I am happy to announce that the Governor signed the budget bill this past Thursday. I would like to congratulate the Governor, the House and Senate Appropriations leadership, and the General Assembly on passing a budget agreeable to all parties. Over the past couple months I have expressed that this budget makes serious cuts to our overall expenses while at the same time funds core sections of our government. I look forward to the impact this budget will have upon the Commonwealth, and I am pleased that we will not have to spend Veto session debating any proposed changes or amendments made to this bill.
This week I had a great time touring the district, and talking to fellow constituents about the 2015 legislative session. It was good to be in town for the Altavista Chamber Breakfast, a pancake dinner in Buckingham, a Republican Meeting in Appomattox, a Fundraiser for the Glenmore Fire department, and a breakfast meeting with the Appomattox Board of Supervisors and Town Council. I appreciate the invite to these events, and I loved making new friend while catching up with old ones.
I also had a wonderful time visiting the Town of Appomattox this week. The town and county has a major national event coming up. The week and weekend of April 11th will bring thousands of people to our district. This will be the sesquicentennial celebration of the Confederate Surrender at Appomattox Court House. There will be a number of events, demonstrations, re-enactments. I would encourage everyone to take the time to visit the observance of this historical event. The Appomattox county website has a detailed list of events that can be found at http://www.appomattoxcountyva.gov/visitors/civil-war-150th.
As welcome as this event will be to the community it will present its own challenges to Appomattox, and will cause the County Administration to incur costs associated with hosting large crowds. I did not believe this was fair to the tax payers of Appomattox to solely handle the brunt of a National Event. Therefore, I included a budget amendment into our state budget to help cover the cost of overtime police officer, transportation, and utilities. I would like to thank my fellow members of the General Assembly for appropriating money to help fund needed services during the Sesquicentennial Celebration in Appomattox. This was a great gesture that I think will have a great impact on the event. I look forward for my family and I visiting Appomattox that week, and I hope to see everyone at the Stacking of Arms Ceremony that Saturday.
Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to detail the variety of bills that the General Assembly passed during the 2015 session.
Additional information about any legislation in the presented in the commonwealth, can be found at lis.virginia.gov. This website is a great resource to the public, and allows for Citizens to easily track and navigate a legislative session. Please contact my office for any help or tips in using this website.
If you have any concerns, questions, comments or issues that I or my Aide, Eric, can help you with, please contact us at 434-821-5929 or email at [email protected].
