, I much prefer consumption taxes to property taxes. Consumption taxes are, at least in that respect, voluntary. However, the idea that college kids don't pay property taxes is completely incorrect. Rent rates absolutely do reflect property tax rates. Sure the tax bill may not have their name on it in most cases, but at the end of the day, property taxes (and rate increases) are passed along directly to the renter (i.e. college kids who live of campus). So the idea that college kids don't pay property taxes is flat out wrong. The property tax is merely wrapped up in their rent payment.
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rogers3 wrote:We can dicker about the finer points, but it seems to me that the CRLU are still rather uneducated about local issues...
Truer words are rarely spoken. The fact of the matter is that CRLU is quite uneducated on a lot of things - but don't try telling them that. We can look back no further than November to see that quite plainly.
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/a ... f6878.html
Anticipating a large turnout after more than 3,000 votes were recorded in the precinct for the 2012 presidential election...
Sarah Kimball and the College Republicans of Liberty University passed out sample ballots.
“Most students already know who they are voting for at this point,” Kimball said. By 2 p.m. lines will be “around the building” she said.
...by 4:30 p.m. the polling place had recorded 912 voters. ...by the end of the day about 1,200 votes had been cast in Election 2013.
Fact #1: 2012 Presidential Primary - LU was the highest turnout precinct in the state with 590 votes (355 Ron Paul vs. 235 Mitt Romney).
Fact #2: 2012 Presidential Race - LU had 3347 votes cast of which 3120 (93.2% were for Mitt Romney).
Fact #3: 2013 Statewide Races - LU had 1160 votes. (Less than double the 2012 Presidential PRIMARY, and not even 35% of the 2012 Presidential General Election the previous year)
Fact #4: 2013 Statewide AG Race was decided by 165 votes (Mark Herring with 1,103,777 vs. Mark Obenshain with 1,103,612).
Fact #5: Sarah Kimball wasn't just with CRLU, she was IN CHARGE as the Chair!!!
I'll leave the conclusions for you guys to draw, but I will give you some thoughts... turnout at LU in 2013 was abominably low. Turnout was even worse given comparisons to election turnouts the previous year. CRLU is a college club on a college campus, with the specific purpose of doing political work for the Republican party. If that doesn't happen, who is responsible? Clearly lines weren't around the building like CRLU's chair said they would be. CRLU's candidate lost by 165 votes. Is there a meaningful relationship between those two statements?
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Bob McDonnell has 11 federal felony indictments hanging over his head. Did someone at LU REALLY think that making him a professor at this particular point in time would be good for the University?!? This isn't just a PR issue. It's a spectacular lack of judgement.
If the guy is innocent, great, wait until he's declared innocent, and then bring him on as a professor. If he's guilty, LU has brought on staff a person with federal felony convictions - when they KNEW beforehand that it was possible he would be convicted of them. Is LU really worried that it has so little influence and standing in the state political climate that it's necessary to go do this now, or else they risk not being able to attract him as a professor later?
I read the indictment. You all should read it. It's ugly. Really ugly.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/l ... tment/751/
Quite frankly, In my opinion, one or both of the McDonnells should probably end up in jail before all is said and done. I'm certain I know why they did it, and I'm sure it's because they didn't see much (or any) difference in what they were doing and what everyone else was doing in the way of political contributions and gifts, but that doesn't excuse it (and in fact probably only points to a problem with the way everyone else is doing it). At the very least, McDonnell (the former Atty Gen) should've known better. They had staffers telling them not to do it and asking questions about why things were happening. That's a bad thing when the staffers are raising red flags. (Rule #1: Listen to your staffers)
As an alum, this incident make the school look really bad. With the Benny Hinn incident followed closely by this one, honestly, I'm extremely concerned. I'm not suggesting that the ghost of Jerry Sr. is going to return and make good on his promise regarding the school turning away from it's roots, but here we have a major incident of spiritual substance, followed closely by one of moral and ethical substance in the space of a couple of weeks. Someone, please, tell me why I shouldn't be concerned. I want my degrees to mean something. Not just today, not just tomorrow, but next year, and the year after that, and the decade after that. I'm concerned that if this continues, not only will they not mean much, but that listing them would be a detriment.
Quite frankly, this statement by the University might concern me the most...
The Helms School is proud to welcome Governor McDonnell, who has a proven record in public policy and conservative activism, and who shares in the biblical principles and servant leadership that are so important to Liberty University.
I want to know what biblical principles and servant leadership he displayed in earning those 11 federal indictments. (Not 1, ELEVEN!!!!) That's not the type of biblical principles and servant leadership I learned at LU. Someone please tell me why I'm wrong here.