Opinion In Brief

Register to vote

The deadline to register to vote in Virginia is this Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 5 p.m. If you haven’t done so already, this is your chance to have a voice about which direction Virginia will take over the next four years. Since turnout is historically lower for local and state elections, your vote will count that much more.

Under the leadership of Gov. Mark Warner (D) and thanks to moderate Republicans in the state legislature, Virginia has balanced its budget, cut food taxes, eliminated the marriage penalty, raised the personal exemption and lowered the car tax – all while providing new funding for education and Virginia’s other priorities.

At an education forum held at VCU Sept. 15, both Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore (R) were asked how they would deal with tuition. While Kaine expressed support for keeping tuition in line with inflation, Kilgore was noncommittal, saying that as governor he would not be one to “set tuition levels.”

With college tuition having increased during the last few years by as much as twice the rate of inflation, you do the math.