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.