JCC's Goodson Announces Bid For New Position

Saturday, April 30, 2011

James City County Supervisor Bruce Goodson announced Saturday that he’s ready to make a bid to become Commissioner of the Revenue.

Goodson announced at the county’s Republican Party breakfast Saturday that he’s looking to get the Republican nomination to run for Commissioner of the Revenue because he’s ready to move on from his current role and wants to promote reform in the office.

“Board members shouldn’t be in their office for perpetuity,” Goodson told WYDaily. His current Board term ends in 2011. “I am excited about [Governor Bob] McDonnell’s plans for reforms [in government], and I want to be there and be a part of it.”

McDonnell established the Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring with the aim of finding efficiencies in various government offices, and Goodson says he’s ready to apply the mindset to the office of Commissioner of the Revenue. “We need to reform our constitutional offices, and I think there are real opportunities here.”

The current Commissioner of the Revenue is Richard Bradshaw, who has filled the role since 2000. The job includes assessing property taxes and administering tax relief, providing statistical information to county officials and administering business taxes. No one has run against Bradshaw since 2003, Goodson points out. “There’s not often challenge in races for constitutional office races,” Gooson says. “It’s good to have competition.”

Goodson, President of Diamond Goodson Equipment, says he’s qualified for the position because he understands the job and has been working with people in the position for years. “The job is a lot of record keeping, information sharing and interacting with citizens and businesses,” he says. He would get the certification training immediately, though, he says.

Goodson has some ideas of reforms he’d make. While on the Board he advocated for getting rid of county decals, a service that was a function performed by the Commissioner of Revenue’s office. “I expected the office to change its staffing after that, but no changes were made… yet on the business-license side the few people who are there are swamped.”

Aside from addressing the delegation of duties, Goodson says he’d also work on having the office take over the current Department of Motor Vehicles Select location currently in Toano. The DMV Select office allows citizens to take care of certain DMV functions faster without going to a standard office, and they’re often run by a locality’s Commissioner of the Revenue’s office. Goodson wants to open another location at the county government complex, as well.

Goodson would aim to be “the number one business retention person in the county, and find ways to make the process more streamlined. The Commissioner should also be asking, ‘how can we serve businesses better’ and saying, ‘thanks for your business’,” he says.

A handful of citizens use the county’s tax abatement on relief programs. “The Commissioner needs to go out and see those people in their homes,” says Goodson. “It’s hard for them to get to the office. Customer service needs to be a focus” for the position.