Agriculture
After sponsoring a resolution to create a task force on farmland preservation a number of years ago, I have been involved legislatively in promoting programs to not only preserve farmland, but to preserve farming as a viable business throughout the commonwealth. I have played a role in the development of farmland transition and of agriculture vitality programs, establishment of the office of Farmland Preservation, purchase of development right programs, efforts to repeal the estate tax, creation of a cabinet level Secretary of Agriculture, as well as numerous initiatives aimed at promotion and protection of various areas of the agriculture industry.
Agriculture in it’s broadest sense including crop and livestock farming, forestry and the seafood industry have long played a vital role in not only Virginia’s economy, but in defining Virginia traditions and Virginia quality of life.
I have been honored to be the recipient of many awards from the Agribusiness industry and I remain committed to protect this vital part of Virginia’s past, present and future prosperity.
Education
I am a strong supporter of public education. Judge by my actions rather than my words. When I first ran for office a several years back, I was advised to always say that I supported education. Seemed kind of silly to me, but sometimes that is exactly how shallow politics is. Who in the world would go around saying that they were opposed to education? Well a few years later, and the dynamic is a little different. Candidates will tell you they support education, but you have to dig deeper if you want to move beyond the rhetoric.
There are now at play those that would seek to undermine public education. In that regard, be cautious of anti-tax and libertarian groups that are fond of calling our public schools; government schools. No question our public schools face challenges, but we need to deal with the problems rather than allowing the elitists to dictate standards and expectations for the average Virginia working family and their children.
I have been active in promoting academic excellence in Virginia’s schools. I sponsored legislation to create and then chaired for several years the Commission on Educational Accountability. Virginia’s Standards of Learning are working and if we continue to foster a cooperative relationship between the state and local governments here in Virginia, we will be able to continue to address the educational needs of the Commonwealth.
Virginia has a history of quality in education for k to 12 instruction and for our system of higher learning. This includes both public and private institutions.
A couple of influences outside of the classroom need to be corrected. First, we must as a society work on returning to the more stable influences that are the hallmark of a traditional family with both a mother and father present; and we need to insist that the federal government observe its constitutional limitations. That means, among other things, that the NCLB program, no matter how well intentioned, needs to go and the federal government bureaucracy needs to get its tentacles out of Virginia classrooms.
Environment
On issues concerning the environment and conservation I take back seat to no one and consider myself to be a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. I have a record of leadership and strong support for programs designed to preserve and protect open space, clean air and streams. I have been at the forefront of our efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, to expand and appropriately fund our state park system and to control urbanization in vital farming communities. I am proud to have helped in creating an incentive program for conservation easements that is serving as a model for the nation. I am a strong proponent of common sense conservation practices and I remain committed to efforts to protect and preserve Virginia’s natural resources, but at the same time, I am equally committed to preserving individual property rights and a positive climate for the businesses that create opportunities for Virginia’s working families.
Gun Rights
As a rural legislator, I have long been a leading advocate for the protection of 2nd Amendment rights.
From consistently opposing legislation intended to chip away at gun owner rights, to patroning key legislation to afford statewide protection of this constitutional right, I am regarded as a leader in the Senate on this issue.
I am proud of my A+ rating from the National Rifle Association and have a clear record of consistency on this issue over the years. I also am pleased to be a Republican co-chair of the Sportsman Caucus in the General Assembly.
Illegal Immigration
For centuries, immigrants who followed the rules to come to this country legally have been the foundation of the American culture. So when we tolerate illegal immigration, we insult those immigrants who played by the rules to come here. More importantly, the failure
to secure our borders jeopardizes our national security. With the federal government failing to do its duty to secure our borders, I believe Virginia must do more to crack down on illegal immigration and I am working hard to make that happen.
I wrote Virginia's landmark law requiring individuals to show proof of legal presence in order to receive any taxpayer-funded benefit (SB1143). No other law has done more to discourage illegal immigrants from coming to Virginia.
