Virginia Democrats point to Gov. Bush as an example
By Times Staff Writer
Published December 15, 2003
Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush hasn't often been praised for his eagerness to spend government funds. Especially not by Democrats.
But that's what's happening in Loudoun County, Va. Democrats in that outlying suburb of Washington are praising Bush for coming up with $369-million to coax Scripps Research Institute of LaJolla, Calif., to set up a branch office in Palm Beach County.
"Florida, and a Republican governor, are showing they are willing to invest in the future," County Supervisor Charles Harris said, according to the Washington Post.
Harris and other Loudoun County Democrats want to provide $6-million a year in tax breaks to lure the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to build a $500-million biomedical campus there.
But Republicans in the county object to subsidizing a research organization worth billions. Providing "for a $10-billion organization to get a free ride . . . doesn't seem fair to the average person who's having a difficult enough time as it is paying their taxes," Loudoun Treasurer H. Roger Zurn Jr. said, according to the Post.
