Matt Lohr The Bureaucrat

A recent email exchange between Matt Lohr and Walter Curt, a conservative Valley activist has been forwarded around.  Matt is apparently introducing legislation to create a new state position- a "Agriculture Tourism Director".  Seriously. 

As Walter said to Matt, "Please explain how different you are from a Democrat. I read in the DNR that you are proposing a AG-Tourism director.  We are having a real hard time "Re-Branding" Republicans to be limited government, reduced taxes, etc. Very tough when our own delegates propose more FEEL GOOD nonsense like what is reported in the paper!"  Matt responded with some nonsense on why this new position was needed and Walter hit the nail on the head by saying "Form an association and pay for it yourself."

Amen.  The reason we need tax increases for things like education and transportation is because of irresponsible spending on things that the government doesn't need to be involved with.  Those positions multiply into departments and need bigger budgets every year to do their "good work".  What suffers with this type of earmarking are core government responsibilities like education and transportation, and after a few years of being shortchanged they urgently need a tax increase to do their job.  The only way to avoid this cycle is to stop these kinds of ridiculous positions and put state money into first maintaining core responsibilities and then expanding them as needed. 

Legislators like Matt Lohr that want to spend money on things that benefit themselves but then vote against things like universal Pre-K for kids (it's not worth the money if it doesn't help him) are the problem in Richmond and in Washington. I'll put this great email exchange between Walter and Matt in the comments.

Comments

[Not Larry Sabato]

Here's the exchange:

Please explain how different you are from a Democrat.
I read in the DNR that you are proposing a AG-Tourism director. We are
having a real hard time "Re-Branding" Republicans to be limited government,
reduced taxes, etc.

Very tough when our own delegates propose more FEEL GOOD nonsense like what
is reported in the paper!

You have obviously "Grown in Office"

I am VERY concerned that this is the harbinger of things to come.

Walter Curt
--------------------
Walter-

I take great offense at your statement "Feel good nonsense.". Obviously you have no understanding of agriculture's impostance to our economy. It is our #1 industry in the Commonwealth. Look, if we are going to keep farmers in business, we need to help them promote their businesses. My farm alone did $80,000 in sales this year just in ag tourism. The sales tax along with other dollars people spend when visiting communities are huge. You don't understand what ag tourism is, but it is a huge business of untapped opportunity. Helping just a few dozen farmers in the state would pay for one position at $85,000...which is what my budget amendment is for.

This is not growing government. It is helping to keep agriculture viable. Everyone wants open space and less development, so this is one tool to help accomplish that. It has worked in atleast 3 other states. They have seen tremendous benefits from the position. I appreciate your input and I hope you feel like you can always share your opinions with me. This is just an issue we will have to disagree on, because I refuse to change my position!

Matt
--------------------
My other comment is that my business gets 0 help from the state. Form an association and pay for it yourself. Why should the rest of us help you?

Why not a high tech tourism person?

Happy New Year!!

Walter M. Curt
-------------------
Walter-

Obviously I'm not going to change your mind, so anything I say probably won't make any difference. I can respect your opinion, but I don't think you grasp just how important agriculture is. You may not agree, but the general public wants farmers to succeed so we can maintain our open space. Just in Rock Co alone, farming generates over $400 million annually. It is huge business. When agriculture fades, it changes the entire area and brings a whole host of new problems. Just look at all the issues in NOVA.

All I am saying is there are opportunities out there for farms to boost revenues. The ag tourism director would help farmers develop opportunities and work with tourism bureaus to promote it. We already spend millions on tourism bureaus to promote Virginia. We do it because it nets a return....tourism is also big business. We need to get smarter about marketing agriculture as part of tourism. It will pay for itself, as the data in other states shows. It is not a hand out, wasteful spending, etc....it is an investment in our #1 industry.

This bill won't help me financially...I am not looking to benefit here Walter. I am a farmer who has discovered that there are benefits to ag tourism and I want to help other farmers around the state benefit as well. Again, we pay sales tax on all that extra revenue which goes to the state. It would only take about 25 farmers in the state with similar operations to pay for the position. There is huge potential here.

