Prince William County business leaders say they can weather the tax increases, the thousands of home foreclosures and the stiff competition from neighboring counties for new jobs, but they are losing patience with what they say is an incessant focus on the county’s problems.

Month after month of political discourse in the county has focused on widespread concerns, including out-of-control-development, overcrowded schools, cumbersome business permitting processes and the dominating issues of illegal immigration and excessive taxation.

The Regional Prince William Chamber of Commerce forged a task force earlier this year to give voice to business leaders in the county who want to present a better image of their marketplace as an inviting place to live and work.

“We’re open for business and don’t let anybody tell you any different,” said Tim Jackson, a former chamber chairman and the president of DMA Technologies in Woodbridge who is heading the effort. “We need to accentuate the positive.”

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In a suburban region that is the state’s hardest hit by home foreclosures, and where commuters feel higher gas prices in their wallets as a direct cost-of-living increase, Jackson and others are asking for improved permitting consistency, lower taxes, better positive marketing and much less fuss.

“One of the things we’re looking at is unintended consequences from political leadership, whether it is by design or by mistake,” Jackson said, including the county’s high-profile crackdown on illegal immigrants. “Immigration is one of the elements that brought us together, but it is not the driving factor.”

Two business owners asked county supervisors at a meeting last week if they could take a leading role marketing the county better, including advertising for new economic development opportunities.

“We would wish they would toot their horns about the county a bit more,” said Rick Hendershot, chairman of the Prince William County Greater Manassas Chamber of Commerce. “Unfortunately, you do have to debate the issues, but then ... no one’s tooting the good things that are happening.”

Several supervisors say the best way to help the county is to reduce the proposed tax rate, which would raise real estate taxes by nearly one-third on businesses.

“We can’t have a 32-percent tax rate increase on business,” Supervisor Wally Covington, R-Brentsville, said, citing competition with Fairfax and Stafford counties.

Image task force member Mark Granville-Smith, a home builder and leader of the county’s chapter of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association, blamed Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart for the county’s image hurdles, saying his often brusque political style has been to harp on one negative issue after another.

Stewart responded that his leadership has addressed head-on the challenges facing the community.

“All the issues we have raised, the overdevelopment, the illegal immigration, needed to be raised. We couldn’t just stick our heads in the ground and ignore the real problems we had,” Stewart said, adding, “I support any efforts anybody wants to make in regard to increasing the county’s image.

“We have a good story to tell, but we have to get the basics right, first.”

dgenz@dcexaminer.com