General Assembly Updates 2016

Virginia General Assembly building in Richmond

The Crunch of Crossover

February 15, 2016 by David Toscano

By the end of Tuesday, February 16, the House of Delegates and the Senate must pass their respective bills and send them over to the other chamber in order for them to be considered for passage this year. We call this “Crossover.”

We will likely hear hundreds of bills today and tomorrow, some of which have substantial consequences for the Commonwealth.

Charter Schools

One of the more controversial bills is the proposed Constitutional Amendment that would allow the Commonwealth to override local governments’ decisions and require them to create Charter schools within their boundaries. Some of us in the legislature support the idea of Charter schools, but only if they are locally created and controlled. We have successful Charter schools in our area that provide options not available in traditional public schools. Data indicates that Charter schools work in some instances, but that is not always the case.

The proposed Constitutional amendment, sponsored by local delegate Rob Bell, would dramatically transform how Charter schools are approved in Virginia; it would grant the state Board of Education the power to overturn a local decision not to authorize a Charter school. The cost of operating the charter school, as a public school, will be partly borne by the locality even though it was imposed on them by the state. This classic example of an unfunded mandate could undermine budgetary efforts to increase funding for existing public schools. The amendment narrowly passed the House (50-47), and it is not clear if it will pass the Senate. If it does, it will be on the ballot for voters to decide in November.

COPN and Hospital Revenues

In another controversial and close vote, the House approved a significant change to the Commonwealth’s system for scrutinizing expansion of hospital or ambulatory services. Most citizens know very little about this, but it has important implications, especially in areas with multiple hospitals like Charlottesville-Albemarle. The “certificate of public need” (COPN) process is designed to ensure that hospital services are not overbuilt in a community, and a certificate is only issued when there is a demonstrated need in the region. Some critics claim the COPN process stifles competition; however, hospitals are concerned that without state oversight, other providers will offer only the most profitable services to patients. This would leave hospitals with less revenue to provide levels of charity care, particularly in the emergency room, and could lead to increased costs for other services so the hospital can remain solvent. The risk posed by repeal of COPN to rural hospitals, which operate on very tight margins, is especially troubling, and the people most likely to be caught in the crossfire are the poor, who depend on hospitals for indigent care because they lack insurance.

I support reform of the COPN process, not its elimination, and only if it is part of reforms that provide greater access to health facilities for indigent and uninsured citizens. Therefore, I voted against full repeal. The bill to repeal COPN passed by a narrow margin in the House and faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

Update on My Bills

My bill (HB936), which gives local school divisions more flexibility in helping students with limited English proficiency to graduate from high school, has passed the House and is now headed for the Senate. Another of my initiatives, designed to extend foster care to youngsters who are over the age of 18, is still alive in the House Appropriations Committee.

Cars of the Future

Last week, I was given the opportunity to ride in a self-directed, driverless automobile, a prototype being developed by Audi that may be on the roads in the next five years. It was an amazing experience. You simply push two buttons, take your hands off the wheel, and the vehicle drives itself. We traveled 65 MPH on I-64, and through the use of almost 30 separate sensors on the vehicle, we were able to change lanes and pass without incident, accelerate and decelerate to take account of the traffic, and negotiate curves smoothly without departing from the lane. Audi is not, of course, the only manufacturer working on these vehicles, but we can expect a day in the not-too-distant future when the technology will not only make travel safer but more enjoyable as well. Just in case you are wondering, you are not permitted to fall asleep while you are at the wheel.

Guns, Redistricting, Tolls and Right to Work

February 5, 2016 by David Toscano

We are now three weeks into session and “cross-over,” the term used to describe the date by which all bills must be passed by the originating chamber so they then can “cross-over” to the other chamber for consideration, is approaching. The hours are long and many of the debates are heated because we have to meet deadlines for bills to proceed. The highlights of this week include:

Gun Safety Compromise

The gun safety legislation compromise continues to be debated. Much of the criticism has come from gun safety groups who believe the Governor didn’t get enough in exchange for modifying the Attorney General’s stance on concealed weapons reciprocity agreements. Under the proposed compromise, our reciprocity agreements would remain in effect, thereby undoing Attorney General Herring’s recent position. For advocates of gun rights, a deal on reciprocity was very important, as many people who have a concealed weapons permit issued in Virginia want to retain the ability to carry concealed in adjacent states. Reversing the Attorney General’s position, then, was their number one legislative goal.

