Last Tuesday night, May 19, 2026, I sat through a seven-hour Board of Supervisors meeting in Stafford County—the kind of marathon session that reveals exactly how local government really works. The main event was the approval of Virginia’s third Buc-ee’s mega travel center off I-95 at Exit 140. In a 5-2 vote, the board greenlit a project poised to become one of the county’s top taxpayers, bringing in an estimated $2 million annually.
That matters. Stafford just hiked property taxes—adding thousands to the burden on families already squeezed by higher grocery, gas, electric, and data center-driven costs. Commissioner of the Revenue Scott Mayausky noted Buc-ee’s could rank as the fourth-largest taxpayer in a county with a billion-dollar-plus budget. For residents footing the bill in one of Virginia’s fastest-growing counties, this is real relief.
Yet some supervisors treated it like an inconvenience.
Enter Aquia District Supervisor Maya Guy. During the meeting, she delivered remarks that should concern every Stafford resident:
“When you engage with your board of supervisors, whether you enjoy us or not, do not threaten us, or let me say this, do not threaten me because it makes me want to do the opposite of what you’re advocating for. Okay. I am unbought and I am unbossed. My vote will always be my own… I’m still going to do what I’m going to do.”
This isn’t principled independence. It’s tone-deaf elitism. Public officials serve at the pleasure of the voters. Constituent feedback—especially during elections or on major tax-alleviating projects—is not a “threat.” It’s democracy in our constitutional republic. Telling people you’ll reflexively oppose whatever they support because they dared to speak up reveals a troubling mindset: the voters are an annoyance, not the boss.
To boot, she voted against the project, joining Garrisonville Supervisor Dr. Pamela Yeung, who cast the second dissenting vote.
Who is Maya Guy? She came to the Board of Supervisors after years on the Stafford County School Board, where she served multiple terms as Vice Chairwoman. Elected in November 2025 to the Aquia District, she helped usher in the county’s first Black majority on the board and was selected as Vice Chairwoman. Her background is in education advocacy, building relationships, and bipartisan work on schools.
That experience should have prepared her to listen to the public. Instead, we got defiance. Stafford’s growth demands more commercial tax base—like our neighbors in Prince William and Fairfax—to ease the load on homeowners. Bucky’s offered exactly that. Rejecting such opportunities while raising taxes and then scolding constituents for pushing back is the opposite of leadership.
Local government isn’t about being “unbossed.” It’s about being accountable. The sausage-making we witnessed that night—hours of public comment, economic arguments, traffic concerns—shows why citizens show up. When elected officials dismiss that input and frame basic advocacy as personal attacks, they erode trust.
Stafford residents: Is this the representation you want? More taxes, more growth pressure without commercial balance, and supervisors who brag they’ll ignore you? Maya Guy’s comments weren’t a one-off; they signal an attitude problem.
We’ll keep covering these meetings because someone has to watch the sausage get made. But leaders who forget who they work for need to hear it loud and clear at the ballot box.
Stafford deserves supervisors who engage, not entrench.
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