Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Writer: Garrett misrepresents facts
On several occasions, Scott Garrett has intentionally misrepresented Shannon Valentine’s positions. He has said that, in response to the 2009 Virginia FREE questionnaire, she supported increasing gasoline taxes, creating a new sales tax on gasoline, creating a new tax on auto repair services and establishing new toll roads on existing interstate and primary highways, possibly including U.S. 460 and U.S. 29. Not only has she not supported these taxes, but Clayton Roberts, president of Virginia FREE, confirms she has not.

Toward helping candidate Garrett get his facts straight, we are forwarding this quote from Clayton Roberts, president of Virginia FREE:

“The Virginia FREE candidate questionnaire, and Delegate Valentine’s positions on that questionnaire, apparently are being misrepresented by her opponent. The questionnaire does not ask candidates whether they would support tax increases for transportation. To assert otherwise is deliberately misleading. The questionnaire seeks to establish a starting point for continuing the dialog with state leaders on issues that are important to business and job creation in Virginia. It is unfortunate that Delegate Valentine’s opponent did not even bother to answer the questionnaire.” 

We cannot condemn a candidate for not understanding his opponent’s positions, but to misrepresent them, intentionally and repeatedly, is unacceptable. We have learned we can always believe Shannon Valentine. We have also learned we must seriously question her opponent when he tells us what she has done. This is not the only reason I will vote for Shannon Valentine, but it is reason enough.
KAY GANTT
Lynchburg

For Valentine
After reading Steve Troxel’s Oct. 12 letter in support of Scott Garrett, I am amazed that we were both at the same meeting.

What I got from Garrett were generalities and misrepresentations of the facts, and what I got from Del. Shannon Valentine was a clear grasp of the situations that face Central Virginians, and a committment to continue her excellent record of representing us in these difficult times.

As for the Virginia FREE questionaire, the point to be made at the end of the day is that the Highway Trust Fund has been raided for many years to replace budget shortfalls to the tune of more than a billion dollars. At some point we have to either address this by dedicating a revenue source to the maintenance of our states’ highways that cannot be raided, or we will have our highways handed back to the localities where we will see our property taxes raised exponentially to pay for them. At some point, we have to actually deal with situations, rather than handing them off to the next election cycle.

Valentine demonstrated in great detail work she is involved with on the job creation, education and tranportation fronts that are serving us well and will continue to do so.

Her blunt admonition that nobody in his right mind would increase anyone’s taxes in this economic environment, and the proof of the tax cuts she has sponsored or supported in her record of representing us speaks for itself.

We now need leadership which garners a thorough knowledge and honest assessment of the challenges which face us, and then meet them with the intelligence and innovation that she has already demonstrated in only her first two years.

I invite every citizen to look to the future in November and send the representative best suited to meet it on our behalf: Del. Shannon Valentine.
MICHAEL A. WHORLEY
Lynchburg