In exchange, gun safety advocates received two improvements in the law. First, a person subject to a protective order issued by a judge will no longer be able to possess, own, or transport a firearm in the Commonwealth; they will have to surrender those weapons immediately upon issuance of the order, and will face serious consequences for any failure to do so. Second, we will now have “voluntary” background checks available for private sellers at gun shows; they can ask the State Police to conduct a background check of anyone who seeks to purchase a firearm. Proponents of the measure believe that this will establish a “best practices” standard for background checks and potentially could be used to impose liability on a seller who does not adequately check the background of a person who then commits a serious crime and inflicts serious injuries on a citizen. Bills enacting the deal have not yet been completed, but will likely be considered next week. I appreciate the comments on this that I have received to date.

Redistricting Reform Blocked

House Republicans have again killed all redistricting reform. There were at least five different redistricting bills that would have improved our process, which is overly political and simply protects incumbents, but they were all killed with little debate in subcommittee. I will continue to advocate for redistricting reform because I believe it is critical for the long-term viability of our democracy.

“Right to Work” Statute

Both bodies have now passed a measure that will put the so called “right-to-work” statute on the fall ballot for possible inclusion in the Virginia Constitution. You can see the debate on this issue on YouTube. Those of us who voted against this argued that the “right-to-work” statute has been in Virginia law since 1947 and has never been seriously questioned. Since there is no pressing need, there is no reason to amend Virginia’s Constitution. Voters, of course, will have the final say on this issue in November, and I hope that citizens will vote against the constitutional amendment.

Transportation Funding

A wide variety of bills relating to how and when the Commonwealth can place tolls on certain roads was considered and passed by the Transportation Committee in the House. In our area, we do not usually think about this issue, but it has tremendous statewide implications. As many know, I-66 in Northern Virginia is among the most congested highways in the country, and its capacity could be dramatically improved with additional lanes. At present, the Commonwealth does not have sufficient monies to build these additional lanes, with the result that private capital would need to be used to build new lanes, and tolls would need to be imposed to recover the cost. If tolling was prohibited, the possibility existed that road and transit money that would otherwise flow to areas like Charlottesville and Albemarle could be diverted to Northern Virginia to pay for those transportation improvements. That would be a tragedy for our area and is one reason why I voted for the tolling bills. Under the bills, there could be no tolls imposed in places in and around Charlottesville without General Assembly approval.

My Bills

My bill to prohibit discrimination against persons because of sexual orientation and gender identity (HB913) was tabled in a House subcommittee, as well as my bill to prohibit legislators from raising campaign money during special sessions of the General Assembly (HB914). My bill to permit the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) access to Neighborhood Assistance Tax Credits (HB742) has now passed the House and is moving to the Senate. I have several bills on education that are before committee early next week as well as my “vehicle-to-grid” bill (HB1137), a measure that would allow owners of electric vehicles to sell the energy stored in their batteries back to the grid when their vehicles are not operating.

For those of you interested in seeing recent floor speeches, you can view them all on my David Toscano YouTube channel. There are floor speeches on education, Virginia’s economy, and the successes of the Obama administration.

If you want to find out some more about our session, I recently taped a broadcast that will be presented on our local access cable later this month, or you can watch it on my YouTube channel here.

A Deal on Guns?

January 29, 2016 by David Toscano

One of the biggest surprises of this General Assembly Session to date involves a possible deal to enhance gun safety in the Commonwealth. On Friday, January 29, Governor McAuliffe and Speaker Howell proposed a deal involving concealed carry permit reciprocity, enhanced background checks, and greater protections for victims of domestic violence. The deal is still not finalized, because a number of bills will have to pass and be signed by the Governor before all of the measures take effect. Much of the Capitol was surprised by the proposal, which apparently originated after the NRA approached the Governor’s office to see if anything could be done to restore concealed permit reciprocity agreements that Attorney General Herring recently stated he would not enforce because a review was not done of the other states’ permit requirements, as current law specifies. The proposal, as it is emerging, has three basic components:

