Taxes

We need someone that will truly work to reduce taxes and expenditures and hold our government accountable. It is time to quit listening to politicians who claim to care about our us, our elderly, differently abled, financially disadvantaged, and military populations but do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when it comes to taxing our neighbors out of our state.

Introduce a Taxpayers Bill of Rights – Similar to Colorado’s TABOR this legislation would limit the amount of revenue local and state governments can collect and spend. It would require voter approval for any new taxes, tax rate increases, or changes that increase tax revenue. If revenue exceeds the limit (based on inflation and population growth), the excess would be required to be refunded to taxpayers. One example of why we need this is the recently passed meals tax here in Fairfax County. In 2020 our Existing State Legislature passed a law letting local county boards enact taxes on meals. Prior to 2020 Fairfax County Voters had rejected a meals tax at the ballot multiple times and this move was done to take control from the voters. While this would apply to all new taxes or increases the Fairfax County meals tax is but one example of local and state governments treating our wallets and tax dollars as an open bank. This would force them instead invest the time and exercise fiduciary responsibility to cut waste out of the budgets. Being as they haven’t, it’s time we as taxpayers say no more and take control of mismanaged budgets at the state and local level.

Eliminate Virginia’s Car Tax - This comes up every election cycle and like far too many things often ends up nothing more than talk. Once in office it’s the same excuses “This is a nonstarter, we can’t get support, etc. etc.”. It’s time we put it on the table, get everyone on record, and whether committees or floor hold every politician accountable once and for all.

Cut Expenditures and Return the Budget Surplus - Virginia has seen surpluses of Billions of Dollars (YES BILLIONS) over the last several years and Legislative Sessions. Yet our legislature rather than take a look at cutting our massive spending budget and lowering our taxes, instead uses the majority of it for pet projects and to increase expenditures and the burden on our people. At a time when fellow Virginians are struggling and can use every dollar our state and local governments demand more and more of our income. When will we finally say no more? Let’s make a stand and end this cycle come November.

Bracket Creep – Virginia’s income tax brackets have not been changed since the last century! Currently individuals earning under 20K a year are taxed at the highest rate along with individuals earning 150K or more. We are for all intents a flat tax state……. poor or wealthy.

End the Taxation of Military Pensions – Virginia is one of only seven states that fully tax military pensions. 33 states do not tax military retirement benefits at all. The others all offer varying levels of discounts while Virginia taxes in full. It’s time to review how we tax and take care of our First Responders and Military members and their families. Our government should put an emphasis on serving those who serve us.

It is time to send someone to Richmond who won't pretend to care about our cost of living, our youth, our elderly, our disadvantaged, and our veterans but will take clear and decisive action to make it affordable for all Virginians to live in our communities and state. It is disgraceful the way these issues have been treated over the years while we listen to empty talk and flowery speeches. In addition to fighting for us, this is where we need someone to call out and hold the entire legislature accountable, and report back to the voters. That accountability is why I’m asking for your Vote.

Education/Parental Rights

Parental rights as relates to education has become an extremely controversial topic the last several years, especially here in Northern Virginia. At the simplest level if we remove the political rhetoric often thrown out from both parties it comes down to a Parent’s right to be informed and have a say in their children’s education. Our local school boards have become Political Activist agencies who feel they know what is best for our children with a one size fits all approach that disregards our varying cultural, religious, and family practices. Sadly, instead of focusing on education they have taken on a savior mentality believing they know better than parents what is best for our children. We need to change this course and turn the parenting duties back to parents so our educators can get back to focusing on things like Math, Science, and History.

Parental Notification/Communication- We need to require our schools to keep parents informed of interactions with their children. We as parents give an assumed amount of trust and privilege to our schools by enrolling out children, this referred to as informed consent. That said there is no reason we can’t require that school counselors and administrators notify us of any meetings with our children outside of classroom instruction and hall monitoring to keep us informed. While the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) covers basic principles we need to mandate better communication to our parents on matters outside of academic performance.

School District and Boundary Changes - In many cases (especially in Northern Virginia) parents often make hard decisions based on local school districts. From choosing a home, mortgage, debt, etc. to often sacrificing personal and professional opportunities just to provide their children with educational opportunities. Changing of school districts and boundaries have a major impact on those investments and too often are done by school boards with little to no true regard for individuals impacted. Much like taxes we need to put this control back into the individual’s control and mandate that any boundary adjustments must be put on the ballot for taxpayer approval before being implemented.

