Challenger In Va. Race Assails Foe's Tax Stand

Christopher G. Oprison, who is challenging a veteran GOP delegate for his House seat in Loudoun County, says he knows exactly what young couples are looking for in their quickly growing community. It begins with getting government "out of their pocketbook and off of their backs."

"The younger families here, with young children, they want a more conservative leadership," said Oprison, 34, a Washington lawyer who moved to the county in 2003. "It's clear that my opponent isn't so in touch with those values."

His opponent, six-term Del. Joe T. May, was among the 17 Republican delegates who defied the party leadership and helped push through the state tax increases last year. Six of the delegates are being challenged in primaries on Tuesday, based largely on their tax stand.

Oprison has proposed a tax relief amendment to the Virginia Constitution. It would return home assessments to the levels they were at two years before the amendment passed, then cap their assessment increases at 2 percent a year.

The plan also would prohibit local governments from raising the tax rate above $1 per $100 of assessed value.

"Our tax plan . . . helps everybody -- seniors, young families -- but it really helps those who are moving in here, who are buying homes," said Oprison, who lives in one of the thousands of new single-family homes that have been built recently in Washington's outer suburbs.

In the 2004 presidential election, 97 of America's 100 fastest-growing counties voted Republican, according to a study by the Los Angeles Times. Virginia has several such communities: Loudoun, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties are ranked in the top 25, according to federal statistics, and all voted overwhelmingly Republican in November.

Several of the GOP delegates who face anti-tax challengers represent these fast-growing areas.

The delegates and the challengers tend to have different visions of what the new residents want.

The challengers say that many of the new voters are looking for a more conservative brand of politician, one who takes a harder stand on taxes and social issues. Oprison, like many of the challengers, said such services as education and transportation can be funded by Virginia's future budget surpluses and reining in state spending.

May, first elected to the House of Delegates in 1993, has hit back hard against Oprison and his plan, saying the proposal would starve schools and public safety and encourage governments to approve more commercial development so they could replace real estate tax money with sales tax revenue. He said the plan indicates that Oprison does not understand the traditions and values of his new community at all.

"My opponent's proposal will absolutely decimate local governments and their ability to raise any money for these things that people care about," said May, 68, who has spent most of his adult life in Loudoun.