West Virginia Democratic Party : Statement: Chair Belinda Biafore on 2016 Legislative Session

For Immediate Release:

January 13, 2016

Contact: Brittni McGuire, [e-mail], 304-342-8121

Statement: Chair Belinda Biafore on 2016 Legislative Session

'Today is the first day of the 2016 legislative session and sadly, we know what to expect. The Republican majority has not been shy about their anti-worker and anti-West Virginian agenda. Not only have they not been shy, in fact they keep the threats coming.

Last session, they came after your wages, slashing and cutting, and they have made it clear that their motivations this session are much worse. They will pursue an outright repeal of prevailing wage and push for so called 'right to work' legislation until they see that you are getting paid little enough so that their big money friends can get richer. The Republican majority took aim at our education system by pushing Charter Schools. This put our children's education at risk, taking money away from public schools to fund private schools that your child may or may not be allowed into. They pushed forced pooling, allowing corporations to take property rights away from West Virginia landowners.

These were only a the few reckless actions that were taken by the Republican majority and this session, those reckless actions are coming back.

Even though the Republican majority believes that they can take and take from the hardworking people of West Virginia, we will not stand for it.

We are united as Democrats to fight for you. We will continue to stand up for hardworking West Virginians and their families. We will continue to fight for our workers and their wages. We will continue to fight for our children and their education. We will continue to fight for the people, not for political gain or profit. We will continue to fight for every parent, every veteran, every worker, every child, and every senior. We will continue to fight for all of you.'

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