Abridged version of the Political Debate Between Senator Colgan and Challenger Bob FitzSimmonds

Abridged version of the Political debate between Senator Colgan and Challenger Bob FitzSimmonds

Manassas, Virginia. Keith Scarborough, Past President of The Prince William Committee of 100 from 2006-2007 moderated tonight's political debate between Senator Colgan and challenger Bob FitzSimmonds. The Prince William Committee of 100 provides a non-partisan, educational forum to study essential interests, problems and goals of the people of Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park. This evening's event was held at a local hotel outside Manassas city. The mood was light and cheerful as each of the candidates prepared their speeches and press photo opportunities. An estimated crowd of 200-250 people attended this debate including supporters from both sides.

BristowEnews.com feels it is important for our readers to at least understand the issues and it is our responsibility to cover pressing issues that are important to the voters of the 29th District. Tonight's debate centered on several issues, namely:

Question on Transportation Problem ~ What can be done to change the formula in funding transportation in Prince William County Roads?

Senator Colgan's response:

According to the Senator Colgan if and when the formula is changed, it will significantly be difficult in getting a majority on the Senate floor to agree on this issue. He has tried on several occasions in the past and has been unsuccessfully in passing this piece of legislation. Senator Colgan indicated that according to the Secretary of Department of Transportations, Northern VA represent 27% of the state population and gets 30% of the revenues from Richmond. He also added in the past 2 years, his administration has increased the budget of which $35 million dollars has been allocated to the Virginia Railways Express (VRE) in the form of additional trains and added services.

Candidate FitzSimmonds' response:

Mr. FitzSimmonds agrees with Senator Colgan and understands it is a difficult process, but he believes it can be done. Mr. FitzSimmonds argues that he cannot understand why Richmond cannot release some of the General Funds to address the transportation infrastructure problems in Northern Virginia. According to Mr. FitzSimmonds, Northern Virginians represents 25% of the population and pays more than 40% percent of the tax revenue. And in all fairness Northern Virginia should get a piece of the tax monies back from Richmond in form of road additions or construction to alleviate traffic conditions. Some constituents in Richmond, VA according to FitzSimmonds indicated this is a "Northern Virginia" problem and therefore should be address by Northern Virginians; however, according to Mr. FitzSimmonds since Northern Virginia is the major contributor to the state and continues to fund half of the state expenditures, it is fitting for Northern Virginians should get their fair share of the funding from Richmond. He believes this is a State and not a Northern Virginia issue.

Question regarding Illegal Immigration ~ What piece of legislation do you suggest to be submitted and to be enforced regarding the problems with illegal immigration and what can be done without playing politics in solving the illegal immigration issues?

Candidate FitzSimmonds' response:

There are two things he felt needed to be addressed regarding illegal immigration, namely:

Penalize Employers hiring illegal immigrants. He felt that Virginians need to address and change the current contracting laws specifically dealing with the state and local governments.

System identifications for illegal immigrants are not in place. He felt Virginians need to strengthen these deficiencies and introduce mechanisms to better support the system. One example he noted was that hospitals do no have the resources nor the funding to verify individuals with appropriate documentation. FitzSimmonds described a situation wherein an illegal immigrant knowingly falsified documentation in order to gain access to hospital services. One local hospital estimates that about $15 million dollars per year are lost in uncollected revenues.

Senator Colgan's response:

Senator Colgan reminded the audience that Illegal Immigration is a very complex issue. He specifically mentioned El Salvadorans are among the largest portion of illegal aliens population within the Washington Metropolitan area. He estimated that although a lot of El Salvadorans have legitimate working visas (which are good for 18 months) many illegal El Salvadorans constitute the largest concentration of illegal aliens in the Washington DC area. He feels in order to solve this immigration issues, he will need to increase the funding and enforce strict immigration rules and policies.

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Date Published: 2007-10-10 06:00:00

Section: Politics,