As part of our efforts to combat the massive tax hike recently passed by the General Assembly (HB2313), we wanted to let your republican representatives in the Richmond area know that you weren’t happy. Not at ALL.
Besides asking you to email Governor McDonnell to tell him to veto the bill, we called registered voters in the area to ask them to contact their state delegate’s office to express that displeasure. And boy, did you ever. Delegates Manoli Loupassi (R-68) and Kirk Cox (R-66) were two republicans that thought a tax hike for transportation was an acceptable approach. So between the two delegates, over SIX THOUSAND registered voters in their districts were contacted, and we asked you to let them know exactly what you thought about their votes. We’re happy to report that at least in Delegate Cox’s office, you packed his office’s voicemail until it could no longer accept messages. And we aren’t done yet.
THIS is what it takes to make a difference; to let your representatives know that you are paying attention when they support bad legislation. As long as your representatives think they can get away with these kinds of shenanigans, they will continue to test your patience and resolve.
Now, by the time you read this tomorrow, Governor McDonnell may have introduced amendments to HB2313 in an effort to make it more palatable to republicans and to address its questionable Constitutionality. If he DOES send amendments instead of simply vetoing the bill, there’s a good chance we’ll need to push even harder on our state representatives to change their position and vote NO on the amended bill. This is where we need your help.
Outside of sending messages from our Action Center and calling your representatives, we’d also appreciate if you could send a small contribution our way to help get our message out to an even broader audience. We want to maintain the pressure through the amendment process, and anything helps to offset costs. And if you’d like to get involved personally with your time, we’d love to hear from you too! Thank you for all that you do.
