Thread by @RVAdirt

Late night reading a Style Weekly article from 2006 about Paul Goldman. Anyone else read it and get a sense of déjà vu? 👀

Brace yourself for a thread of receipts. (1/25)
#RVA #RVAMayor #RVACouncil #RPSBoard 🧜🏻‍♀️

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past year, you have probably heard about the “School Modernization Referendum.” Here is a great article that summarized what it is. Basically what it does is tell #RVAMayor @LevarStoney to get a plan together (2/25)

richmond.com/news/local/edu…

to fully fund school infrastructure without raising taxes or publicly state it can’t be done. This was put forward by none other than Paul Goldman and carried primarily by the Richmond Crusade for Voters. The original plan was for Loupassi and Sturtevant to carry (3/25)

it through the General Assembly but since Loupassi lost, Bourne carried it on the House side. While the bill was running through all the school house rock steps to becoming law, #RVAMayor Stoney introduced a meals tax that #RVACouncil passed. (4/25)

This ruffled the feathers of many including Paul Goldman. Stoney cited the $9M in revenue generated from the meals tax that could generate $150M in bonds. Goldman responded with a series of posts where he claimed there were cuts in City Hall that made the tax (5/25)

unnecessary. Flashback to the 2006 Style Weekly article. How did Goldman propose the city get the money to build new schools? Oh, that’s right... school closures, cutting waste, and historic tax credits. Specifically the article cites $21M in savings. (6/25)

Back to 2018.... following post after post about efficiencies, on March 1st a Richmond Free Press article came out that cited the “Put Schools First” Committee plan that includes... $21M in cuts. When Goldman posted the article on his FB page, he (7/25)

specifically states historic tax credits would be used. So... back to déjà vu. This is literally the plan Goldman has been pushing for more than a decade. There is one big problem with his plan: it would require federal & state laws to change to be able to be implemented. (8/25)

Let’s take a brief look back at some highlights of Goodman’s efforts to date.

10/2009 Goldman and George Allen join forces to stump for the “School Modernization and Revitalization Tax Credit.”

(9/25)

nytimes.com/2009/10/13/opi…

10/2011 Tim Kaine writes about how he used a loophole in the tax credit prior use to rehab Maggie Walker. (10/25)

m.styleweekly.com/richmond/lesso…

10/2011 Kaine and Webb introduce legislation. Article states a similar bill failed the previous session. Cited broad bipartisan support from McDonnell, Cantor, Allen, Kaine, and Webb. (11/25)

richmond.com/archive/webb-w…

8/2013: Goldman and McDonnell meet. McDonnell endorsed tax credit plan. (12/25)

augustafreepress.com/mcdonnell-tax-…

10/2013: McDonnell releases a study of all facilities in state and points to historic tax credits as a solution. (13/25)

doe.virginia.gov/news/news_rele…

3/2014: Goldman says Mayor Jones should use tax credits for schools. (14/25)

wtvr.com/2014/03/19/gol…

2/2016: Norman Leahy and Goldman write an opinion piece about how VA schools should use the tax credit Trump uses. (15/25)

washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opin…

3/2017: Goldman, George Allen, and Mark Rozell write an opinion piece again citing Trump development using tax credit as a model to rehab schools. (16/25)

politico.com/agenda/story/2…

3/2017: Goldman writes an opinion piece with a timeline due to legislation that would move the tax credit backward. (17/25)

richmond.com/opinion/their-…

1/2018: Leahy writes an article that ties the historic tax credit opportunity to Stoney and RPS. (18/25)

washingtonpost.com/amphtml/blogs/…

This is certainly not an all encompassing list of every article and moment tied to Goldman’s Crusade for using historic tax credits on schools but it certainly gives a flavor of how long this has been going on and how it rehashes the same issue time and time again (19/25)

with no real progress or advancement despite having bipartisan support. Brace yourself for a heavy opinion: @LevarStoney is the latest casualty of Goldman’s push for historic tax credit reform. (20/25)

Here is my theory. Remember back when Joe Morrissey was running for #RVAMayor? He endorsed historic tax credits. Goldman is Morrissey’s law partner. Richmond Crusade for Voters endorsed Morrissey. I think the original plan for this round of historic tax credit reform was (21/25)

for it to be super kumbaya with Morrissey as #RVAMayor holding hands with Loupassi and Sturtevant and Kaine and Warner in a big bi-partisan love fest to try yet again to pass state/federal laws. Instead @LevarStoney won so Goldman dreamed up the referendum as (22/25)

a way to bypass Levar. Now instead of a positive note, the Republicans (see the Bill Stanley article below- remember Stanley was one of Morrissey’s attorney’s) are vilifying @LevarStoney to advance their own agenda. (23/25)

richmond.com/news/local/edu…

Personally, I think it is shameful for politicians to paint tax credit reform as immediate relief to aging school infrastructure when the reality is this has been a bipartisan effort for over a decade and the laws remain the same. (24/25)

Before I try to get some sleep, let me leave you with two gems from that 2006 Style Weekly article about Goldman. (25/25) #RVA #RVAMayor #RVACouncil #RPSBoard 🧜🏻‍♀️

@threadreaderapp Unroll please & thank you!