Create Educational Competition- As Libertarians we believe that competition creates both innovation and often leads to excellence. A lot of the issues were facing with parental rights and the current educational system stems from a lack of competition or alternatives for parents. Two ways to incentivize competition are through tax rebates and more choices:

1 - Every student removed from our public school system takes a burden off the taxpayer and the school’s budget. We need to incentivize that by providing a rebate to parents who choose to enroll their children in alternative and private schools.

2 - A search of charter schools in Virginia will show that we have only 9 Charter Schools. In comparison our neighbors in Maryland have 49 and DC has 135 charter schools. The reason for the disparity is simple. In Virginia our local school boards get to approve charter schools in a discretionary manner.

Do any of us expect our local school board in Northern Virginia is going to approve competition against themselves? We need to take this decision from local school boards and set specific state standards and guidelines for an approval process.

Defend Our Guard

Defend the Guard legislation would prohibit our National Guard units from being deployed into active combat without a formal declaration of war by Congress, as provided by the U.S. Constitution. This would allow for state/national needs in addition to international humanitarian deployments for natural disasters and emergencies but prevent deploying our Guard into active combat zones without a Congressional Declaration of War. Once again, the federal government is providing material aid and support to belligerent nations and those in active wars while the military industrial complex gets wealthy. Thats why it is more important than ever that we defend our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters who volunteered for the Guard to specifically protect Virginia and our communities from being deployed into harm’s way in current and future undeclared wars.

There is a time and place for our Guard to be in combat, my own grandfather landed in Normandy with the Blue & Grey of the 29th -the Virginia and Maryland boys. I myself served as a paratrooper in two separate conflicts. If our fellow Virginians wish to serve in combat, they have the regular forces in which they can enlist. But when they enlist in our Guard, they are volunteering to serve and defend our neighbors, our families, and our communities in addition to defending against attacks on our Nation. They are not enlisting to be world police that the current Two-Party Plutocracy that rules us lends out to the highest bidder- it needs to stop once and for all.

Business

We saw the damage allowing Richmond unfettered power can cause during the Pandemic. We watched as businesses were closed and employees found themselves out of work facing their families and children with little or no notice. We watched as what was a serious health crisis got used long term for political purposes and positioning while our people suffered both the loss of family and the loss of their employment and self-dependence.

Our Politicians many of whom are still in office stood still as the state enacted this overreach even to the extent of an overnight curfew on us all over a virus and accepted it??? We need a Representative who will fight for our rights, our businesses, and our workers at all times vs. defaulting to national party politics and positions as dictated to them. While this was never clearer than during the pandemic it matters to this day as legislation or resistance to it is critical to our business and personal success.

Term Limits & Ballot Access

One of the biggest challenges facing our communities today is tribal politics being pushed by our current two party system. The current system works to divide us as neighbors, as families, and as friends by pushing this “either you are with us or against us” nonsense.

The time of common discourse amongst neighbors is sadly becoming a thing of the past. Meanwhile Politicians remain in the same office for multiple terms and decades, often accomplishing little for us and focusing on what their party wants. The voters don’t truly get a say in the process – let's be honest, realistically your options are to pick between the two candidates the parties will allow you to. That’s just a choice often between the lesser of two evils as the saying goes. In many instances in state offices, you are not even given a choice. Outside of pretending to care in every other election cycle during the governor’s races you either get to vote for a Red or Blue rubber stamp in uncontested races that will simply push their national party interests over the needs of their constituents.

We absolutely need Representatives in Richmond who will call for reasonable term limits to end these districts that are handed down like a grant to royalty after decades long runs. One who will also work to ensure ease of ballot access for all third parties and independent candidates so that we can truly have a choice.

Dave Crance on the Issues

Libertarian Democracy

One of the few things all libertarians agree on is that in a perfect world there would be no need for Government at all, but as such a world doesn’t exist, Government should remain as limited and localized as possible belonging to the people. At all times Individual Liberties and Freedoms should be protected within a government that answers to its people, not special interest, corporations, and national political parties. This was the America that our founders envisioned, and that those same national corporate and political entities have stripped away from us.

More urgently than ever before we need a Representative in Richmond who will protect our local institutions and rights above all else. We need someone in Richmond who will keep the executive office, the state legislature, and local government out of our Homes, out of our Healthcare Decisions, and most importantly out of our Wallets at all times.