LeMunyon Unopposed at DRCC Debate

Del. (R) participated unopposed in a candidates forum sponsored by the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning.

His challenger in the 67th Delegate District, , said in an email to Oakton Patch he was unable to attend due to illness.

The political debate, which is open to the public, will also be televised via the “Local Government” folder on Cox On Demand channel 2635 and Cox’s YouTube channel starting Oct. 26.

The following is a full transcript from LeMunyon's time during the forum hosted at Cox Communications in Herndon. Raoul Dany Vargas, a former DRCC chairman, moderated the event.

OPENING REMARKS

Here's just a little bit about the 67th District if you're not familiar with it. It extended from Oakton down Route 50 through Chantilly. It includes Greenbriar out across the Loudoun County line and includes part of South Riding. I've been out knocking on doors again this year since early summer and one of the things I hear most often from people when I go door to door can be summed up with the phrase, "What a difference 100 miles makes," 100 miles being the difference between Washington and Richmond. In Washington we have a government that can't pass a budget, that is at the same awash in red ink. We have a national debt that is moving through 14 onto 15 trillion dollars. We have gridlock and an inability to solve the tough questions that face our country, and too often people who are too interested in winning the argument as opposed to solving the problem. In Richmond we have a balanced budget. We did that without raising taxes. We had to say no to a lot of people in the process. That's part of what leadership and responsibility is all about. The state still has a AAA bond rating. Even in balancing the budget and making the tough choices, we were able to set aside 4 billion dollars in new money for transportation. And it's a place where Republicans and Democrats can actually get along most of the time. In my first term, I was privileged to have 14 bills pass the House, mostly related to transportation and education issues. Those have been my themes. Every one of those have passed with Republican and Democratic supporters. Seven made it to the governor's desk for his signature. So, I look forward to getting into some of the issues in more detail. Thanks for having me.

Vargas: Your opponent is not with us this morning. Why don't you take a couple minutes to describe the differences between you and your opponent in ways that might matter to this audience and the folks watching us on television.

Well, it'd be presumptuous of me to speak for him or anyone else, but maybe just tell you a little bit about my approach in the first term and what I would see going forward. I try to be a legislator who is someone who is about ideas. On transportation I passed a bill that passed the House that would require every major transportation project to be objectively rated based on what it would do to reduce congestion. That bill passed the House, unfortunately not the Senate. That would certainly be my top priority if I'm returning for the 2011 session. On education, I introduced a bill along with some others to allow local school boards to have more flexibility in starting schools before Labor Day. We spend almost 50 million dollars a day in Virginia keeping schools open. Our mandatory testing requirements are usually finished late May or early June. So kids are going to school for two or three weeks. Teachers try their hardest to get a lot of them to learn but it's certainly a different environment then than it is at the beginning of the school year. We need to give local school boards that flexibility. And lastly an idea that I didn't think was particularly novel but turns out to be, is getting members of the House and Senate to put their voting records on the Internet so everyone can see that. I was the first member of the House or Senate to put my entire floor voting record on my website, it's there for all to see, and I was pleased that a resolution I introduced on a bipartisan basis to require that of all House members starting in the 2012 session passed and will take effect.

Vargas: During your opening remarks you talked about Virginia being able to balance its budget. As we know families and businesses here in Northern Virginia continue to struggle to make ends meet and in many cases going paycheck to paycheck. What are you going to do in the House of Delegates to make sure our taxes remain low and our families and our businesses are able to stay competitive long into the future.

Well a couple things. There are, as you say, you're exactly right, there are people who are facing some really challenging economic times. It's not just a general thing for our area or our state or our country, it's certainly an individual and family concern. With that said, we're doing a number of things right already that we need to keep doing. We are independently rated as the best state for business. There's been a number of initiatives in the past on a bipartisan basis: the R&D tax credit, the telework tax credit, the money for transportation so people can get to work easier. But one of the things that I'd like to suggest along the idea of new ideas is a revisit of our state's tax code, both individual and corporate. I think it's time that we do that. We haven't really taken a look at that in 40 years. Two provisions in particular, although there are a great many that would need examination are the BPOL tax and the equipment and machinery tax. Now these are taxes that are important to local governments. You need to make sure they have the funds they need to do their job. But in my view they are job killers. The companies that I started in Northern Virginia and ran and continue to operate pay the BPOL tax whether they're profitable or not. You pay the equipment and machinery tax even if you're a pre-revenue start-up. I had to do that 10 years ago when I was starting a semiconductor business. That's a job killer. I remember writing those checks for 20, 30 thousand dollars instead of maybe hiring someone who might be able to move the company forward. So those would be priorities for me in the 2012 session.

Vargas: As a Republican you are speaking to a business audience. You are also going to be asked in some other forums about your stance on social issues. Where do the two fit in your mind in terms of the races that are being fought here in Northern Virginia. Practical, pragmatic business issues versus social issues.

Again I could just go back to my experience of knocking on doors. It's kind of the best way to know what's on people's minds. Social issues, frankly, rarely come up. There are certainly issues related to firearms, abortion, sexual orientation, but probably 95 percent of the people I talk to going door-to-door ask the questions you've already asked like, "What about jobs and the economy? What are we going to do to get the roads going?" People say, "I live in Northern Virginia because of the great schools." It's one of the reasons my wife and I decided to stay here 28 years ago. That's what people want to talk about and that's the focus of the initiatives that I've put forward and I expect to put forward next year.

CLOSING REMARKS

Well really just to summarize some of the points I have made. When I ran two years ago, I told people I was about transportation, education and open government. More transparency, more accountability, getting more for less just like families in Northern Virginia need to be able to do more with less in a challenging economic period. I think my record shows I've lived up to those priorities and they will continue to be my priorities in the 2012 session. In addition to that bill related to prioritizing transportation projects, I think in 2012 we need to test the new clout that Northern Virginia will have in the General Assembly with more seats in the House and Senate on issues like the budget, and particularly transportation funding. I think we need to reform the Commonwealth Transportation Board to give us the fair representation we deserve that we don't have. And again along the idea of new ideas for transportation, maybe this isn't new it's just new that we haven't done it before, is to come up with a better way to synchronize development with transportation plans. In Virginia, the development decisions usually are made at the local level, transportation decisions at the state level, and they often don't connect. On education, ensuring that we get our fair share for k through 12, the funding for Local Composite Index needs to be protected, and making sure that we have more opportunities for our high school graduates to attend our great public universities and colleges in Virginia. If those are the priorities that you share and you vote in the 67th District, I would respectfully ask for your vote on November 8th.