Political Quotes

“let me just put into perspective to my friends, I think we are all for property rights. My affairs in local government overturned one of the largest downzonings in northern Virginia history that took away property rights. It is the basis of Western civilization, the right to own and enjoy property. The problem with the bill as it is currently written is any part of a larger parcel that is affected with a 10-percent diminution in value then is in line to get the appraisals and go get paid by the Federal Government. Almost every regulation that comes down that affects a parcel of property is going to affect it 10-percent, because the variance in appraisals is more than 10-percent on any given day when you take it. That is the problem. That is what we are trying to remedy. Now, is this perfect? No. It is not perfect. But we have seen no resistance on the other side to try to tinker with this and change what right now is going to put every regulation, put property owners affected by every regulation in line, because it does not take much to get a 10-percent change. It just takes two appraisers. That has been my experience year after year. That is my concern. That is what we are trying to remedy. We are not trying to stop people from developing their property. The 20-percent threshold to me seems reasonable. We had 50 Republicans vote for 30- percent earlier on. I appreciate the efforts to try to bring this to a bipartisan conclusion.”