Archive for March, 2010
Alexandria – Delegate David Englin (D-45) today launched a web-based telephone campaign to encourage Virginians who support health care reform to urge Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to abandon his threat to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Government.
“Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said he will file a lawsuit to block health care reform ‘as soon as the ink is dry’ on President Obama’s signature. This is an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars that could stop Virginians from enjoying the benefits of health care reform,” said Englin. “He claims he’s received nothing but positive feedback from Virginians, but I have constituents call me every day asking what they can do to oppose Cuccinelli’s efforts. This online campaign will help them make their voices heard.”
The online campaign is powered by Advomatic’s Click-to-Call tool, and can be viewed here: http://bitly.com/cuccinelli
A graduate of the United State Air Force Academy and Harvard University, Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County. He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee. For more information, visit http://www.davidenglin.org.
Now that David is back from the legislative session, we have lots of work to do to update constituents on what their General Assembly got up and to keep empowering people to get involved and make change. Can you please join us on Thursday, April 8, from 6-9 p.m., for Team Englin’s first Volunteer Night of 2010? We have three different mailings to get out, so we really need all the help we can get. As always, we’ll fuel the evening with pizza and beverages, and it all takes place at our home (a.k.a. “Campaign Central”) at 1505 Wayne Street, Alexandria (map).
Contact us at 703-549-3203 or info@davidenglin.org to let us know you’ll be there on April 8. Thank you for everything you do to support our ongoing fight for a progressive future!
Alexandria – Starting on or about March 19, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project will embark on a new phase of construction that is anticipated to cause periodic significant delays for motorists traveling the Inner and Outer Loops of the Capital Beltway I-95/495, Telegraph Road and Eisenhower Valley area. When completed, three new ramps will improve traffic flow by providing direct access from Telegraph Road North to Eisenhower Avenue, from the Outer Loop to Telegraph Road North, and from the Outer Loop directly to Eisenhower Avenue, and will include a bike and pedestrian path.
”While I’m pleased to see the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project coming down the home stretch, this important phase of construction will be a real challenge for our community, so I urge drivers to be well informed and plan accordingly,” said Delegate David Englin (D-45), who represents the area most affected by the construction.
The 2010 General Assembly session came to a close Sunday evening just one day later than scheduled, which is actually a record compared to the past several years. At the eleventh hour, House and Senate budget negotiators presented us with a final budget that appears to be less bad than the budget House Republicans passed Feb. 25, but which still balances the books on the backs of children and the poor and includes a fiscally irresponsible shell game with the state pension trust fund.
The good news is that we won some key concessions from House Republicans, making the final overall budget less bad than the House version of the budget hey passed Feb. 25. For example, the original House budget contained a plan to lump preschool, early reading intervention, and services for at-risk children into a lottery-funded block grant and then change the distribution formula to literally take money away from poor students and give it to students who are not poor. We soundly defeated this proposal, saving Alexandria and Arlington a combined $3.6 million in public education funds for poor and at-risk students. Continue reading ‘Englin opposes final budget balanced on the backs of children and the poor’
Richmond – Delegate David Englin (D-45) issued the following statement regarding his vote this evening against the final version of Virginia’s two-year state budget:
Budgets are moral documents that express our values as a Commonwealth and determine whom we lift up and whom we leave out. While the final version of the budget is less bad than the initial House version, I still cannot justify supporting a budget that balances the books on the backs of children and the poor and that includes a fiscally irresponsible shell game with the state pension trust fund.
Thanks to strong, unified, vocal opposition from House Democrats, the final budget is less bad than the budget House Republicans passed Feb. 25. For example, the final budget rejected the Republican plan to take money away from poor students and give it to students who are not poor, and it rejected the Republican plan to redirect federal Medicaid enhancement money from health care for the neediest Virginians to non-health care programs.
However, these concessions do not make up for the fact that the final budget cuts billions of dollars from public education, health care for the poor, public safety, and aid to localities, with no serious attempt to mitigate these cuts with revenue and no serious attempt to give localities the power to mitigate these cuts in their own. Even worse, the final budget still includes a risky, $800-million scheme to divert state contributions from the state pension trust fund, which will put Virginia’s triple-A bond rating at risk and threaten our ability to meet our pension obligations to teachers, fire fighters, law enforcement officers, and state and local employees.
Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County. He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee. For more information, visit http://www.davidenglin.org.
