General Assembly 2014

Winding Down or Gearing Up?

March 6, 2014 by David Toscano

The General Assembly session is scheduled to adjourn on Saturday, March 8, 2014, and it is not clear that we will have a budget by that date. The stumbling block continues to be Medicaid expansion. Many of us have advocated for a budget that includes closing the coverage gap for over 275,000 Virginians. We support bringing some $1.7 billion of Virginian’s taxpayer dollars back to create 30,000 jobs and bolster hospitals that are experiencing severe financial losses at this time. The Senate’s budget includes a compromise approach to Medicaid expansion called “Market Place Virginia,” a proposal which turns over the coverage of these vulnerable Virginians to the private insurance market. Many thought this compromise might win enough support in the House among Republicans, given that it is based on private sector principles, to obtain passage but that does not appear likely at present. For a recent press conference on this issue, click here. You can also watch several speeches on the House Floor on this topic by clicking here.

While much of the focus this session has been on Medicaid expansion, there are other significant initiatives that will likely pass in the next few days. We are making changes in the mental health system to provide better assistance and infuse monies to serve those most in need. The details of these will be finalized in the next several days, but reforms will likely include implementing an internet bed registry so that finding a bed will be easier and provisions that will allow authorities to detain citizens in crisis for a longer period so that assistance can be provided.

Second, we will pass a legislative ethics reform bill that, while not perfect, represents a modest step forward toward restoring some faith that citizens have lost as the result of the McDonnell scandal. We have reduced the number of high-stakes testing associated with the Standards of Learning (SOL), and have set in place a study group to further analyze what needs to happen in the coming years. Finally, the fee on hybrid vehicles that was imposed as part of last year’s transportation package was repealed. Many of us thought that this was not a good idea last year and we are happy to see it overturned.

I was able to pass a number of bills which you can find summarized here:

HB121 – Requires the Department of Taxation to provide to the General Assembly the total amount of credit given for a tax credit regardless of the number of taxpayers who take the credit. Presently, if four or fewer taxpayers take the credit, the Department of Taxation does not release these figures. We allocate approximately $4 billion in tax credits each year. In order to make sound decisions on whether a tax credit is effective, it is necessary to know the total amount of the credit being taken to compare against the economic benefit to Virginia, if any.
HB312 – Allows courts to award attorney fees in civil cases of financial exploitation based on fraud or undue influence. This will assist our senior citizens and their families in the recovery of assets that have been fraudulently taken from them.
HB890 – Co-patroned with Delegate Chris Peace (Hanover), this legislation corrected oversights in the Code created when some Department of Social Services offices changed the title of their ‘social workers’ to ‘family services specialists’. There were many duties that were specified in the Code to be accomplished by ‘social workers’ by definition that are essential to the delivery of services.
HB407 – This measure provides adult adoptees an alternative to the expensive cost of petitioning the Court for identifying information on their birth parents when the parents are deceased by allowing the Commissioner of Social Services to grant their request after the Commissioner has done a full investigation to determine whether or not good cause is shown to release the information
HB1110 – This measure allows a locality to recoup the additional cost of educating a non-resident student enrolled in a special education program from the student’s originating locality. This measure is particularly helpful to Charlottesville City Schools who host a number of non-resident students who attend specialized public education programs available in Charlottesville. The additional cost to the local taxpayers is approximately $36,000 per student. This bill allows Charlottesville to be reimbursed for this additional cost by the locality where the student resided with their parents before being sent to Charlottesville.
HB1233 – Brought to me by the Attorney General, this measure allows individuals who are the target of stalkers to be included in the Address Confidentiality Program. This program allows individuals to hide their physical address from public records if they have been the victim of domestic violence. This bill would provide protection to those who fall victim to stalkers.

In the next few days, we are likely to determine whether to adjourn and go into a special session for purposes of discussing Medicaid reform or remain in session and continue to debate this issue in the coming weeks.

Finally, Nancy and I want to thank you so much for the outpouring of support that we have received in the last couple of weeks. It has made a huge difference to our family and we are humbled by it.

