Some issues are so cut-and-dried, the resulting editorial (almost) writes itself.
As we reported on the front page of last week’s edition, Fairfax County police in a cost-cutting maneuver are attempting to fob crossing-guard responsibilities off to town police in Vienna and Herndon.
Herndon seems to have accepted the arrangement, but Vienna officials have raised a stink. And rightly so.
(The town’s retort brings to mind a phrase that British readers, and or those on this side of the pond with a knowledge of the BBC’s “Blackadder” series, will recognize: “Poo on you with knobs on.”)
As a reminder to the county leadership, residents of Fairfax County’s towns (Vienna, Herndon and the tinier Clifton) pay exactly the same tax rate into county-government coffers as do residents everywhere else in Fairfax’s 399 square miles. What they pay in taxes to their respective town governments is for extra services, not to take the place of county responsibilities.
Vienna residents are not second-class citizens, and it’s time for Fairfax leaders to pull back on this ill-advised proposal.
