To the Editor:
I was interested to read Supervisor John Foust's column about the challenges facing Fairfax County in 2013, and especially his comments about the financial challenges the county faces [Challenges Facing Dranesville in 2013, Connection, Jan. 2-8, 2013].
While Supervisor Foust pointed out that the board had saved "tens of millions" of dollars over the past year, he did not mention that the county saved as much as $500 million as the result of a ruling last week in which Fairfax County joined the Virginia Department of Transportation in a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General challenging the EPA's right to limit the amount of water allowed to flow into the Accotink Creek streambed.
My guess as to the reason he did not mention the huge savings from this lawsuit is that Supervisor Foust was the only member of the Board of Supervisors to vote against filing the lawsuit.
That's right—the July 2012 vote was 9-1, with all six of the other Democrat members of the board, and all three Republicans voting for Fairfax County to join in the lawsuit, with only Supervisor Foust voting against. His vote was to allow the EPA to saddle county taxpayers with as much as $500 million in additional mitigation expenses, that the
Federal Court ruled last week the EPA had no legal basis for imposing.
Let's remember this vote on the July 10, 2012 vote when Supervisor Foust tells us he is looking out for the taxpayers, and when he tells us taxes must go up, because all the savings have been wrung out of the budget.
David Karmol
Great Falls