Delegate Kathy Byron Sets the Record Straight...

Yesterday, Delegate Kathy Byron calls out Minority Leader Ward Armstrong for once again using faulty facts on the House Floor.

This is beginning to be a regular occurrence...

Oh ... and I almost forgot to mention ... not only is Ward attacking the bipartisan majority who voted for this bill in the House ... He is also publicly "slapping" the Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw who sponsored the bill in the Senate...

Budget Update

Today on the House floor, Majority Leader and Budget Conferee Kirk Cox addressed the Members on the current state of the budget negotiations to date.

Who Knew??

It came to my attention that last Thursday must have marked THE END of traffic woes in portions of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads .... are you as surprised to hear this as I am?

This must be the case because when the Governor's Transportation Bill, carried by Senator Wampler, (SB 1446) came over from the Senate on a WIDELY bipartisan vote ... 11 Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads Democrats voted AGAINST a bill that will jump start nearly 900 transportation projects throughout the state with lower costs and quicker completion times. This bill will accelerate previously approved transportation bonds and deposits funds into a transportation infrastructure bank. By accelerating the bonds, we will be able to take advantage of near record low interest rates and low construction costs.

The 11 Democrats are Delegates Bob Brink, David Bulova, David Englin, Eileen Filler-Corn, Mark Keam, Kaye Kory, Paula Miller, Ken Plum, Jim Scott, Scott Surovell, and Vivian Watts.

The transportation issue has stymied Virginia's legislature for nearly 20 years. Now, with a bipartisan and broadly supported bill before the House ... these 11 Democrats voted to block this vital proposal...

With NO votes on this bill ... I guess it is clear that parts of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads DO NOT have a transportation problem at all...

Keep these folks in mind when you're stuck in traffic this evening and more importantly ... in November.

The Last Thing Virginia Needs ....

Delegate Ben Cline gives a speech about how foolish it is for the Democrats to have a fundraiser that is headlined by Maryland Governor O'Malley discussing fiscal policies.  The last thing we need is for any legislator (republican or democrat) to be lectured by Governor O'Malley on his "recipes for economic success."

Take a listen below...

The $300 Million Senate Taj Mahal

Delegate Todd Gilbert addresses the House of Delegates today and outlines a fiscal flaw with the Senate Democrat's budget.

Take a look below!

Improving Community Based Services for Individuals in Need

Delegate Kirk Cox discusses new legislation to improve community based services for individuals in need.

A Case of the Buts...

During last week's House budget debate the Democrats seemed to have a "case of the buts..."



Please let your local Democrat Delegate know that now is not the time for MORE TAXES & OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING....

Contact them now by CLICKING HERE!!!

Delegate Jackson Miller Stands Up For Virginia's Citizens

Delegate Jackson Miller of Manassas gave an impassioned speech on the House floor today. He cites several instances where illegal aliens recently committed heinous crimes, including rape and murder, in Northern Virginia. Here is one example from the Washington Post.

Feeling that legislation like House Bill 1934 could have prevented such crimes, Delegate Miller, along with those who voted in favor of this bill, are standing up and protecting the lives of the citizens of Virginia.

Check out the video below...

A Tale of Two Budgets

Today on the House Floor, Majority Leader Kirk Cox clearly outlined the differences between the fiscally responsible House budget and the "spend now, ask questions later" Senate budget.

Watch below...

Governor's Transportation Bill Debated in House

The Governor's Transportation Bill HB 2527 is currently being debated in the House of Delegates. 


HB 2527 has broad support in the House and broad BI-PARTISAN support in the Senate.


When it comes to House Democrats ... their solution to the Commonwealth's transportation woes is to either RAISE TAXES or vote NO.


Note to frustrated transportation gridlocked Virginians .... House Dems will ONLY vote for a tranportation package if they can have a bigger cut of your paycheck ....


Voters Beware!!!

Delegate Armstrong Manipulating the Facts

As Ronald Reagan would say when Jimmy Carter would play fast and loose with the facts during a debate, “There you go again.” Except today, Minority Leader Ward Armstrong is Jimmy Carter (or Don Quixote), and “fast and loose” doesn’t begin to cover it. The Times Dispatch pointed out that Ward’s entire case against Appalachian Power is a house of cards that has been blown down.

As we pointed out in July, Ward Armstrong has been tilting at windmills running for governor on a platform of promises to lower utility rates. If he’s tied his gubernatorial aspirations to the success of his legislation, Virginia will be spared in 2013.

Not wanting to “waste a crisis.” For more than a year, Ward Armstrong has been on a quest to “do something” about rising utility rates. Never mind that the increases in recent years have everything to do with federal environmental regulations and coal prices than state laws.

So this summer Ward’s work group (we affectionately refer to it as the faux-commission) held faux-meetings and produced a faux-report, and now it turns out it was based on faux-data!

The Times Dispatch pointed out “The data was the crux of Armstrong’s effort to give the SCC a greater say in regulating Appalachian’s rates.”

Armstrong, who is exploring a 2013 run for statewide office, set up a work group that studied Virginia electric rates and released a report earlier this month that included the incorrect figure for Appalachian’s rate increase.

In a meeting of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (that would be the REAL commission) a senior executive of Appalachian Power very politely pointed out to Ward and the entire Commission that the numbers in the report were flawed. Ward refused to listen. Later, a week later when the Richmond Times-Dispatch contacted him and verified that APCO was right and Ward was wrong, he offered this lame explanation:

"If the utility industry stands up and says your figures are wrong, we tend to disagree with them,"

We were lucky to obtain video footage of people trying to tell Ward he was using bad data. See Below.



So Ward had been told that his numbers were flat out wrong. Instead of verifying them or double checking them, he continued to use them to mislead the public and the legislature.

Now the truth comes out. The whole thing has been a sham. The notion that rates in Ward’s district have risen over 90% is a fallacy. Ward was not using accurate rates. According to the State Corporation Commission, rates have risen only 33% - nowhere close to Ward’s scaremongering 90% statistic he has been throwing around his district to paint Appalachian Power as the boogeyman.

The truth is that while power rates have gone up – it’s not the power company that is to blame. Utility rates are made up of various components; and each can be increased separately by The State Corporation Commission. They allow for rate increases based on certain factors – and the two that have driven rate increases are environmental compliance with federal EPA mandates and the increase in the price of fuel (in this case, coal.)

Rather than take on those in his own party and Washington to curb the EPA’s war on coal, Ward has put his eggs into attacking the power company.

Meanwhile other members of our caucus have been more responsible in dealing with this issue in their districts, recognizing the primary drivers to these increases are beyond the control of the General Assembly. If Ward really wants to have an impact on utility rate increases, perhaps he should focus his ambitions 90 miles north of Richmond.