Like I said, I know I haven't changed your mind. I just want you to see my thoughts. I hope you have a good New Year. Matt

Wow. Maybe he should get ahead of the curve and switch parties now.

"Just look at all the issues in NOVA."

I guess this Delegate is unconcerned with them. Is the GOP planning to write of NOVA altogether then?

What a schmuck

[Loudoun Insider]

More eat your own from the McSweeney crowd. They would of course rather have absolute Democrats in office than any Republican that they believe to be less than pure.

Walter Curt and company are IDIOT's. Their favorite hobby is to knife other Republican's in the back who disagree with them. McSweeney,Curt and company will not be happy until the GOP is in the minority. It's either you agree with them 100% or you are their enemy. Lohr can now just join the doghouse with many others like Sen. Hanger and company.
If it can be proven that an Ag-Tourism can help struggling farmers out in the valley and other rural areas, why not? Unforuntely bloggers like NLS in NOVA forget the rest of the state exists and there is not the level of prosperity everywere like Fairfax. I think this Ag-tourism idea would be much better than pre-K because it would lend a helping hand to a struggling area outside of NOVA at a very reasonable price.

[Brandon Bell]

I hate to admit it that I agree with Mr. Curt and NLS but this time I do. I like Matt and I am sure he has great intentions but this is not the road we need to go down. The key to having effective government is not creating new spending programs or positions. Many members of the senate were attacked by a whole host of characters for wanting to actually pay for current state responsibilities (transporation fees and taxes). The overall key is spending--once you start them the are almost impossible to reign in.

I will post later on my blog about how the pre-K got started. Hint--it was in my first senate term.

Spending is this key--that's why you shouldn't create a spending program in order to create the illustion that you are getting a tax cut (car tax relief program)

[Not Dick Saslaw]

May I respectfully submit that spending in Virginia has doubled in the last 10 years -- 50% faster than inflation and population growth -- and are we really any better off? This is the best kept dirty secret in Richmond. Have teacher salaries doubled? Have class sizes been cut in half? Have commute times been cut in half? Is the Bay clean? Where is all of the money going? Ben, this issue is made for bloggers. Go for it.

[Spank That Donkey]

Senator Bell:
Why don't you just come right out and say that Gov. Jim Gilmore's Car Tax Cut, kept The General Assembly's hands off that $950M budget line item, (annually).

Just say the people are silly, we can't divert their hard earned taxes back to them.... no way, the GA needs that $$$ to spend on bigger, and bigger govt..

[Not Larry Sabato]

I want to know how much money is wasted every year on local government officials who are charged with keeping track of the value of everyone's car in a computer system, keeping track of whether that car is eligible for car tax relief, billing the taxpayer, reminding the deliquent taxpayers, entering all this new information, and all the other problems that come from collecting a tax. Then taking all that information and coming up with a reports so the state will pay their share. I think the car tax should be eliminated totally so we can save the money going into countless government employees to administer the tax. If someone would figure out the savings they might be surprised how close that gets us to eliminating the tax totally.

eliminate the car tax...

no new government programs..

am I reading these incorrectly or was NLS gone on vacation too long..

well NLS, I agree with you on these.

Happy, Happy New Year

oh,

and if anyone runs into that treehugging greenmiles (the self proclaimed environmental genius), tell him that you can not even go to Daytona to get away from the snow this week...lol

that global warming crowd is falling apart from the inside out. facts are starting to get in the way of their desired reality.

frosty g ...lol

[Not Larry Sabato]

Anon1139- You used to comment as "George", and I would appreciate it if you would do so again- it makes it easier to follow your comments in each thread and you leave some good ones.

[Rtwng Extrmst]

I agree we don't need this kind of thing, but to try to say we DO need universal pre-k? Now there's a waste of money for you. I can hear the big budget sucking sound already! What's next, universal pre-pre-k? Universal Nanny's????

