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Dear Friends,

The 2010 Session is coming to a close and I’m getting ready to head back home. Before I do that, I wanted to make sure I explained to you what happened during the session and to the budget. In this letter, I will first describe what we accomplished this year, and then I’ll explain a major topic of the session—the Virginia Retirement System.

First let me say that many of you have called my office and sent emails about the budget cuts. Thank you! I cannot represent you properly without hearing from, ideally, everyone, about how and why I ought to vote on every bill. I’ve received over 4,000 emails this session about bills, on top of phone calls and letters, and I make a point to both write back to everyone and to keep a file on constituent correspondence cataloged by bill numbers. This way I know who has written me and why they wrote me on every bill that comes before my desk.

For a complete list of bills I sponsored and cosponsored, please visit my website, www.barrydknight.com. Regarding the House of Delegates as a whole, we spent the session fighting for land rights, veterans, energy independence, ethics reform, and reducing government spending, among many other topics.

For landowners, the House passed several measures, to include a bill to shift the burden of proof on the city or county for property assessments, a bill to require the state to account for every aspect of value lost when the state takes a citizen’s land through eminent domain, a bill that requires the state to assume responsibility for losses of property value due to any restriction, change, or loss of access to property that is taken under eminent domain, and lastly, my bill, HB 1250, which requires the city to keep its word on long-term zoning decisions.

For veterans, we passed a bill to allows military to use HOV while on I-64 or 264, another bill to expand the power of the Oceana/Fentress Military Advisory Council, and a third to require the Virginia State Board of elections to develop secure procedures to enfranchise active military and overseas voters, in addition to several bills to give tax breaks to military and their families.

For energy independence, we passed a bill to allow for production and development of oil and natural gas 50 miles off the Atlantic shoreline, and an additional bill to require that revenues from this drilling would go towards fixing our roads and reducing congestion. However, drilling is not the only solution, and that’s why we also passed through a bill to create the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority.

For ethics reform, we considered several regulations for the House and Senate, to include requiring an ethics inquiry to be public if the investigative panel determines the inquiry to be credible. Also, we required that once such a panel begins an investigation, they must finish the study and make the results free and open to anyone who wishes to see them. I believe this is a great step toward making all elected officials, including myself, accountable to the public.

Now, let me explain what happened with our budget, and then more specifically, the Virginia Retirement System, which is a mainstay for so many of our dedicated public servants.

Because a number of local school superintendents and local government leaders wanted to have the option to require teachers and city employees the allotted 5% employee contribution, The House of Delegates included language to give cities maximum flexibility in dealing with their local budget shortfalls, a flexibility that should be used to avoid furloughs, layoffs and reductions in salary. Let me reiterate—the 5% employee contribution we voted for this session is only for new employees (i.e. those only hired after 07-31-2010).

This year’s budget was not about being for or against education, Medicaid, etc, it was about adopting a budget within the tax resources that we have all already agreed upon.

Thank you for your attention. Please don’t hesitate to contact my office while I am back in the district. My office is in Virginia Beach at 1852 Mill Landing Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23457. You can reach me by telephone at (757) 426-6387 or by email at DelBKnight@house.virginia.gov.

Sincerely,

Delegate Barry D. Knight