23rd District candidates Garrett and Valentine spar on taxes, transportation, tuition

Del. Shannon Valentine and Republican Scott Garrett debated taxes, how to create jobs, and ways to solve transportation needs Monday night before nearly 200 people at a League of Women Voters forum.

But the hottest exchanges came when they talked about Democrat Valentine’s voting record in the General Assembly, and about brochures Garrett has mailed to voters.

“This is a complete fabrication,” Valentine said, holding up a mailer that said “Shannon Valentine has a secret” plan to raise taxes on gas and retail sales and put tolls on local roads.

Garrett said in opening remarks that Valentine’s answers on a business group’s questionnaire prove she and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds both plan to raise $1 billion in revenue for transportation.

“She supports raising the gas tax, raising sales taxes and even imposing a new tax when your car breaks down,” Garrett said.

The forum topics also covered education, reapportionment of legislative districts and restoring felons’ voting rights. Those issues didn’t expose any major differences between Valentine and Garrett.

The key issue of the campaign is economics, Garrett told the audience. “This election will be about our economy” and taxes, he said.

Tax cuts for small business will lead them to hire more people and stimulate the economy, Garrett said. Higher taxes would have the opposite effect, he said.

Valentine told the crowd, “Last fall, in 2008, the world entered an economic precipice,” she said. “I said at the time that somebody would be out of his mind to raise a tax.

“I said it then, I believe it now, and that is my commitment to you,” she said.

Valentine used a flip chart to list economic events that have occurred involving Central Virginia in the four years she has been a delegate.

They included a new Amtrak passenger train serving Lynchburg, a $25 million slice of federal stimulus money to upgrade the city’s sewer system, health care that helps senior citizens stay in their homes, and aid to families with autistic children.

The debate’s most pointed comments came near its end, when each candidate got to ask the other one a question.

Garrett said he didn’t think illegal aliens ever should be admitted to Virginia’s public colleges, and asked Valentine why she voted for bills that grant them admission but require they pay higher out-of-state tuition.

Valentine said she checked with administrators in Lynchburg-area colleges. Acknowledging that all of them are private schools, she relied on their guidance, she said.

“Every one of my schools said they could not support legislation that would deny an education to any child,” Valentine said. She explained that almost all the children who would be affected by the bill came to the United States with their parents and have been educated in the state’s public schools.

Garrett said those students are taking slots that should go to Virginia students.

Then it was Valentine’s turn to question Garrett.

“I’m going to read you an e-mail,” she said she had received. “We are very appreciative of all your efforts on the part of Lynchburg as well and the Commonwealth, and we know you will continue to work hard to shape our future.

“Keep to the high road as you are doing, my friend. All the best, Scott.”

Then she asked Garrett, “What do you believe keeping to the high road is?”

Garrett responded that he’d written the e-mail soon after Valentine’s husband, cardiologist Dr. Michael Valentine, had saved his life after Garrett had a heart attack in 2004.

“What I was disappointed with, Shannon, is how you then conducted yourself in Richmond.” Garrett accused Valentine of reversing her campaign promise and opposing Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

“My concern, and the only reason I stand here today, is that I don’t think you share the values that I believe are represented in this district,” Garrett said.

Valentine replied: “The only problem is, this e-mail was written two years later,” after the vote.