COMSTOCK FOR DELEGATE BLOG
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Column: Assembly Focuses on Job Creation
Column: Assembly Focuses on Job Creation
Delegate shares mid-session update.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
This
past week, we reached the midway mark in the 2010 Legislative Session,
also known as "crossover" and our legislative agenda has so far been
very successful. I wanted to give you an overview of where we stand at
mid-session on some key issues.
I am pleased to report that the
governor and a bipartisan majority of the House of Delegates have made
job creation our number one priority and our progress in the
legislature reflects that priority. Of course, transportation and
education are very much intertwined with our job environment. Details
and highlights of a number of our advances on our key agenda items on
jobs, transportation, education and other core services can be found on
our Web site at:
http://www.comstockfordelegate.com/blog/read.aspx?id=101.
The
"Jobs and Opportunity" agenda that is developing at mid-session
includes the passage of such measures as a bill to exempt new
businesses from capital gains taxes, a bill providing that any
royalties from offshore drilling are dedicated to transportation (80
percent), a bill to promote small business investment in Virginia and
bills providing tax credits for green jobs, movie production and our
wine industry, among other job enhancing measures.
I also am
pleased to report on the progress on the Local Composite Index (LCI)
Education funding formula issue. As you may know, Gov. Tim Kaine (D)
had proposed an unprecedented and arbitrary freeze of the LCI, which is
used to determine our share of state education funds and is
recalculated and updated every two years. To reverse decades of
practice was simply bad public policy, fundamentally unfair, and would
have cost Fairfax County, alone, over $60 million in order to save the
state $29 million.
The Northern Virginia delegation was united
in opposition to this misguided proposal. This was a top priority issue
that occupied many of us in the first weeks of the legislature. We all
worked with our PTAs, parents, and local business community to reverse
this action. Our high quality schools are integral to attracting top
businesses. We also wrote a joint a letter to Gov. Robert McDonnell (R)
urging him to back the move to unfreeze the LCI and supported budget
amendments to undo this proposal. I personally spoke with the governor,
lieutenant governor, members of his cabinet and staff about this issue,
as I know many of my constituents did.
As you may know by now,
our voices were heard. Gov. McDonnell reversed this proposal saying,
"The Local Composite Index must be applied to all localities, at all
times, in the same objective and fair manner by which it has always
been utilized." The Republican House leadership also has embraced Gov.
McDonnell's decision. While we still will have many budget challenges,
and the actual index itself has historically been disadvantageous for
Northern Virginia, we at least have a united front in removing the LCI
freeze from the budget.
In the coming days and final weeks of
the session, we face a historic budget shortfall in the Commonwealth.
The proposed budget introduced by Gov. Kaine unfortunately only
addressed half of the $4 billion shortfall. Gov. Kaine's plan to close
the remaining $2 billion through massive new tax increases in the
middle of a recession was already unanimously rejected (97-0) by the
House of Delegates. We will be working in the coming weeks to finalize
the spending reductions that will enable us to balance the budget,
while maintaining core services and respecting the difficulties facing
our hard working taxpayers. Many of these cuts will not be easy, and
most of them will require sacrifice, but we will continue to work
together to make those tough decisions today so that the Commonwealth
will be in a stronger position as the economy recovers.
By
focusing on job growth and getting our economy moving again and not
further burdening our stretched businesses and families, Virginia can
continue to be better positioned to weather the tough economic times we
are facing.
Finally, I wanted to thank so many of you who
reached out to us throughout the recent unprecedented snowstorms in our
area. Your updates and information were helpful in helping us inform
VDOT, Dominion and other government officials about the situation on
the ground throughout the storms. It was also encouraging to hear of
all of the help that neighbors were providing neighbors through the
difficulties. I have spoken with our local Dranesville supervisor, John
Foust (D), and we plan on scheduling an "After Action" town hall
meeting to bring together everybody to further address the issues that
arose during the storms.
It is a privilege to serve as your
delegate. Please feel free to contact me whenever you have concerns.
Also sign up online for our updates on the Web site
[www.delegatecomstock.com] and keep in touch with us and let us know of
concerns you have, events you want to let us know about, or other
matters of interest.
By Barbara Comstock
State Delegate, R-34
Read the article on The Connection website here.
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