On Monday, the House of Delegates convened to begin a special session to address the budget, but adjourned after just one day with no clear indication when it would reconvene. David used the opportunity to return to the 45th District and meet with constituents to update them on the budget impasse and listen to their thoughts and concerns about a variety of issues.
“I’ve enjoying chatting with constituents informally as I’ve been out and about the district this week, but it’s also been a great opportunity to meet with various community groups to hear what their members have to say,” said David.
On Wednesday evening, David was the keynote speaker at a dinner hosted by the Mount Vernon Rotary Club, where members asked about issues ranging from the budget to redistricting.
“Despite the budget impasse, we did make some progress in other areas,” David told the rotarians. “For example, we passed legislation to clean up emissions from dirty coal-fired power plants like the Mirant Plant.”
In response to a question about redistricting, David noted that House Democrats have been and will continue to push for non-partisan redistricting reform.
“We have to take the partisan politics out of redistricting,” said David. “Voters should choose their their elected officials, and not the other way around.”
On Thursday evening, David joined Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille and members of the city’s small business community at the Salute to Small Business reception at the U.S. Patent and Trade Office Museum in Alexandria. The reception honored Alexandria’s Small Business Development Center.
“I enjoyed spending some time with the small business leaders who contribute so much to making Alexandria such a vibrant, dynamic community,” said David. “I enjoyed hearing their thoughts on a variety of local issues, and their message on the budget impasse was loud and clear: We need to protect core services, and we long-term, sustained funding for transportation.”
Later Thursday evening, David attended the semi-annual membership meeting of the Taylor Run Citizens Association to give them an update on their General Assembly. A key item of concern was skyrocketing real estate taxes and assessments.
“Transportation and education are two of the fastest growing costs for our local governments,” David noted. “If the General Assembly would fully fund transportation and education, our local governments would have more freedom to reduce real estate taxes.”
David also noted that several initiatives to reform real estate taxes require constitutional amendments, which by long-standing tradition are addressed in the second year of the two-year General Assembly cycle. One such reform is the Homestead Exemption, which David supports, which would give localities the power to exempt up to 20 percent of owner-occupied property from taxation.