With the presidential election come and gone, it is important that we use this momentum to continue to care about our government on a local level, including who our local delegates are.
How many of us really know who represents us in Blacksburg? Now it is time to focus on who our local delegates are and who represents us in Blacksburg.
Jim Schuler represents us in the Virginia General Assembly House of Delegates, 12th District, while Dave Nutter represents us in the 7th district. These are the people whose decisions directly affect us on a local level.
When it comes to downtown Blacksburg it is the leadership of our local officials that keeps daily operations running smoothly. Our local delegates are in charge of regulating downtown transportation and attracting local business. They also control local property taxes and local sales taxes on purchases.
Not many of us have ever taken the time to consider that Blacksburg has a food tax, 5 percent more higher here than in Christiansburg. Our delegates also control what kind of funding goes to the police department, and education, among other institutions. Basically how nice of a place Blacksburg is to live is up to our local government and the decisions that our representatives make.
The House of Delegates holds elections every two years, with the next election cycle being in 2009. Therefore it is necessary to stay involved in local government now and hold our delegates to high standards. Staying involved in decisions that are being made and laws that are being passed.
The presidential election was undoubtedly important, with issues such as health care and the economy looming in all of our futures. However, on a day-to-day basis, decisions made locally weigh so much more. It is not so much that local elections are more important, as it is that they are more effective in getting things done.
While news is undoubtedly being made all over the world everyday, the Collegiate Times tries to focus on covering local news, the news affecting our campus community the most. With that said, decisions being made by our local government officials should take precedence in our society. While national issues certainly matter, electing officials on the local level affect us most directly by managing the people and places that make our town great.
The 2008 presidential election was undoubtedly exciting, but most of us are excited it's over and are just looking forward to the future. Hopefully this future will contain young people not just excited about politics on the national level but also those who are looking to be involved on the local level.
The editorial board is composed of David Grant, Laurel Colella, David McIlroy, Sally Bull and Jackie Peters
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