Ben Cline Townhall Meeting...

Delegate Ben Cline held a Townhall meeting last night in Middlebrook before going to Richmond next week to start the next General Assembly session.

After a complete statement as to what he intends to do while in Richmond he took questions and statements from local citizens...

Ben and the other delegates will be very busy during their short session and there is much to get done. They will first have to keep a close eye on the new Governor Tim Kaine who will be sure to follow in the steps of Democrat Governor Mark Warner. In talking with Delegate Cline and other Delegates in the past, they intend to work with the new Governor to move Virginia ahead on important issues. They will also be looking to keep the new Gov in check and do what is right for a strong and conservative Virginia.

Here are some of the topics that were discussed last night:

* Cline has always been supportive of reducing State government and use private enterprise to get the job done more efficient and less waste. Warner stated the same intentions before he was elected but in the 4 years he was in office hee reduced 0, Zero, Zilch, nada, government positions and actually added thousands...

* At this time the Governor refuses to show the research that he uses to get to his budget. And what is shown is in such a format that it is very hard if not impossible to follow. This is something that should be very easy and transparent to show where our money is being spent, used, and wasted...

* During the townhall meeting a local citizen brought up the topic of local farms being able to sell products produced on the farm at the farm and directly to the public. After a brief discussion Cline agrees that he is in favor of supporting this but caution and exceptions may need to be made for items such as some meats that are vulnerable to contamination. Another local citizen, Tom Nelson stated that he is in the process of opening a new business in the town of Middlebrook, "Middlebrook General Store" with a partner and they intend to buy from and offer products produced by local farmers.

* In regards to Transportation, Cline stated that he is in favor of adding more truck lanes in areas on 81 that get congested. Adding 4 more lanes the entire length of 81 is not wise or a good way to spend taxpayers money. Cline also spoke of a bill he presented in the past to increase the number of State Troopers by 10 officers. The estimated cost to train and equip each Trooper is $100,000 each or $1 million for all ten Troopers. He was told that this could work but he needed to find funds to offset the cost. He found that the Virginia Lottery was already spending an incredible amount of money on advertising the lottery and that could be spent in a much more productive manner supporting the addition of 10 Troopers.
In fact Cline stated that he found the new Donald Trump Lottery ticket that uses Trump's name and image costs the VA Lottery $250,000... ** My research found that there are over 110 individual "Scratcher" type instant lottery tickets now!!! This info is available at http://www.valottery.com/scratchers/new.asp

Unfortunately Cline was denied this request and we still do not have the additional Troopers to patrol 81...