Toscano on Governor McDonnell’s Budget Announcement

July 22, 2011 by Carmen Bingham

Surplus is Artificial and Generated by Cuts to Localities and Employees

Charlottesville, VA – Governor McDonnell today announced a projected $311 million state surplus. Delegate David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) released the following statement in response:

“While this budget surplus is certainly preferable to a shortfall, we should be clear about its origins. First, our national economy is improving and revenues are up as a result. Second, we neglected our obligations in the last budget to adequately fund our state’s retirement plan. Third, the surplus was generated because of substantial cuts made to localities and our social safety net.

“These substantial cuts to localities and our failure to honor our commitment to state employees to adequately fund their pensions are not consistent with responsible budgeting. Restoring funds now to the retirement system is simply what we should have done two years ago. And maintaining assistance to localities is key to keeping property taxes low.

“It is important that we honor our commitments in a timely fashion that is transparent and without gimmicks. Generating surplus on the backs of localities and our state employees is not only disingenuous, but is a disservice to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”

Now Available from the University of Virginia Press

In a timely book, David Toscano has focused us on the path forward in this divided, polarized country—the states, where within a federal framework the laboratories of democracy can experiment with ideas and solutions. He shows us how the states can tackle a wide range of problems with perhaps more success than one-size-fits-all proposals from Washington, D.C.

– Larry Sabato, Director of the Center for Politics, University of Virginia

Toscano Statement on House and Senate Republicans’ Votes to Adjourn the Special Session

July 9, 2019

Toscano Statement on House and Senate Republicans’ Votes to Adjourn the Special Session on Gun Violence Prevention until November 18

RICHMOND –Following this afternoon’s surprise party-line votes which adjourned the Virginia General Assembly’s special session until November 18, 2019, Delegate David J. Toscano (D-57th District) released the following statement:

“House and Senate Republicans today showed Virginia that the only vote they are willing to take regarding gun violence protection is a vote to delay, delay, delay. In the face of clear support for action now, captured by multiple polls and embodied by the energetic activists who rallied at the Capitol today, they abdicated their responsibility to serve their constituents and the Commonwealth of Virginia in an appallingly cynical political move to push any votes off until after the November general election.

“I am disappointed but not surprised. Time and time again, whether it is about passing universal background checks for all gun purchases, or enacting measures that would permit a judge, after a hearing, to remove a gun from a person in a mental health crisis to prevent injury to self or others, the Republican leadership continues to stonewall and not even debate, much less pass, reasonable measures designed to reduce gun violence in the Commonwealth.”

Delegate Toscano is available today to the media for further comment.

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