Chris Saxman on Charlottesville Right Now
Chris Saxman, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and Co-Chairman of the Virginia Campaign for John McCain, joined Coy on Charlottesville Right Now.
Archive for General Assembly
Bolling skeptical special session will accomplish results
On the June 12th edition of WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” Coy Barefoot talks with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R) about the upcoming special session on transportation. Bolling summed up the prospects for the special session.
“There’s just no consensus… my fear is we’re going to go there on the 23rd, it’s going to be very short, its going to be very non-productive,” Bolling said., “I just don’t see a consensus building right now, and again it’s always possible that it could happen here in the next few days, but right now it seems highly unlikely.”
Governor Tim Kaine (D) has presented a plan that would increase fees for vehicle registration and increase taxes on car purchases, as well as levy a one cent sales tax increase on residents in Northern Virginia.
Bolling made it clear that he is opposed to such tax increases, stating his view that “there’s never really a good time to raise taxes, but frankly this is a horrible time to raise taxes because of the state of the economy.”
He also painted the Democrats in the General Assembly as out of touch with Virginia voters, arguing that there’s agreement between Republican lawmakers and voters.
“The problem in Richmond is not a lack of money, the problem in Richmond is a lack of fiscal discipline. We’ve got enough money through existing revenue sources to solve our transportation problems if we just use that money for transportation, as opposed to spending it on all of these new and expanded government programs, and the people of Virginia are a step ahead of the members of the General Assembly.”
Bolling outlined his proposals for solving the transportation problem without raising taxes. He said that reserving just 1% of the existing state sales tax for the transportation trust fund would result in approximately $950 million a year for transportation. As an alternative, he mentioned the possibility of requiring 10% of future revenue growth to go towards transportation expenses; he said that if the state had adopted this policy 10 years ago, it would have generated $800 million over the past decade. Bolling also laid out his plan for budget surpluses, arguing that “those budget surpluses are by definition one-time money, I think they should be used to fund one-time things like capital projects, building roads and bridges.”
Senator Ralph Northam
Freshman Senator Ralph Northam (R-6) joined Coy Barefoot on the April 3, 2008 edition of the program to give his view of the recently concluded General Assembly session. Northam is a graduate of the Sorensen Institute Political Leaders program.
Bob Gibson on Virginia’s transportation funding woes
Bob Gibson, political reporter for the Charlottesville Daily Progress, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now” to talk about politics in the state and the nation. Bob and Coy chat about:
- What the presidential primaries in Texas and Ohio mean for the race, and what to expect in the next few weeks if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton split the races
- General Assembly not as close to wrapping things up as they had hoped to be, in the wake of the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling that the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s taxing power is unconstitutional (CT)
- Bob remarks on increasing partisanship in the General Assembly, and now resembles Washington
Waldo Jaquith explains Richmond Sunlight
Waldo Jaquith, the creator of Richmond Sunlight, joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!” to talk about his premier legislative tracking website. The site repurposes content from the General Assembly’s website and presents it on his unique website. For instance, you can subscribe to the status of bills by our area legislators: Senator Creigh Deeds, Delegate Rob Bell and Delegate David Toscano.
Should Virginia go to non-partisan redistricting?
David Solimini is the executive director of the Virginia Redistricting Coalition, a new organization formed to push for the reform of the way the state draws its legislative boundaries. Coy Barefoot spoke with Solimini about whether or not Virginia is one of the most gerrymandered states, and efforts to hand over the redistricting pen to a non-partisan panel. SB625 and HB836 are making their way through the General Assembly. Solimini says many legislators are “cautiously supportive” about the idea.
New Dominion’s Chris Graham on animal cruelty
Chris Graham of the New Dominion joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville–Right Now!†from the Shenandoah Valley. This week, Chris and Coy talk about:
- the weather differences over the mountains
- the various bills dealing with animal fighting
- the tabling of bills to ban text-messaging while driving
- the fate of redistricting in Virginia
Delegate David Toscano talks about the elections
Delegate David Toscano was recently re-elected to his second term in the Virginia House of Delegates, though he had no opponent. He joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to weigh in on the elections.
“It was a good night for Democrats,” Toscano said. “And I think it was a good night for Virginians. What we’re doing in the state is moving back towards the center, towards a result-oriented, pragmatic form of government.”