In addition, I sponsored legislation to bar illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition rates when attending Virginia's public colleges and universities (SB1204). I firmly believe that people who are in this country illegally should not receive an education at a Virginia public college or university, especially at the taxpayer-subsidized in-state rate.
I also firmly oppose the Supreme Court decision barring state and local governments from verifying that a public school student is here legally. I feel that Virginia should test the decision and seek to
have it overturned. I have attempted to place a provision in the state budget to require local school systems to determine the legal status of all children seeking to enroll.
Social Issues
Social issues, and in particular, matters of faith, are areas where I cannot compromise.
I believe that the dignity of life should be protected and honored from conception until natural death.
I cannot in good conscience support any proposition that allows someone to make a decision about whether someone else should live or die, no matter how early in the womb or late in life, which is based on some supposed issue of choice or personal convenience.
As a Christian, I believe that my life, though mine is pitted by errors and shortcomings, should be patterned after the example of Christ.
I try to guide my decisions based on biblical instruction including the 10 commandments and I believe strongly that our form of representative democracy cannot survive, at least in a manner that is efficient and affordable, unless the majority of our citizens are “Godly” people and are willing and capable of assuming their role as responsible citizens in a free society.
I have patroned and supported restrictions on abortions long before it became a dominant “Republican” theme. I continue to maintain that while the state, along with the faith based community should provide a safety net and support for those in dire circumstances, it remains the ultimate responsibility of the individual to provide for themselves and the welfare of their family.
Tax Reform
Tax reform and the whole issue of Virginia’s budget, including how we raise money from our citizens and how we decide the appropriate levels of taxation and expenditures at the state and local level is very contentious in today’s political environment.
One of the problems, it seems to me is that, political consultants rather than political leaders have taken control of the process and the way to get elected now is to promise reduced taxes and increased spending at the same time.
Obviously, this doesn’t work well but at the federal level you can continue to run deficits, borrow more money, rob from the social security trust fund, and hope that an expanding economy and shortchanging commitments to the states will catch you up someday.
At the state level the options are not as plentiful. You can increase debt, rob from various funds, work on efficiencies in providing services, but ultimately the budget must be balanced. Unfortunately that budget can be partially balanced by shortchanging the localities and forcing the local governments rather than state government to be the ones who must raise taxes or reduce services.
When the budget is balanced on the backs of local government budgets, the less affluent rural areas of the state and inner cities are generally the losers.
As a conservative Republican, I am a strong advocate for fiscal responsibility, but recognize that the term fiscal responsibility may or may not mean lowering taxes and it may or may not mean reducing spending, but it always should mean providing necessary services in as efficient a manner as is possible and within the constraints of a balanced budget.
I pledge to continue to work to insure that as Virginians we pay only those taxes that are necessary to support desired levels of core services. If we are to completely eliminate any existing unfair tax, such as the car tax or the estate tax, and I do support eliminating both of these taxes, then we need to insure that we have alternative resources to adequately support core services.
Transportation
We need to continue laying plans to address transportation policy in a statewide comprehensive manner. There is no question, based on current policy; that we do not have adequate revenue coming into the Transportation Trust Fund to pay for existing needs. Our planning needs to focus on innovations in mass transit and possible alternatives to traditional construction and maintenance programs.
We made some progress this year, and I would specifically commend the Speaker of the House for working diligently to insure that a revised funding plan was implemented.
I think we all realize, however, that while we made some progress, a solution will only come incrementally if we continue to engage on this issue. I could not support some of the new taxes and fees and I could not support the $3 billion bonding that was authorized.
I do not support the impact fees that were authorized, but some of the growth management tools may prove helpful. The biggest shortcoming of the funding package, in my opinion was that it relies totally on taxes and fees that are paid by just Virginians and do not extend to the out-of-state motorists and truckers that use our highways. We did authorize the limited imposition of tolls. The tolling authority may actually prove to be of more significance than the funding package, particularly for high cost projects in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
We recently created a Transportation Accountability Commission, to provide some additional oversight from the legislature on the implementation of transportation policy. I have been appointed to serve on this Commission.
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