Opinion - Page 8 of 39 - Potomac Local News

Repeal meals tax, restaurant owner asks; ‘We lost over 20% of our customers, cut payroll, got rent relief’

Published March 9, 2023 at 11:00AM | Updated March 9, 2023 at 3:02PM

As you consider the County’s budget, I request that you repeal the 4% Meals Tax on restaurant food. The following are my reasons.

The tax is unfair and unhealthy. Restaurants prepare fresh food daily; grocery stores sell the same food in frozen, refrigerated, and dehydrated forms. Restaurants like mine start with unadulterated raw ingredients; grocery foods, by necessity, contain chemical preservatives and stabilizers. Cooks who live and pay taxes in the County prepare restaurant food; factory workers in faraway locations manufacture grocery food.

Opinion: Prince William Sups running on fumes

By Letters to the Editor

Published March 2, 2023 at 12:00PM | Updated March 24, 2023 at 9:19AM

The James McCoart Building at the Prince William County Government Center. [Photo by Uriah Kiser/Potomac Local News]

On September 22, 2022 that Sustainability Commission unanimously passed resolution #22-007 which recommended several “fast-track” measures to put the county on a trajectory to achieve those goals.

Among their recommendations were: “Prohibit the building of new backup power generation using diesel and/or petroleum in favor of less carbon-intensive generation and encourage the conversion of existing diesel and/or petroleum backup systems to less carbon-intensive generation.”

Opinion: The top 10 BOCS priorities for Prince William

By Potomac Local News

Published February 27, 2023 at 12:00PM | Updated March 24, 2023 at 9:19AM

Since this Board of County Supervisors took office in January, 2020, Ann Wheeler has marshaled her fellow Democrats on a determined path to open Prince William County to the data center industry with little due diligence to their impacts on the environment or the residents.

Ask yourself, is this why you chose to live in Prince William County?

Opinion: Horner is not the answer to Prince William County planning woes

By Letters to the Editor

Published February 25, 2023 at 10:00AM | Updated March 24, 2023 at 9:19AM

While I applaud your latest opinion piece about data centers, there was one aspect of it that I take issue with:

“We hear former Deputy County Executive Rebecca Horner has been sent back to the county planning department after several recent departures we told you about last week. She’s familiar with the planning office — she ran the place until she was promoted to deputy county executive in 2020. She may right the ship and create a plan because she’s one of the few people still around with institutional knowledge.”

Opinion: Weir’s landslide election a referendum on data centers, but taxpayers still need a break

By Uriah Kiser

Published February 24, 2023 at 2:04PM

Weir

Call it a canary in the coal mine. Call it the result of years of residents pleading for their local leaders to hear them. Call it a referendum on data centers.

Whatever you call it, the landslide election of Bob Weir to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors with more than 60% of the vote should serve as a wake-up call to those in power in not only Prince William County but those who see data centers as a cash cow for their respective jurisdictions.

Opinion: Unions inject cash into Democrat Sumers campaign supporting data centers

By Letters to the Editor

Published February 15, 2023 at 12:00PM | Updated March 24, 2023 at 9:19AM

Kerensa Sumers and Bob Weir met for a candidate forum at Battlefield High School near Haymarket, sponsored by the Prince William Committee of 100 and the League of Women Voters. [Photo: Mike Beaty]

Data from the Virginia Public Access Project (Elections: Prince William County Prince William County Supervisor – Gainesville (vpap.org) shows Democrat Kerensa Sumers raised $46,583, while Republican Bob Weir raised $20,005.

Sumers largest donors ($1,000 or more) included:

Opinion: Defer the vote on Devlin Technology Park; the BOCS is not whole

By Letters to the Editor

Published January 27, 2023 at 10:26AM | Updated January 27, 2023 at 11:13AM

If it’s a day that ends in “Y”, then there’s a data center debate going on somewhere in Prince William County.

While much attention has been given to the controversial Digital Gateway, another large data center development is pending, impacting several neighborhoods, schools, and businesses.

Opinion: Jefferson is a tonic for what ails Prince William Democrats

By Letters to the Editor

Published January 12, 2023 at 5:22PM | Updated January 25, 2023 at 12:14PM

Jefferson

The Democratic Party charter states: “What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people – individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens.

Bound by the U.S. Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people.”

Opinion: It’s time to put an end to the east vs. west rhetoric in Prince William County

By Letters to the Editor

Published December 14, 2022 at 2:02PM | Updated August 13, 2024 at 6:28PM

Over the past 18 months, I have repeatedly heard the statement to the effect that it is the western end of the county’s turn to feel the pains of development. This statement ignores the fact that over the last two decades, the west end of Prince William has in fact experienced explosive growth.

Anyone who knows Prince William County and has lived in this county for the last two decades will agree that many areas in western Prince William have been completely transformed from what they once were.

Opinion: Manassas School Board incumbents had to defend their policies for the first time

By Letters to the Editor

Published November 13, 2022 at 8:00AM

Kent

Friends and neighbors, I sent this message a bit ago to my email list and thought I’d share it with you.

Back in May, I did one of those things your much younger self would look at and say, “Are you crazy?” After witnessing firsthand during the pandemic how the decisions of local government impact our everyday lives – I decided to run for office in Manassas.