One randomly selected family out of about 2,000 low-income families in Fairfax County will get $750 per month, but 100% of supervisors get a $2,500 per month pay raise. Hardly seems fair, does it?
Supervisors voted to give 18 lucky families in the Dranesville District $750 per month while raising their own taxpayer funded pay to $10,000 per month. Sound fair? Not to those in need, and not to taxpayers.
By Puneet Ahluwalia
Tell me you want to help low-income families make more money, and I’m all in.
But you have to question the motivation of Supervisors who voted to give 18 randomly selected low-income families in Dranesville $750 per month, while they gave themselves a $2,500 monthly payraise.
Here’s the background.
The Fairfax County Board has announced a new program that gives 180 lucky families in Fairfax County a cash payment of $750 per month.
But only if you’re lucky enough to live in one of 10 zip codes – one for each district or 18 families per Supervisor. And only if you are “randomly selected” for the free money.
All told, it’s 180 lucky families out of about 200,000 low income families in the County. But supervisors voted to give themselves a $2,500 monthly pay raise bringing their total taxpayer funded pay to more than $10,000 per month.
And that $10,000 a month is for a part-time job! It doesn’t count the money they get from their “main” job or from other household income.
The so-called Fairfax County Economic Mobility Pilot may well help the 18 “randomly” chosen winners in the Dranesville District, but what about all the other families in our district, and those throughout Fairfax County, who are suffering from an uncertain economy, high inflation, sky-high gas prices, and huge tax increases?
But don’t count on it. To me, it looks more like a lottery the politicians have rolled out this election year to buy votes at an extreme discount. The politicians get kudos for giving out free money without the cost of actually helping any but a very few.