[Not Larry Sabato]

rtwng, I'm not just throwing the idea out there without study. The fact is that kids at that age do far better in school with Pre-K. Given how outrageous colleges are getting, (VT which was a fall back school ten years ago is rejecting some students with 3.9's now in high school) it is important to get every child Pre-K and give them an equal chance of success through school- not just those that can afford it.

ok,
NLS, I will try to remember to use george, like before, or g when I was trying to be shorter.

sometimes I forget. but sometimes I get cold and use a frosty g. like in above post.

btw... welcome back

[Bubby]

I can just taste the irony of Matt Lohr being taken to the woodshed for wavering support of "limited government" by a guy that made a very large fortune feeding off the government teat.

A couple of thoughts.

First of all the car tax relief as it was created and executed is one of the greatest shell games masquerading as public policy in history. I have to give Marcus and Gilmore credit for one of the greatest spin jobs ever.

What Gilmore really did was reroute a budget surplus back to the localities without calling it that. The state reimburses localities $900 million or so each year. In return, the localities reduce your car tax bill. So, in essence, you pay the state tax money, which they then turn around and send to the localities. The localities take in the same amount of revenue, but you simply pay the bill to two different sources.

It would have been more honest for Gilmore to pass a state tax cut of some kind instead of setting up an inefficient Rube Goldberg system of running the money through the Tax Department. It also would have kept the likes of John Chichester from saying that the state could not afford the car tax program, since if the tax cut had happened at the state level, there would have been no budget line item to fund that we could no longer afford.

Second, when I finally thought the Democrats would never give a tax cut to the rich, they roll-out universal pre-K. Most poor and lower-middle class kids already qualify for and receive free pre-K. And they are the ones who need it. One of the key predictors of academic performance is parental verbal interaction with their young children, especially reading to them. Having books in the house also is a predictor. For better or worse, this is not something that most middle- and upper-income kids lack in their lives. If there are still some legitimately at-risk kids who come from families that cannot afford pre-K that are not currently covered, then they should be brought in. But the idea that some multi-millionaire family on River Road in Richmond should no longer have to pay for pre-K is nothing but a tax cut for the millionaire without any similar savings for families on the bottom rung. Kaine got smart finally and revised his plan to cut off the wealthiest families, but the concept that this should be a universal government service is not indicated by the research and is not warranted in terms of who would financially benefit.

Finally, to the ag tourism silliness. I never cease to be amazed at how nearly every spending idea can be couched in how it saves government money or the government can some how profit off the investment. Delegate Lohr is a good guy, but in his own e-mails he proves the point that the position is unnecessary. He wrote that he made $80K from ag tourism. That is great. Now what Matt needs to do is get around to Ruritan meetings and meet with County Extension workers so they can teach other farmers how to make money like he did. And it would benefit his own political ends. Which do you think gets him more votes? That he hired a state worker for ag tourism? Or that he took the time to show 30 farmers how to do exactly what he did? I am guessing the latter is a lot more persuasive than putting a line item in the budget for a job 100 miles to the west in Richmond.

Oh and as for Walter Curt? Here is a guy who made millions and millions of dollars, much of it from...dare I say it...government contracts. But I am certain that Walter would never have bid on a contract or provided any service to our government unless he was absolutely certain that every penny of waste and unnecessary overhead were wrung from the project. I am sure he took the time to make sure that every dime he was paid was clearly was for something absolutely essential to our nation and its people. I mean if there was government waste, it would never have been wasted on him. Couldn't be.

[Not Ben]

If there's one thing I learned in my past years of living in Harrisonburg, is that Walter Curt is the one man that both Republicans and Democrats universally dislike. That said, he does kind of have a point. I would want to see concrete numbers backing up Del. Lohr's contention that "[h]elping just a few dozen farmers in the state would pay for one position at $85,000."

[Frustrated GOP Activist]

In this case, Del. Lohr simply symbolizes the problem of modern Republican elected officials. They are not fiscal conservatives. Instead of social programs, they support special interest items like this, yet, they will emphasize their commitment to restrained spending on the stump.

What a bunch of jokers. You get the government you elect, and let's face it, Democrats and Republicans alike, on the whole, aren't real picky these days about who they are willing to slap a nomination on.

Statesmanship, principles and intellectual debate are dead, or at least comatose, and have been replaced by special interests and self preservation.

