Reconvene Session Passes Transportation Plan, More Restrictions on Abortion

April 9, 2013

The “Veto” Session commenced at noon on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, and finished at 1:00 a.m. the next morning. It is hard to believe that we could take so long, but most of our time was focused on electing new judges around the Commonwealth in a Special Session.

The Governor made numerous recommendations for changes in bills that had been previously passed by the General Assembly. The most notable of these involved modifications in the transportation bill, which had been passed by a bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate. The Governor’s changes reduced the size of the plan somewhat and included a small reduction in the “hybrid tax”; the $100.00 fee was redu...

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Session Ends with a Bang

February 26, 2013

The 2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly adjourned on Saturday, February 23rd at 5:21 p.m., with the passage of what is arguably the most significant legislation with which I have been involved since I took my seat in 2006.

This session will be remembered primarily for two issues – transportation and Medicaid.

Transportation

When this session began on January 9, 2013, few would have predicted that we would ultimately pass the most significant transportation plan since 1986. This was not easy, and it almost unraveled at the last minute due to the intervention of our Attorney General, who had opposed any increases in transportation revenues, even the inadequate proposal that the...

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Thoughts on the Transportation Bill

February 25, 2013

I received many letters and emails regarding the transportation bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly on February 23, 2013. After considerable thought, and consultation with the Governor’s office and my colleagues in the House and Senate, I decided to support this bill, because it represents a significant step forward in our efforts to address transportation funding challenges in the Commonwealth.

Unlike the Governor’s proposal, the bill retains gasoline taxes as the basis for funding transportation, though not to the extent that I desired. It is not a perfect bill, but is substantially better than what the Governor proposed in January of this year. It accomplishes many im...

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Toscano speech on Transportation Bill

February 22, 2013

“Ladies and gentleman of the House,

This is perhaps the most important vote that I have cast in my eight years here in this chamber.

Many of our constituents are very cynical about politics these days. You hear them all the time. Some of them simply call your office and ask that something be done and they just honestly disagree with your perspective on issues. Others, however, are so wedded to some abstract notion of political purity that unless you do it their way, they don’t want you to do it at all. If you do not conform to their vision, they will toss you out in a New York minute. This kind of attitude breeds gridlock and inaction, and helps explain many of the reasons why we canno...

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Crossover and the Fate of Transportation

February 6, 2013

Yesterday was crossover, the day upon which bills introduced in one chamber of the General Assembly have to be approved and sent to the other, or they are defeated for the year. Our sessions are long and the debates intense, and many of these bills are controversial. Much of recent debate has focused on the Governor’s proposed transportation bill. This plan, which I believe does not provide ...

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Statement on the Dragas Reappointment Vote

January 29, 2013

“We speak a lot about responsibility and accountability in this chamber. Today we have the opportunity to make a statement, loudly and clearly, that we not only value those two principles but one that lies at the heart of Mr. Jefferson’s University – the concept of honor. The events of last spring at the University, engineered by the person before us for reappointment, placed the flagship University of the Commonwealth in the type of peril that it has not experienced since its founding in the 1830s by an act of this General Assembly. Ms. Helen Dragas was appointed to the Board in 2008. She came as a rising star, an accomplished business person, someone known for her charitable deeds an...

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Power Grab

January 25, 2013

General Assembly Again Makes Headlines

Virginia has yet again become fodder for late night talk show comedy. It would be funny if it were not so serious. In a dramatic power grab, Senate Republicans passed a wholesale redistricting bill and sent it to the House this week. The bill violates House rules, the Virginia Constitution, and all sense of fair play. Under the Virginia Constitution redistric...

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Toscano on Redistricting

January 22, 2013

Toscano Morning Hour Comments on Redistricting

It has been said that redistricting is the exercising of raw political power, occasionally sprinkled with doses of public input. Well, yesterday in the other body we saw raw political power in full bloom, in a process that violates our traditions in the House.

As most know, on the floor of the other body, without any notice or opportunity for public comment, a substitute for a house bill – our house bill – was introduced which dramatically alters certain districts. Our bill – sponsored by the gentleman from Spotsylvania – was called “technical adjustments’ in re-districting plan. What the Senate did, however, ...

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Va General Assembly Session Week 2:
Noteworthy Developments

January 18, 2013

The second week of the Virginia General Assembly has closed with several notable developments.

Curbing Gun Violence

House and Senate Democrats joined together this week in proposing a number of measures designed to curb gun violence, including more funding for mental health initiatives, greater efforts to provide security in public schools, and comprehensive background checks for those who seek to...

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Week One at the 2013 General Assembly

January 11, 2013

The first week of the General Assembly has come to an end. The big news of the week involves the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address. In that address, he unveiled a new proposal to fund transportation. For the last decade, we have done little to provide an adequate source of revenue to fund investments in our roads, bridges, transit, and rail. The Governor proposed an innovative pla...

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Toscano Responds to the State of the Commonwealth Address

January 10, 2013

David Toscano (D-Charlottesville), the Democratic Leader in the Virginia House of Delegates, delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Commonwealth address on January 9, the first day of the 2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly.

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Prospects for the 2013 General Assembly

January 5, 2013

On Monday, January 7, 2013, I arrive in Richmond for my eighth General Assembly Session, my second as Democratic Leader in the House.

Each General Assembly session takes on a special character and tone and this one will be no different. Last year’s session garnered national headlines as Republicans pushed socially divisive legislation, including a bill to force women to have an invasive ultr...

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Ending Political Gridlock

January 4, 2013

Deeds and Toscano Introduce Redistricting Commission Bill

(Charlottesville, VA – January 4, 2013) – Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds and House of Delegates Democratic Leader David Toscano are introducing a bill to reform the redistricting process. The bill will amend the Virginia Constitution to establish the Virginia Redistricting Commission, a bipartisan group that would create Congressional and State legislative districts which are contiguous, compact, and respect city and county boundaries – and specifically be drawn without favor to a political party or legislator.

“The main reason for political gridlock is legislative districts that have been gerrymandered to...

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A Bright Future for Virginia

December 3, 2012

Toscano’s HB1686 (2011) Clears Path for SCC’s Approval of Pilot Solar Energy Generation Project Charlottesville, VA

Responding to a 2011 Bill introduced by Delegate David Toscano, the State Corporation Commission on Wednesday approved Dominion Virginia Power’s request to initiate pilot solar-energy generation projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Dominion proposes to construct up to 30 MW of solar distributed generation facilities, using approximately 30 – 50 installations that would be owned by Dominion but be placed on leased commercial, industrial and community locations, such as rooftops.

Cale Jaffe, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said...

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