River Farm Update #4 - Grassroots Group Forms, Gov Northam Weighs In & AG's Investigating

Here is the latest status update on River Farm. We have continued to have meetings among our stakeholder group working out a strategy to maximize the potential that River Farm will remain in public ownership. Here is what's going on. 

Grassroots Group Organized 

The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT) has generously agreed to organize and lead a grassroots effort called Save River Farm to build support and raise private funds to support the purchase of River Farm by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA). 

The new website is here - Save River Farm Website 

If you care about saving River Farm, it is important that you do two things right now: 

 #1 - Sign up for email updates from the new group: 

 EMAIL SIGN UP HERE 

 #2 - Donate funds to help build private support. 80% of funds will be used for land acquisition, 10% for public advocacy, and 10% for administration. Donations are 100% tax deductible. 

DONATE HERE 

 

Weekly Column: Legislators Revised the Budget to Address Many Needs

The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Prince William Times, The Fort Hunt Herald, and Potomac Local in the week of November 2, 2020.

Legislators Revised the Budget to Address Many Needs

The General Assembly met over the last few months in a special session to finalize our state budget.  We had to revisit the budget because in the last week of our regular, winter session, the COVID-19 pandemic started to flare up, the shutdown began shortly after and the economic damage and uncertainty made it impossible to build a two-year budget. Governor Ralph Northam proposed amendments that the General Assembly approved in April putting all new spending on hold until we had reliable revenue estimates.  Two weeks ago, we approved a revised budget that takes a more modest approach than our original budget, but it still has some significant investments. 

First, we balanced our budget as required by the state constitution.  Second, the budget leaves over $1 billion unspent in reserves because of continued economic uncertainty.  It is a very fiscally prudent budget.