[novamiddleman]

"rtwng, I'm not just throwing the idea out there without study. The fact is that kids at that age do far better in school with Pre-K. Given how outrageous colleges are getting, (VT which was a fall back school ten years ago is rejecting some students with 3.9's now in high school) it is important to get every child Pre-K and give them an equal chance of success through school- not just those that can afford it."

Heres the bottom line. The public education system does an excellent job of education the 80% majority of the population. We will ignore the top 10% for this argument and focus on the bottom 10%.

Currently we have reduced and free lunch, title I and headstart all targeted towards the bottom 10%. I am waiting to see how adding pre-k is really going to improve the situation for those individuals at the bottom who aren't moving up with the programs already in place.

To me the only way to really fix this problem is to change the quality of the education environment adding another year to a system that already fails the target group it is supposed to help doesn't make alot of sense. For example, statistics have shown that by fifth grade all positive aspects of headstart are gone

In terms of actually fixing the problem how about increased teacher and principal salaries for high-risk school districts as a start.

The VT argument is more interesting but that can be fixed. Stop admitting out of state students, Also, there is a NoVa bias so my advice would be to move to a different school district so you can still be in the top 10% with a 3.9 instead of the insane Fairfax county environment where I know people that are in middle of their class rank with 3.9s

The problem with guys like Walter Curt isn't about what they believe, it is how they express themselves.

While Walter makes a valid point, one would think he could write in a slightly more respectful and civil tone.

Sometimes, I think Curt, Parker and some others are less concerned about their political philosophy and are more concerned about who they are going to use their money to beat up on for their own entertainment.

Why should Matt Lohr pay one seconds worth of attention when Curt approaches him like the ass he is, instead of making a call or sending an e-mail to Matt saying he has a concern and can he talk about it? Maybe if Curt. McSweeney, Parker, etc would have a normal, sane and civil dialogue with people instead of sending them snarky e-mails and trying to buy races for their minions, they might have a better outcome on issues that they care about.

One day some of the conservatives in the Curt wing of the GOP will wake up and realize that they might be able to accomplish more and get their point of view recognized if they would stop being so confrontational, rigid and just unpleasant to be around.

An by the way, I agree with Walter's point. I just think he might have gotten a little more of a receptive hearing from Matt if he did not come off like the hyper-aggressive, sneering douche that he always comes across as.

How sad to agree with someone's opinion but be all but unwilling to defend it because the person expressing the opinion is so odious.

[A Voter]

Novamiddleman,

"In terms of actually fixing the problem how about increased teacher and principal salaries for high-risk school districts as a start."

The problem is that this solution has been failing over the last 50 years. Do you think that around year 80 is when this tactic will begin reaping positive results?

The solution to this problem has been found, and it was successfully implemented by a Democrat Mayor in Milwaukee. The answer is School Vouchers. This program allows "at-risk" children to get the attention they need without being a further burden upon taxpayers. The system takes the money we already allot for students and redistributes the funds to take care of the individual needs of these children in a private school. The program is very successful to boot!

Washington Post article on Vouchers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58082-2004Sep28.html

That's right, Curt and some of his friends can be absolute jerks. They have absolutely NO personal skills at all. Organizations like Club for Growth, Curt, Parker, and even Jost like to "bomb throw" politically speaking. As a result, they have vurtually no influence on the leadership in the GA and even less now on the rank and file in the GA. You could argue this part of the conservative movement has cost us the state senate and his now attempting to lose the house of delegates for us.

Not having interacted with Walter Curt at all, I have no comment on him personally.

If the fight against big government republicans is to be successful within the republican party, the rhetoric needs to be tempered. The use of words in all caps, quotation marks for emphasis, and outright sarcasm neither persuade the intended recipient or any third party reading these letters.

The level of discourse needs to be raised, and the right way to reign in big government republicans is to point out their big spending ways through government transparency.

[Spank That Donkey]

anon 5:23:
Good Luck ever getting the General Assembly to pass a tax cut with any duration!

That was the brilliance of Jim Gillmore's no car tax.. Seriously, it is the longest lasting net tax cut to citizens in modern times....

the 140 Santa Claus in Richmond will never cut taxes, when they can hand out every one else's money to get re-elected....

Isn't that what this post is about?