This Saturday, September 23rd, I am pleased to continue a tradition started in 2006 by holding the first in a series of informal office hours.  Constituents are invited to talk about issues of interest or to learn about legislation that is likely to be debated during the 2018 General Assembly. The format is casual and no appointment is needed.  Coffee is on me!

Below is the full schedule.  All events will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. 

I am also happy to arrange individual appointments on specific issues or concerns. 

So what will we be debating in 2018?  Most importantly, we will adopt a new biennial budget. While we ended this past year with a small surplus (after making major cuts in 2017), new revenue generation is only modest and we face a number of major challenges.  Among these are re-benchmarking the state share of K-12 education funding (which occurs every two years), college affordability, funding for Metro, and the potential impact of any federal action taken on the Affordable Care Act.  We will also decide whether to send two proposed constitutional amendments to the voters.  These include a lock box to ensure that revenue generated for transportation cannot be diverted to other uses ( HJ693) and a mechanism that allows General Assembly committees and commissions to suspend regulations while the General Assembly is not in session ( HJ545).  

And that isn't even considering the hundreds of bills that will be filed by the 140 members of the General Assembly!

 

I look forward to listening and sharing.  As always, thank you for the opportunity to serve you!