Columns

By Del. Terry Austin
19th District

    Last week, the General Assembly wrapped up the 2015 session.  We adjourned early for the first time in 15 years, adopted a balanced budget, and offered positive solutions to issues important to Virginians.

    The General Assembly completed its work a day early this year, adjourning on Friday, February 27.  That is a pretty dramatic contrast to last year’s session, which ended without a budget and immediately went into a special session to resolve the impasse.  So instead of finishing our work in June, we actually finished in February.

    It seems like the teachers’ union just can’t seem to avoid whining when they ask for a pay raise. When Chad Honeycutt, a teachers’ union representative, argued before the board of supervisors for a teacher pay raise, his presentation included the results of a poll to which 100 teachers responded. Some claimed they must have second jobs to make ends meet. Later, one of the slides in his Power Point presentation stated that the average teacher salary in Bedford County is $41,023.

A decision made by a U.S. District Court in Texas just a few days ago has had a major impact on President Obama’s recent executive actions to unilaterally change our immigration laws. The court’s injunction temporarily halts the President’s deferred action program for unlawful immigrants, essentially ruling that he overstepped his powers in trying to grant legal status and “benefits and privileges” to millions of illegal immigrants.