Virginia will continue to recognize concealed carry permits from other states as was done prior to the Attorney General’s action of several months ago. It has been my view that we should not allow a state with less stringent criteria than Virginia to control who should be able to carry concealed in our state. Virginia has specific criteria for concealed permits and it is only common sense that non-Virginians also meet our criteria in order to exercise the privilege of carrying a concealed weapon in the Commonwealth.
Victims of domestic violence will gain greater protection, something we have advocated for years. Under the proposed deal, a person subject to a protective order that has been adjudicated by a judge will not be permitted to own, possess, or transport a firearm for as long as the Order is in effect. Concrete data exists that shows this change will actually save lives; there have been four reported gun deaths committed by former partners after a protective order was issued. I have offered and supported bills like this in the past, all of which had been previously killed by the more strident gun groups.
We would expand background checks at gun shows. Last year, I proposed such a measure which was defeated in subcommittee. Under present law, licensed dealers at gun shows have to conduct a background check of every person who attempts to buy a firearm. Private sellers at the shows, however, do not. This has been called the “gun show loophole.” Under the deal, private sellers would not be required to conduct a background check, but if they have any concerns about a person seeking to buy the firearm, they could request such a check be done by the State Police in advance of selling the firearm.

While this deal is not perfect and there is much work that remains, it represents a major step toward gun safety. It remains to be seen if the “gun groups” will support any deal, but passing bills like these would go a long way to improve the feeling of safety and security among domestic violence victims and within our communities. It is important to stress that we would not have gotten here without the courage of Attorney General Herring and the actions of our Governor.

I am most interested to hear how my constituents feel about this proposed deal. Several votes will be taken in the next week or two, and it will be good to hear from citizens with any concerns that you have.

In other news, we continue our efforts to elect Supreme Court Justice Jane Roush to a full term on the bench. On Wednesday, she was deemed qualified in a unanimous vote by the House Courts of Justice Committee. The Republican leadership has been critical of Roush, but has never really presented a rationale for why she should be fired. If she is ousted, it will be the first time a sitting Supreme Court Justice has been removed in over 115 years. The only apparent reason is the Republican leadership did not like the way Governor McAuliffe handled the appointment. At present, the candidate of the Republican leadership does not have sufficient votes to be approved by the Senate, with the result that we are deadlocked. If the appointment is not made by the end of the Session, Governor McAuliffe has the opportunity for another “recess appointment,” and is likely to reappoint Justice Roush. We will then do this again in January 2017. This entire situation is extremely troubling because it is further politicizing the selection process.

My resolution, HR75, which commends the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom and condemns the statements of those that would argue that Muslims should be prohibited from entering the United States because of their religion was passed this week. Two of my other bills, HB935, a bill to extend foster care services to youngsters over the age of 18, and HB915, a measure that will allow localities like Charlottesville and Albemarle who have video dashboard monitoring systems on their school buses to report violations of unlawful passing, continue to move forward and may come to the floor next week. I am hoping that each of these measures will be passed and become law.

The Democrats in the House have been reenergized by eight new Democratic members who took their seats in January. As Leader, this is making a dramatic difference as we advance our proposals in the House.

2016 Legislative Agenda

January 21, 2016 by David Toscano

Bills offered by Delegate Toscano

Most of the Virginia General Assembly bills have now been filed and they include eleven of my own. I have a great package this year and they include the following:

