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Former Stafford County Supervisor Susan Stimpson has signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in her bid for the Republican nomination in the 28th District of Virginia. The Pledge, sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, commits signers to oppose any and all efforts to increase taxes.

A copy of her Pledge to Virginia voters can be seen here. 

Americans for Tax Reform offers the Pledge to all candidates for state and federal office. Fourteen governors and over 1,000 state legislators have signed the Pledge. To date, Stimpson is the only candidate in the 28th district to sign the Pledge to Virginia taxpayers.

Serving as county supervisor from 2010 through 2013, Stimpson oversaw the elimination of the business, professional, and occupational licensing tax in Stafford County. She also cut property taxes, zeroed out a tax service district, eliminated impact fees and cut county staff back to 2004 levels.

“I want to congratulate Susan Stimpson for taking the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. Virginians deserve better than tax-and-spend policies that fall hard on the backs of hardworking families and small businesses. They want real solutions that create jobs, cut government spending, and incentive more economic growth,” said Grover Norquist, president of ATR.

“By signing the Pledge, Susan Stimpson had demonstrated that she understands the problems of hard-working taxpayers in Virginia.”

“Bill Howell is a serial tax hiker who refuses to take tax hikes off the table. He has teamed up with Democrats in Virginia on numerous occasions to raise taxes by billions of dollars, which is what politicians do instead of reforming government. While Republicans in North Carolina were enacting historic tax reform, Virginia was gaining prominence as the state experiencing the worst Recession recovery of any state in the region, precisely because of its dependence on the federal government and the legislature’s unwillingness to lessen the burden of government on Virginia taxpayers and small businesses.”

Susan Stimpson’s record stands in stark contrast to that of her opponent, the tax-and-spender Bill Howell. Howell sponsored and oversaw the passage of House Bill 2313 during the 2013 session, in which an additional burden of $1.23 billion per year was imposed on Virginia small businesses and families. From the sales tax to property taxes, hotel taxes, a car tax hike, and a massive gas tax hike that takes effect in 2015, Howell had his hands in all of it.  

In a self-righteous opinion editorial, the Washington Post dumfoundedly proclaimed that “Virginia’s Republican House speaker stands accused of insufficient conservatism.” They said, “Ms. Stimpson is a paragon of the party’s free-lunch crowd, which insists that, perhaps through magical thinking, Virginians can somehow avoid paying for the roads, rails and bridges they use.”

This pathetic oversimplification of Stimpson’s candidacy comes as little surprise those who worked to defeat Bill Howell’s transportation tax hike in 2013. In her role as county supervisor, Stimpson was forced to budget within the means of the money provided to the county. This is something Howell simply was unable to do when he was lobbied by the Chamber of Commerce, construction industry, and big spenders in Richmond.

When Bob McDonnell stabbed taxpayers in the backs in 2013, it was Speaker Bill Howell who twisted the knife. With their votes, residents of the 28th House district may return the favor next spring.