“In an article just published in the Roanoke Free Press, my opponent is quoted as saying, “Just who controlled the house during these years?”  This comment was made in response to my statement that Ms. Mason underestimated the current budget shortfall by a half a BILLION dollars (see Cleaveland Press Release of 08/19/2009.)  I asserted that such inaccurate projections are significant contributors to the current financial crisis in the Commonwealth that we must now address.

While it may be understandable that my liberal opponent would want to divert blame from her ticketmates and try to blame the Republican controlled House of Delegates, the fact is that she has once again shown a misunderstanding of the facts and specifically of Virginia’s budget process.  It is the Executive Branch (under the leadership of Governor Kaine), not the House of Delegates, who provides the budget projections.  I wish my opponent would be less concerned with being loyal to her party’s national chairman and more concerned with being loyal to Virginia taxpayers.  I understand that she does not want to acknowledge that her party’s Lieutenant Governor candidate (Jody Wagner) issued the failed projections, but the fact remains that they came out of Governor Kaine’s administration.

Now the General Assembly will have to decide how to address the resulting shortfalls.  I think it is extremely important to make the tough spending decisions and not simply continue to hope that things will get better without credible evidence to back up those hopes.  I am committed to pursuing policies that will grow our economy, not to increasing taxes that will restrict it.  This is part of the “Common Sense Leadership” I will bring to the House of Delegates from the 17^th District.”

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