HB899, which will allow persons over the age of 65 to vote absentee without having to provide any excuse whatsoever. This will allow greater ease of voting for senior citizens and hopefully will increase voter participation.
HB935, a bill to extend foster care services to youngsters who would otherwise “age-out” at age 18. There are many youngsters who would benefit by remaining in the foster care system for a few more years after they reach the age of 18. This bill would allow them access to a wider variety of services designed to better prepare them for adult life. Virginia has one of the highest percentages of children who age-out of foster care; many of those do not yet have the skills necessary to negotiate adult life. This bill will allow those services to be extended up to the age of 21.
HB913, which will prohibit discrimination, employment and housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
HB 915, a measure that will allow localities like Charlottesville and Albemarle which have video-monitoring systems on school buses that record violations of unlawful passing of a bus to execute a summons for a violation by mailing the summons to the vehicle owner who committed the offense. There are an increasing number of drivers who are illegally passing stopped school buses, and this will provide an additional tool to penalize those who violate the law and deter people who might otherwise consider it.
HB933 and HB936, two measures that will assist public school divisions. HB933 will keep school divisions from being penalized for taking youngsters who have been placed in their custody from out of their jurisdiction and who drop out soon after entering the division. In some instances, a student will be placed in the custody of the local Department of Social Services and come into a school division from another jurisdiction. They will then drop out almost immediately and the student is then counted against the drop-out rate for that division. This is unfair because the division has not had sufficient time and opportunity to work with the student and retain them in school.HB936 will provide flexibility for school divisions which have to address students with limited English proficiency, primarily among immigrants. The students may be perfectly competent, but because of language difficulties they fail math or English SOLs. This bill will give greater flexibility in how these youngsters are assessed.
HB914 is a measure that will prohibit political fundraising by legislators during legislative special sessions. At present, we are prevented from raising money while we are in regular session. The rationale behind that is that we are dealing with bills that affect the economic condition of groups and individuals who provide us political contributions, and acceptance of contributions one day and voting the next on a law that benefits the contributor is not proper. We do not have such a prohibition, however, during special sessions when a number of significant pieces of legislation are considered. For example, we had a long special session several years ago about transportation funding and yet we were allowed to take political campaign contributions from the very groups that would be benefiting by decisions we were making. My bill would stop this.
HB941 is a bill that would extend the scope of clean energy programs by including certain residential properties that cannot avail themselves of voluntary special lien assessment provisions that encourage the installation of rooftop solar collectors.
HR75 is a resolution that commends the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom and condemns the statements of prominent politicians who argue that Muslims should be prohibited from entering the United States because of their religion.

You can follow these and all other bills offered before the 2016 General Assembly by visiting lis.virginia.gov. Please contact me at deldtoscano@house.virginia.gov if you wish to comment on my legislation or any other legislation before us this Session. My office number in Richmond during Session is (804) 698-1057.

State of the Commonwealth Address

January 15, 2016 by David Toscano

The Assembly Convenes

The 2016 General Assembly Session convened at noon on Wednesday, January 13, 2016.

The focus of the first day’s activity was the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth Address. Gov. McAuliffe gave an enthusiastic and optimistic speech centering on his goals for this session, including passing his two-year budget. Much of the next sixty days will focus on the budgetary priorities of the Governor and legislature. In addition, we will consider some 3,000 bills, which will run the gamut of whether we should designate a state reptile to the passage of $109 billion two-year budget.

Biennium Budget

This is Governor McAuliffe’s first two-year budget and it reflects his focus on building the new Virginia economy. There are proposals for substantial investments in job creation, workforce credentialing, and education. As many of you know, Virginia did not emerge from this recession as robustly as it has in years past, due primarily to federal sequestration and to cutbacks in federal dollars flowing to the Commonwealth in the form of defense and consulting contracts. Since the amount of federal dollars coming to the Commonwealth will not likely be restored to previous levels, the Governor is rightfully focused on increased diversification of our economy. He has proposed investing more money into the Port of Virginia, creating greater opportunities at institutions of higher education to commercialize creative ideas and get them to market, and providing funds for community colleges to train Virginia citizens to take the jobs of the future.

Budget Priorities

I strongly support the Governor’s priorities in this budget, including restoring much of the monies that were cut from education spending as a result of budgetary pressures of the last six years. The Governor wants to increase the number of teachers and provide them with raises. His budget includes $500 million to fund the “re-benchmarking for the standards of quality,” a phase we use to describe monies necessary to keep school resources at their present level. The Governor also proposes more spending on pre-K education and at our institutions of higher learning. I will support most all of it. The Governor includes initiatives designed to make Virginia the most veteran-friendly state in the nation. We have made great strides in the last few years, including ending veterans’ homelessness in the Commonwealth and committing ourselves to building veteran care centers in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.

Finally, there are many worthy new initiatives in the area of juvenile justice in the Governor’s budget and his legislative package. In Virginia we spend more than $140,000 per year to keep a youngster in a juvenile correction center. Almost 80 percent of those young people are re-arrestedwithin three years of being released. In fact, the research suggests that the longer a young person stays in a juvenile correction system, the more likely they are to re-offend when released. This is not a particularly good return on our investment. Consequently, there are proposals that take savings from closing several large juvenile facilities that either are in disrepair or are no longer needed because the population of juvenile detainees is declining, and reinvesting the savings in small facilities and in community-based corrections, an approach that many of us believe will give us greater opportunities to prevent recidivism among young people.

Next Week

In my next update, I will provide you with a list of the bills that I have introduced for the session and others that I am especially watching that have some potential relevance for our community.