Alexandria’s state lawmakers returned from Richmond and briefed the city council on the recently completed General Assembly session Tuesday. The consensus? The delegation won some but lost more.

Not that council members were displeased ‘ they lauded Senators Patsy Ticer (D-30) and Dick Saslaw (D-35), as well as Delegates Adam Ebbin (D-39), David Englin (D-45) and Charniele Herring (D-46) for their work, particularly in evading major slashes to education funding.

“But we could have done better,” Mayor Bill Euille said. “A lot of things were just left in committee.”

It wasn’t a dearth of hard work but the disparate economies and cultures of urban and rural Virginia that stifled Alexandria’s agenda, lawmakers said.

“You don’t have the problems that Richmond, Norfolk and Petersburg do,” Saslaw said. “You got a pretty good situation up here they’re at the bottom of the heap and you’re at the top.”

The city’s push for progressive legislation bumps up against other localities’ agendas as well, Englin said.