This fall, Stafford voters will head to the polls to elect their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates. All 100 seats are on the ballot, including Stafford’s 23rd, 64th, and 65th districts. Potomac Local News continues to shine the Spotlight on our local elections, inviting all of the candidates from Districts 23, 64, and 65 to a virtual interview with the same five questions; their answers have been condensed into a series of articles.
The videos are available here. This is the fourth article in our five-part series.
Jim Tully (R, 23):
As a disabled vet, this is an important issue for me. It took me a very, very long time with the Veterans’ Administration to get my disability, to the point of getting an attorney involved. There are, especially in Stafford, a lot of disabled veterans who take advantage of the tax breaks, so, it is something that has to be managed on the state level and on the county level. It’s important to have these veterans and the knowledge that they possess in our localities, and the talent they bring to the workforce. There has to be some sort of compromise between taxes and benefits. I think working with veterans to figure out where that [compromise] is, is one of my goals. Seeing where we can meet in the middle is important to me. My wife is working on her disability, too, because she’s a Navy veteran. [Veterans] are important people in our workforce, and we need them.
Paul Milde (R, 64 – Incumbent):
Disabled Veterans Relief on the county level means if you’re 100% disabled, you don’t have to pay property taxes on your primary residence. It’s not means-tested, and that’s okay. We want vets to live in Stafford. We’ve done a great job attracting them. We have twice as many disabled vets per capita as any other locality.
What that means to the county’s budget is that right now, about $21 million is missing from the locally collected revenue, which means every person who’s not disabled is paying about $500 to almost $600 more on their tax bill. Again, I’m happy to do it, but the problem is, it’s growing. It’s going to get into the $50 million range in 15 or 20 years. It has to be dealt with. The state did this. The state offered a constitutional amendment that, of course, I voted for, but [it was] an unfunded mandate. The state absolutely needs to do something about this and give money to the counties.
The bill I think you’re talking about, one of the options, was a budget amendment that I offered that would change the way counties get funded. [Currently, the state] doesn’t allow counties to exempt all of the disabled veterans’ properties that don’t pay taxes. But they are able, for instance, to exempt churches that don’t pay taxes. It’s kind of a missed mistake. It wasn’t anticipated when they set this up and would have naturally resulted in more revenue being given to the counties that have more of these properties that don’t pay taxes.
I think we’re going to make the case over a few years that this has to be dealt with. Scott Mayauski, our Commissioner of the Revenue, has done a great job highlighting this, and showing other localities’ Commissioners what’s going on, and kind of raising the issue up so we can continue to give our veterans what they deserve, and also be able to afford it. Taxes have gone up in Stafford 38% in four years…and it’s going to get worse if we don’t do something about this veteran’s tax relief, by getting money from the state.
Cole (D, 65 – Incumbent):
I know we had some previous discussions about this with the members of the Board of Supervisors in Stafford, and also having some discussions with our Commissioner of Revenue. I would absolutely have to have a further discussion with our Commissioner of Revenue to figure out how we can move forward with this and figure out how this would specifically impact Stafford County as well, because we do want to figure out how we can move forward with this, and how we can protect our localities. I would have to have some further discussion to make sure that we can move forward and make sure that our localities specifically are impacted and protected. And before we move forward with the next session, I will want to have some further discussions to make sure that our locality is protected moving forward.
Steinway (R, 65):
As a disabled veteran myself. I think we need programs to help our disabled veterans, our military families, our military members. I think there’s a lot of waste in those programs. [When]I had to go to a clinic to get tested [for my disability], they didn’t even test me for what my disability. They took my blood pressure, and said this is all we need for your testing. It was a private companythat did this testing for me. I googled that company afterwards. This company makes millions of dollars…and the treatment that I got as a veteran -I wasn’t expecting somebody to roll out the red carpet, but I wanted them to examine me for what I was there for. They denied my claim…but just by me going to this clinic. they probably made thousands of dollars that day. I think it’s wrong.
In Stafford County, early voting will be held Monday through Friday at the Registrar’s Office at 124 Old Potomac Church Road, Ste. 205, from Friday, Sept. 19, through Friday, Nov. 1, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The only Saturday voting days will be Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 4, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The deadline to register for voting or request an absentee ballot is October 24.
👉 The last question in our series: Should Virginia loosen the Dillon Rule to give localities more flexibility?
