Ralph Northam for State Senate

I hope that you all are doing well. The 2012 General Assembly session is coming to a close so this will be the last in the series of updates that I have been sending out every week. I hope that these weekly updates have been informative and useful in keeping you up-to-date with everything that has happened in Richmond. For the past two weeks I have talked about the importance of passing a budget, and how Senate Republicans and Democrats have been unable to come to an agreement. The progress of negotiations has been limited again this week as there are certain key issues that remain unaddressed, including public education, transportation, and allocating enough funds to protect the most vulnerable citizens in the Commonwealth.

I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the nice weather that we have been having lately. The 2012 General Assembly session has gone by incredibly fast, and it's hard to believe that there is only one week left. In the last update, I mentioned that we still have to vote on the most important matter that we are sent here to deal with: the state budget. Sadly, even though a week has gone by, I do not have much of an update on the vote. Republicans in the Senate have held up a vote on the budget by wasting time focusing on divisive social issues, not allocating an appropriate amount of funds for transportation, and giving corporations $25 million in tax breaks for subsidizing private school scholarships. Instead of sending millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools, we could be using that money to fund our already struggling public schools, and give salary increases to state employees like teachers, firefighters and police officers. The current version of the budget would also result in 4,500 senior citizens losing their Medicaid coverage and nursing home care. Until Senate Republicans are willing to negotiate on these important issues, the status of the budget will continue to remain at a standstill.