As always, I enjoy hearing from you during the assembly session with your concerns and views about specific bills. This year, Session is scheduled to adjourn March 8, 2014. Please do not hesitate to contact my office. It is a pleasure serving you in the General Assembly.
David Toscano

The Budget, Medicaid Expansion, and my Town Hall Meeting

February 21, 2014 by David Toscano

The House and Senate budgets were debated and ultimately passed yesterday. Budgets are about choices, and the budget that passed the House reflected a choice that Republicans made to reject the expansion of Medicaid coverage to over 275,000 Virginians. In a last minute procedural move, the Republicans offered the Senate plan for Medicaid expansion, the so-called “private option,” as an amendment in order to get a vote on this issue. It was largely a symbolic vote because leadership asked their caucus members to vote as a block. The Medicaid initiative was therefore defeated in the House. It survives in the Senate budget, however, so this issue is anything but dead.

Some interesting contrasts arose in the budget debate. For weeks, a number of us have been arguing that hospitals will experience serious financial losses if we do not expand Medicaid. In response, House Republicans increased appropriations to hospitals by over $100 million. While this appropriation does not approach the shortfall to the hospitals, which is projected at $448 million in 2015, the money nonetheless had to come from somewhere. It was transferred from other parts of the budget, most notably funding for job creation and economic development. House Democrats argued against these transfers: why not help the hospitals by simply expanding Medicaid?

Delegate Toscano with Harold Foley of the Virginia Organizing Project, Deidre Gilmore of the Public Housing Association of Residents, and members of the City of Promise Youth Council.

The House Republican leadership also supported a $300 million initiative to provide the General Assembly members with new office space. Independent of the problems of the building in terms of its air quality and structural soundness, citizens justifiably find it difficult to understand how members can spend $300 million on a new building but be unwilling to use federal dollars to help insure those most in need.

Because of its failure to include Medicaid expansion, I voted against the House budget. For those of you who have any interest in viewing some of my floor speeches on the importance of expanding Medicaid you can watch them on YouTube.

My Telephone Town Hall meeting on Wednesday night was a great success. We had several thousand listeners on the call, despite the fact that we were competing with the public hearing on the 29 Bypass back at home. During the Town Hall meeting, we conducted several instant polls on a variety of issues, from Medicaid to Standards of Learning (SOL) reform. The results were not surprising. Seventy-two percent of the respondents said they support Medicaid expansion, while seventeen percent said they wanted reforms in place before the expansion occurred. And sixty-five percent said they would not support building new offices for the General Assembly unless Medicaid reform was adopted. Sixty-eight percent supported the elimination of certain high-stakes testing as part of SOL reform. Finally, sixty percent said that they were willing to pay a little more on their utility bill if they knew that electricity was being generated through the use of more solar power.

Medicaid Expansion Speech (Feb 14, 2014)

February 14, 2014 by David Toscano

Crossover

February 12, 2014 by David Toscano

We are now at the midpoint of the General Assembly session, a time that we call “crossover,” aptly named for the process by which bills passed in one house “crossover” to the other body. The hours are long and the debates frequently heated as many controversial bills get considered during this period of the General Assembly session.

Medicaid Expansion

The biggest issue of the session continues to be whether or not to close the health care coverage gap by accepting federal dollars that would be used to add between 275,000 to 400,000 Virginians to the Medicaid program. The Senate has proposed a bipartisan option that would allow Virginia to take the federal dollars and work with the private sector to provide insurance for our citizens. Republicans in the House continue to oppose the expansion of Medicaid, insisting on reforms and an audit of the system to occur before we can accept these federal dollars. Democrats in the House argue that expansion and reform can occur at the same time, and point to the reforms that have been enacted over the last several years that have created millions of dollars in savings. We are losing $5 million a day by refusing federal monies that will initially pay 100% of the costs of expansion. Taking the federal dollars makes good business sense and it is one reason why the Virginia Health & Hospital Association and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce support it. If you want to see some of the debate on this, you can watch the video on this page.

Ethics Reform

In other news, the House Ethics bill, on which I am a chief co-patron, has passed and will move to the Senate. This bill places a cap on the soliciting or accepting of tangible gifts over $250, increases the disclosure requirements for assets and debts held by legislators, creates an Ethics Commission to address specific ethical issues, and closes many of the loopholes in the present law. The bill is not perfect, and we will continue to work on it as it moves to the Senate. It is impossible to legislate ethical behavior, but this bill is a major step forward in cutting down on some of the behavior that has affected the public’s trust in their leaders.

Mental Health Policy Reform

Several bills have passed both the Senate and House addressing mental health. There are differences between Senate and House versions, but both will increase the time that citizens in crisis can be held while we look for a bed for them, create a bed registry to assist in locating beds, and insure that our state hospitals can accept patients if a bed cannot otherwise be found.

