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Since when are spending needs so dire?

This letter is with regard to the Green Bay solar site located on Cheatham Road, put forward by CEP Solar, and recently passed by the county Board of Supervisors.

I visited with the solar company at an on-site public meeting and was informed that four of the Prince Edward Board of Supervisors members were given a personal site visit with the company to discuss.

The site visit could not have been five, as that would have constituted a quorum of the nine member board and it would have been an official meeting. Four is unofficial. While maybe not overtly, I would consider that a form of back door negotiation. CEP heard the concerns directly from the decision-makers, appeased them, and the community was just along for the ride. A 6-2 vote (one member absent), went against the Planning Commission recommendation – who are the appointed purveyors of county ordinance compliance and whose recommendation should be trusted. I read the county gets a $112,500 up front payment on this project. I don’t think that is a good look for our county board.

My question is – what would the board do on the final vote or what would findings be related to comprehensive plan compliance if these projects generated only minimal, or no revenue for the county? If the resulting answer is a no vote or non-compliance, then essentially the solar company has bought out the passing vote of the county Board of Supervisors. This is bad. This is a breakdown of local governance. Further, we have also now established precedent on circumventing the responsibility of the planning commission pertaining to these “first in our area” solar project proposals.

I expect a number of supervisors that have supported these solar projects will be distancing themselves from the “credit” around November in an election year – which would be very telling if such would be the case.

Lastly – since when are spending needs so dire in the county to warrant imposition of glass covered fields on rural residential parts of the county visible by neighboring residences? Hidden deeper in larger, non-residential wooded tracts, or with limited visibility by neighboring properties, I understand better – but not near homes. As the Board moves forward with the growing line of requests for special use permit locations for planned solar projects in the county, if any further proposals gain approval, we need to press for them to offer specifically planned reduction in taxes which will take place that will be offset by the increased solar revenues. 

David Jennings
Green Bay

 

It’s time for some forward thinking

As the Senate attempts to pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R.1 or OBBBA) that Trump has endorsed, we as citizens need to be aware of what it contains.

First, when Trump was president previously, he cut taxes for large corporations and wealthy Americans which added 2.4 trillion to the deficit and 3.0 trillion to the national debt and will not benefit middle or low-income citizens at all.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, this bill will further erode our already frayed safety net by cutting subsidies and individual tax benefits for green energy production, eliminating EV tax credits by the end of 2025 and electricity credits by 2028, and encouraging offshore oil and gas drilling.

It will further weaken support for disabled students, increase the college endowment tax, limit parent and graduate student plus borrowing while tightening Pell Grant eligibility, again allow private, for-profit colleges to have predatory lending practices that exploited veteran benefits.

The OBBA will force states to provide SNAP food assistance benefits. SNAP or food assistance programs would lose support for almost 204,000 Virginians. In addition, it will devastate rural hospitals as well as strip health care away for more than 262,000 Virginians. If passed, this new bill will add at least another 2.3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years while benefiting the billionaire class in this country. It will do so by cutting Medicaid funding for 2 million Virginians and eliminate 600,000 who are enrolled in the Medicaid expansion program.

Most of these cuts are to provide huge “additional” tax breaks for the ultra-rich! According to analysis from the Yale Budget Lab nearly 80 percent of the bill’s total benefits would go to the top 20 percent of earners.

According to Fortune magazine, Trump’s Military “birthday” parade alone will cost taxpayers between $30 to $45 million. Is this what we want as Americans? Is this what our country needs?

It’s time to make our voices heard by contacting our elected representatives and to let them know that we favor compromise over conflict, people over profit, and a government that supports real health care for everyone. It is time for forward thinking not a return to the inequities of the past.

Act—Vote—Change!

Chapman Hood Frazier
Rice

 

A focus on the ‘big, beautiful bill’

In Tommy Wright’s May 28 column about the “Big, Beautiful Bill, (which is, in reality, a huge, hideous bill!), Mr. Wright failed to disclose and describe the many harmful provisions within this bill; cruel provisions which are blatantly dismissive of the poor and working class in our country.

The current proposal for the Supplemental Food Assistance Program is to slash billions in federal funding, imposing those costs on the states. This may result in many states cutting food assistance altogether for low-income families. Funding for school lunch programs and food banks have already been cut.

Mr. Wright attempted to make the ACA participant breathe a sigh of relief when, in actuality, an estimated 4.2 million Americans will become uninsured because House Republicans did not extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits that are set to expire this year. For those who continue to be covered under the ACA, termination of the PTC will mean higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

Approved in this bill are drastic cuts to Medicaid, which is a literal lifeline for 82 million Americans. It is estimated that this bill would result in the elimination of healthcare for 13.7 million people, resulting in severe consequences, which undeniably include preventable deaths and the worsening of untreated chronic conditions. Covering roughly 60% of residents in nursing homes and long-care facilities, Medicaid cuts are predicted to result in facility staff reductions and possible closures. Rural hospitals are also in jeopardy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared there is a “moral component to the Big, Beautiful Bill.” Perhaps someone can explain to me what is “moral” about cutting $1 trillion in critical health, food, and housing assistance while rewarding ‘wealth-fare’ in the form of $3 trillion tax cuts to the top 10% of earners and multinational corporations (further raising the Federal deficit by $3.2 trillion.) What is “moral” about significantly limiting or discontinuing assistance programs for the eligible majority in the name of finding “waste, fraud, and abuse”? WWJD??

Someone you know and care about has deservedly used public assistance. There are others you know and care about who currently receive benefits or will at some point in their lives justifiably need and qualify for assistance. Please don’t let this happen. Call your U.S. representatives. 

Connie Mason Moss
Blackstone