Anderson: Prince William needs more jobs here ‘millennial-friendly’ housing options

Ruth Anderson is dipping her toe into local politics for the first time and is running to be the next Occoquan District representative on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. 

It’s a seat currently held by Mike May, who is running for Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney. 

Anderson faces Earine Porta, the former mayor of Occoquan. She is the wife of Delegate Richard Anderson who has represented the 51st District in Prince William County at the House of Delegates in Richmond since 2010.

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PL: What are the top three major issues facing the district you wish to represent?

Anderson: My overall campaign theme is, “Bring Prince William Home.” This theme helps me express my vision for Prince William County.

Prince William County is a beautiful, historic place to live and play. But, there is one major problem: we don’t have enough living wage jobs in Prince William County (with recruitment and retention incentives) to allow our residents the option of working where they live. I believe our residents choose Prince William County because there are many residential options, because they can commute to the many high quality jobs in the Washington, D.C. metro area and because the taxes are lower than counties closer to the Washington, D.C. metro area.

However, once new residents find a home and get settled, they discover that commutes are long and frustrating, family-time is hard to come by, some schools are overcrowded with teachers looking elsewhere for work and that homeowners are carrying about 85% of the burden of necessary tax revenue to support core government services and desired programs. Therefore, to “Bring Prince William Home”, I will advocate for:

Bringing more businesses into Prince William County — small businesses and large businesses that can offer high quality, career-enhancing, living wage jobs. This will give Prince William County residents:

More options for working where they live and play

Property tax relief. Currently businesses provide about 14% of the tax revenue in Prince William County. It should be about 30% to balance tax revenues between homeowners and businesses; it is often the middle price-range homes (and therefore the middle-class families) that get hit the hardest when assessments go up (even though rates might stay the same or decrease a bit)

More tax revenue to support “state of the art” core government services such as public safety, education, roads, economic development, and social services…in essence, we will be bringing Prince William dollars home.

An option of less commute time on major thoroughfares crisscrossing Prince William County

More options for business-school partnerships for the secondary schools and colleges

PL: What concrete solutions do you propose to address these issues?

Anderson: In order to provide incentives for more commercial businesses to move into Prince William County the Board of County Supervisors needs to:

Continue to phase out the Business, Professions, Occupations License (BPOL) tax on businesses in Prince William County. Currently, businesses are assessed a license tax based on gross receipts for the prior year if gross receipts are over $250,000 (threshold raised to $300,000 recently).

Ensure our schools are “High Quality” for preparing students for college and other post-secondary

School job-training programs

Ensure our roads allow easy access to and from the business sites

Ensure there are “millennial-friendly” residential options

Ensure land development plans are a balanced mixture of commercial and residential space with appropriate proffers that ensure no negative impact on core government services

Analyze the County Planning/Permit Departments processes…are they working with the customers/development community to encourage commercial growth? What are the obstacles? What slows the processes? Let’s encourage the American Dream through “user-friendly” planning and permit processes in Prince William County.

Leverage available space (specifically in Occoquan District) as an “enterprise zone,” a hub for entrepreneurial millennials with ideas.

PL: From your perspective, what is the job description of the office you’re seeking?

Anderson: To represent the residents and businesses in the Occoquan District on the Board of County Supervisors, in all decisions about budget, strategic planning and all core government services. To actively lead communication programs and constituent services for those who live and work in the Occoquan District. To work with the other members of the Board of County Services to ensure a comprehensive vision and plans for Prince William County and ensure excellent fiscal management and accountability.

PL: What expertise will you bring to the office?

Anderson: Many years of leadership experience. Lots of energy and drive to help find solutions to the challenges and to advocate for the opportunities that are available to Prince William County.

I am anxious to excel at constituent services.

PL:  Do you feel that the average citizen is well-informed and understands the workings of local government? If not, how do you intend on improving communication with your constituency?

Anderson: Many citizens are informed and involved…PWC has an impressive number of civic organizations, volunteer organizations and a myriad of activist individuals and groups who keep themselves informed and propose solutions to challenges.

However, as I meet hundreds of residents all across the district, I find a substantial number of people who do not know which districts (county, state, federal) they reside in and who represents them. I show them maps and encourage them to get involved, based on their interests. When elected I will encourage involvement by all residents through speaking engagements, social media, newsletters, etc. Involvement leads to knowledge.

PL: Have you ever made any mistakes in your public life? How have they affected you?

Anderson: I have learned over many years of leading groups of people that you can never listen enough. I will constantly strive to ensure that I listen and seek out all sides of an issue.

PL: Our readers want leaders in local government. Why should they vote for you? 

Anderson: As the Occoquan District Supervisor, my first priority will be to protect the taxpayers. I believe that people make better choices with their hard-earned money than government does, and I’ll fight every day for the taxpayers of Prince William County. For too long, our Board of County Supervisors has raised taxes and increased spending. Now Prince William County has the highest tax rate in Northern Virginia, and we still have – crowded classrooms, clogged roads, stagnant wages, and bloated government. I will be a servant leader who respects the taxpayer.

Issues

Growing the Local Economy

Prince William County is a beautiful, historic place to live and play, but we can all agree that we don’t have enough living wage jobs. When citizens can choose to live and work in the same community, then they’ll spend less time on the road and more time with their families.

We need to re-think our Economic Development strategy in PWC. Our county needs to aggressively offer incentives to grow the economy and our economic development staff needs to focus on recruiting employers. I’m tired of seeing employers move to Fairfax and Stafford Counties instead of PWC.

Business owners are also frustrated with an increasing amount of “red tape” in the processes for starting or expanding businesses. It’s nearly impossible for a business to expand, let alone a new business to open. I’ll push to expose and erase these barriers to inspire job creation so that our local economy can flourish.

Getting Taxes Under Control

Prince William County has the highest tax rate in Northern Virginia and one of the highest tax rates in the entire state. Our neighboring counties have cut taxes and now their economies are growing. For the last four years, our Board of County Supervisors rejected proposals to hold the line on taxes. Instead they have voted to raise taxes. Now a working family can go to Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier or Stafford Counties and pay lower tax rates. In fact, just this year the PWC BOCS voted to raise property taxes another 20%. It’s time to do something about this.

Budget Accountability

Just recently some local politicians voted to spend YOUR MONEY to build the most expensive high school in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. The plans include pools and a theater with a powered orchestra lift…this is not the approach we need when schools have overcrowded classrooms. And, instead of giving the taxpayers some relief to improve our roads, a decision was approved to spend 11 million dollars to bury some power lines. The bottom line is that there is plenty of pork in the county budget, but there is not enough political courage to stand up and do what’s right. I want to cut wasteful spending and restore taxpayer accountability.

Education

Our teachers deserve a pay raise, our classrooms should meet student to teacher ratio standards and our parents deserve more educational options. Bottom line…our kids deserve the best education we can provide and our taxpayers deserve a transparent budget. The excuses need to end, and I’ll stand up to fight for real results.

Transportation

Just like you, I’ve spent my fair share of time stuck in traffic. We’ve spent a lot of money in recent years but the congestion seems to keep getting worse. I believe we need to spend our limited dollars on projects that will actually relieve traffic congestion.