Other Notable House Bills

Delegate David Toscano with UVa Student Council leaders

Some actions taken by the House which have not drawn substantial publicity but are nonetheless interesting and significant include the following:

HB973 – The House Transportation Committee defeated HB973, a measure that would have eliminated the use of photo red cameras at intersections in the Commonwealth.
HB331 – This measure will establish a first time “home buyer’s savings plan” by which individuals who want to save for a house can deposit money into a specialized account and the interest earned on the account would not be taxable. While this would not likely generate a huge benefit to savers at the present time, it creates a vehicle for providing some tax incentives over time.
HB1229 – This measure postpones the A-F grading system for rating schools for an additional year. I supported a three year extension, but that amendment was defeated. While A – F may sound good, it is fraught with unintended consequences.
HB930 – This reforms Standards of Learning high stakes testing, by reducing the number of assessments students take through 8th grade from 22 to 17 and establishing a study that will review all of the accountability standards. This measure is not only good policy, but will save localities and the Commonwealth money.

Finally, a number of my bills will be heard in the Senate in the next week. Included in those is HB312, a measure that will provide greater assistance to elderly persons who have been financially exploited, and HB121, a measure that will increase the accountability of tax preferences provided to corporate entities by requiring full disclosure of the value of those credits.

As always, I enjoy hearing from you during the assembly session with your concerns and views about specific bills. Please do not hesitate to contact my office. It is a pleasure serving you in the General Assembly.

David Toscano

House Loss is Senate Gain

February 4, 2014 by David Toscano

The big news last week was the transfer of power in the Senate. The election of Lynwood Lewis as the 20th Democratic member of the Senate, and with Democrat Ralph Northam in the tie-breaking role of Lt. Governor, Democrats assumed control and promptly moved to reconstitute committees. This is precisely what the Republicans in the Senate did two years ago. It is not clear how this will affect the key issues of the session, particularly the budget and Medicaid expansion, but we will soon find out.

Medicaid expansion continues to be a major subject of debate. House Republicans have not moved off their opposition, but there is new information every day that makes Medicaid expansion more attractive. An updated set of numbers developed by the administration suggests that Virginia could gain over $1 billion by fiscal year 2022 by accepting Federal dollars and insuring more Virginians who are at or near the poverty line. I have given several floor speeches on this matter and you can access them immediately below or on YouTube. This issue is not likely to be resolved until the end of session.

Several less publicized of interest to our region have passed. HB1141 will make it easier for arts venues in places like Charlottesville to offer alcoholic beverages at their open houses. HB848 will permit Dominion to engage in placing utility lines underground in older cities like Charlottesville.

I supported HB1113, a bill that would have permitted adoption by a “second-parent.” This bill would have allowed same-sex couples to jointly adopt a youngster. It was opposed by the Family Foundation and ultimately tabled in the Courts of Justice committee. I was pleased to vote for and actively support this bill as I think it would have provided greater opportunity for youngsters to be adopted into loving family situations.

A bill that will require Virginia textbooks to recognize that the Sea of Japan is also known as the East Sea was passed by the Senate and will likely pass the House this week. This measure was brought by many Virginians of Korean descent, who feel justifiably wronged by their oppression at the hands of the Japanese through the end of World War II. While I am not sure that the Virginia General Assembly should be engaged in decisions that have foreign policy implications, and worry about the precedent of legislative intrusion into textbook requirements, this bill will likely pass and be signed by the Governor.

Finally, the House passed HB706, a bill targeted directly at Attorney General Mark Herring and his recent decision not to defend the same-sex marriage prohibitions in Virginia law and Constitution. This bill would give standing to House members to represent the Commonwealth when the Attorney General and Governor have chosen not to. I agree with Attorney General Herring, and spoke against this bill on the House floor. If you are interested in my comments you can see them here. I believe this bill violates our traditional separation-of-powers doctrine, a principle that our Founders felt was essential to the maintenance of democracy. The bill creates the possibility of 140 separate Attorneys General that could intervene in court proceedings and supposedly represent the interest of the Commonwealth, a prospect that would prove chaotic. The Senate will likely defeat this bill, but it is yet another example of how partisanship can trump sound governmental policy.

As always, I enjoy hearing from you during the assembly session with your concerns and views about specific bills. Please do not hesitate to contact our office. It is a pleasure serving you in the General Assembly.