Higgins has delivered for Loudoun
Dear Editor:
This fall, I will be voting for Geary Higgins for Delegate in House District 30.
He has delivered for Loudoun County and, having served on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and the Loudoun County School Board, he knows our communities. The Academies of Loudoun was created, and he persuaded his colleagues to bring lacrosse to Loudoun County, while he was on the School Board.
He chaired the Personnel Services Committee, and always voted for school budget and teacher pay increases. He led the charge in 2018 to keep the School Board from closing Hamilton, Waterford, and Lincoln Elementary schools. He believes in parents’ rights, that parents matter, and that our schools should teach reading, writing, math, science, and history.
As Supervisor, he always voted to increase the school budget, voting three times to fully fund the LCPS budget request, which has only happened three times in the last 24 years since the creation of an elected School Board.
He always voted for the School Resource Officer funding requested by LCPS or LCSO. During his eight years on the Board of Supervisors, the commercial tax base grew, funding for transportation and schools increased, revenues were raised, and taxes were lowered.
He was also a problem-solver for numerous issues in Raspberry Falls, Selma Estates, Waterford, Lincoln, Purcellville, Neersville, Lucketts and Lovettsville.
He led the charge for the preservation of western Loudoun by supporting assistance to implement conservation easements and by getting funding for the Sweet Run State Park in Neersville (the only state park in NOVA).
He pushed VDOT to preserve the John Lewis Memorial Bridge, supported the Hillsboro traffic calming, secured county funding for the Waterford Mill rehab, expanded the Balls Bluff Battlefield, solved the 80-year road and alley problems in Waterford, to name a few. He put Bluemont on the Historic Registry, and his family donated the E. E. Lake store to the county.
In contrast, his opponent is making vague promises, saying “his candidacy represents a desire to move away from inflammatory, partisan politics.” Why did Rob Banse erase from his website all of his endorsements from far-left organizations like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who support Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05), and Rep. Rashida Talib (MI-13)? This Super Pac wants to eliminate your organic-fuel vehicles, wood stoves, natural gas ovens, and propane grills.
Geary Higgins has accomplished a great deal for western Loudoun and northwestern Virginia. He doesn’t have to make vague promises because his record of service is clear. I hope you will join me in voting for Geary Higgins this fall.
RJ Hall
Leesburg
Comments
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The letter grossly overstates Higgins’s “accomplishments”–as does Higgins himself: when citizens spend months and years to solve a problem, put together plans, and do all the work–he claims credit for it all. He didn’t lead the charge on the small schools issue; parents did–he just ran in front of the parade at the end and claimed to lead it. Also, the John Lewis Bridge effort was an intense citizen effort, and he did not even mention that at the bridge’s reopening. Hillsboro traffic calming was all the work of the Mayor of Hillsboro and council, and CTB members. He certainly DID help Raspberry Falls residents, who demanded retention of the signal at White’s Ferry Road and Route 15 instead of a safer, more efficient roundabout, which 78% of residents preferred. But he was rewarded for that special favor with a $30K SuperPAC donation at the home of one of the Raspberry Falls stakeholder group reps. And he did come through for the road lobby and development industry in achieving the Route 15 highway expansion–a half-billion-dollar (mostly unfunded) project that includes a $55M bypass through 400 acres of farmland owned by out of area land speculators. He fought hard to kill the low-cost traffic calming plan that would solve the backups and issues with accident response at a small fraction of the cost, and removed federal funding so that the project could avoid having the environmental and historic impacts reviewed along this National Scenic Byway, which would have been another way to avoid destroying homes, barns, farmers markets, and a historic church along the corridor (the development industry hates historic assets, when they prevent covering farmland with houses). And Higgins IS a purveyor of inflammatory politics: a supporter of the insurrection and a champion of outlawing abortion. His stance is to support the rights of parents who agree with him on certain issues, and is against the rights of parents (and their children) who do not.