Read for Yourself – The Candidates' views on four issues:

How should Virginia fund transportation?

William K. "Bill" Grogan: I assume you mean how should Virginia generate the funds to make up the difference between what is budgeted for transportation and the true amount necessary to maintain the roads. As Larry Sabato said "that's a no-brainer." The gasoline user fee should be raised by 3-5 cents per gallon. This would generate from $ 150-250 million additional funds for transportation, more than is needed. It would even allow for keeping the rest areas open. The beauty of this is that it would cost the average driver ONLY $24-$40 per year.(12,000 miles at 15 miles per gallon equals 800 gallons at five cents per gallon is $40.) Consider this savings over a front end alignment at $125. And out-of-state drivers would provide approximately 40% of the revenues.

G. Manoli Loupassi: Adequately funding transportation is vital to our economic health and quality of life. When we come out of this recession, there will be more money available for transportation. If we are serious about improving and maintaining our roads we have to be willing to use general fund revenue to fund transportation. But, we should not lose sight of the fact that Virginia’s government is doing a horrible job with getting already existing money into the system. For Virginia to be last in the whole country requesting our fair share of federal dollars is unacceptable. And for Virginia to be sitting on $3 billion dollars in un-issued bonds is wrong. We could be building roads right now if VDOT would simply get its act together. There are funds available to improve our systems if our administration would correctly access them.

What, if anything, would you protect from state budget cuts?

William K. "Bill" Grogan: I think it would be unwise to say any one agency, department or service would go unscathed. Remember, we're all out here together; every person and every agency must be willing to share in some of the effects of the economic downturn. Obviously there would be priority areas which would suffer the last and least cuts. For me that would be public safety and education. But even these would take some hits. Many times there are too many at the top in government, and many times they are overpaid. This might be a good place to start cutting.

G. Manoli Loupassi: Public Safety and Public Education are always at the top of the list. But, if we are to be honest with one another, most every government operation will see cuts until the economy recovers from the recession. I agree with both gubernatorial candidates that we need performance audits of every state agency and every state grant. Lets try and target the cuts to the least efficient parts of government, we cannot do that if we do not know or have the information.

What would you do about rising college tuition costs?

William K. "Bill" Grogan: I really don't know the answer to that question, or I don't have a good answer. I know that medical and educational costs have risen at three times the rate of inflation. I don't know if the rise in college tuition is based upon outside influences(private sector) or inside influences(government.) When you see a college coach paid millions of dollars when professors make a mere pittance of that, you know that something is wrong with that picture. But most of the money for coaches comes from private sources. Does this cause the overall cost of everything else to go up? I think so. But unfortunately the public, and alumni, are more interested in the sports programs then they are the academic programs. When colleges allow the Vicks and Iversons to attend for free, it causes the costs for everyone else to go up.

G. Manoli Loupassi: Colleges and Universities need to tighten their belts until we are through the recession, afterwards we can look to more comprehensive solutions. I am strongly in favor of increasing funds to higher education, to make sure that we are adequately prepared to address the needs of the 21st Century. We need increases in research at all Universities in the areas of engineering and technology, so that our country can continue to compete globally.

What is your position on offshore drilling?

William K. "Bill" Grogan: I support offshore drilling as long as it does not damage the environment. I think this can be done. There is another factor that does not get much attention. I think we have to drill for security reasons. Right now China is drilling off the coast of Cuba. My understanding is that these underwater reserves are connected in such a way that if oil is removed from one area, the pressure could possibly cause oil in other areas to fill any voids. In other words our reserves could be reduced by the effect of drilling in other areas. If that is true I think we MUST drill to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and as a necessity for our future security.

G. Manoli Loupassi: I favor it. Off shore drilling will create thousands of new jobs, create new revenue for the state, and reduce our dependence on foreign energy. We must adequately tap into our existing resources, while vigilantly protecting the resources that we have.