Stafford County is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. Our deputies and firefighters keep our homes safe, our teachers and schools provide a better education than any in the region, we have many natural areas that are the envy of Northern Virginia and our business community continues to grow and bring new jobs. Although there is a lot of good that can be said of Stafford County, we have faced our challenges. When I first joined the Board of Supervisors we were informed that we had a budget deficit, the County was not able to maintain its required 10% fund balance, and we were being warned that we were facing potential downgrade to our bond rating. The situation was bad despite the 44% tax increase previous Boards had imposed on Stafford residents between 2002 and 2007.