Charlottesville and Albemarle County

Doing the People’s Business During a Challenging Time

February 5, 2019 by David Toscano

We are now in the busiest week of the legislative year. On Sunday, the House and Senate budgets were unveiled. Today, February 5, is “crossover,” the day on which all bills must be passed in one legislative body to cross over to the other side of the Capitol for consideration. We debate the budget this Thursday. All of this work is, of course, going forward in the shadow of the turmoil surrounding the Governor. I posted my thoughts (you can read it here) about this still-unfolding situation as of Saturday morning on social media, and will probably have more to say later. For now, however, we legislators are focused on doing the job our constituents elected us to do.

STATUS OF MY BILLS

Eight of my bills have passed the House and will now be considered by the Senate. Four initiatives address rising health insurance premiums and health care costs, and are directly related to the spike in insurance premiums that occurred in Charlottesville in late 2017 during the ACA Marketplace open season to purchase 2018 health care insurance. [Read more…]

Closing Arguments: Be Sure To Vote!

November 5, 2018 by David Toscano

Vote Tomorrow, November 6, 2018

We are in the fight of our lives, and this election is the most important one yet. The Trump presidency is not only systematically attempting to undo the positive changes of the Obama years, but is attacking the institutions of Democracy itself. His assaults on civil servants, labeling those with whom he disagrees part of the “deep state,” diatribes against journalists and the media, and reckless disregard for the rule of law bring to mind Franklin’s admonition in the aftermath of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 231 years ago that the founders had created “a Republic … if you can keep it.” Every day of the Trump White House provides us with more evidence of efforts to undermine the counterbalances to executive power, whether it involves the discriminatory “travel ban,” his efforts to “pack the courts” with like-minded judges, or the peddling of “fake news” claims and cynical lies. [Read more…]

Back to Richmond — No Medicaid Expansion Yet

April 11, 2018 by David Toscano

Since the House and Senate could not agree on a budget during the regular General Assembly Session, which adjourned in March, the Governor has called us back for a Special Session to get it done. The Special Session begins April 11, 2018, but no action will occur immediately on the budget. The new budget bill introduced by Governor Northam will have to go through the regular committee process just like the previous one. The House Appropriations Committee will begin its work quickly, and so it’s entirely possible that a House budget will be ready in time for floor debate on Tuesday, April 17 – but this could change depending on scheduling. We expect that the House budget will include Medicaid expansion and the hospital provider assessment, which allows us to expand without use of additional state dollars, much like it did in the regular Session, but we are not sure yet what will be included in the Senate’s budget. Because the Senate initially rejected Medicaid expansion and the provider assessment, its budget cut more than $400 million from education and other services that would have been funded by accepting the federal Medicaid dollars. While there has been some recent media coverage suggesting that Medicaid expansion will be adopted by the Senate, nothing is assured until the green lights go up on the vote board, and there will need to be considerable negotiations before a final budget compromise is reached. The momentum is positive, but Senate Republican leadership is now the main barrier, and we need to keep advocating for expansion. More than 7,000 citizens in our area would benefit from Medicaid expansion and it would certainly help our local hospitals by recapturing some of the money that would otherwise be spent on indigent care. You can watch the online live stream of the special session here. [Read more…]

Approaching Crossover

February 6, 2018 by David Toscano

The session is now in its fourth week, and the pace has not let up as the deadline for crossover approaches. If you want to watch our work, you can find links to the live and archived versions of the floor sessions here, and committee sessions here.

GUNS AND WAR MEMORIALS

Last Friday was Groundhog Day and we have again witnessed the defeat of most of the gun safety bills. These are often referred by the Speaker to a small subcommittee of largely rural legislators, where they are dispatched quickly in party-line votes. I had two bills (HB 1009 and HB 1019) that both met this fate. The first was a bill to add the City of Charlottesville to a list of jurisdictions where semi-automatic weapons are not permitted in public spaces. The second was a bill to allow localities throughout the Commonwealth to prohibit the carrying of weapons and firearms into a permitted demonstration area. Both of these bills were filed in response to the events of August 11th and 12th. Each was defeated on 4 – 2 votes in a small subcommittee of the Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee of the House. Similar bills have also died in the Senate, along with other gun safety measures.

My bill (HB 1225) to clarify the law related to war memorials met a similar fate in a different committee. [Read more…]

The Pace Quickens As Bills Move

January 29, 2018 by David Toscano

We are now more than two weeks into the 2018 General Assembly session, and the pace has increased dramatically. Committees begin meeting at 7 a.m. and continue after session each day, often into the early evening. Most of my bills have not yet been reported to the House floor, although I have had success on several measures at the committee level.

Preservation, Medical Marijuana, And Parental Leave

My bill to assist the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery with funding for their ongoing and important restoration efforts here in Charlottesville sailed through a subcommittee hearing, and is likely to be passed by the House next week.

I have supported various efforts to use cannabidiol oil or THC-A oil, derived from marijuana, to treat pain associated with a number of serious illnesses, and to broaden physicians’ ability to prescribe them for this purpose. At present, these oils can only be prescribed for intractable epilepsy. A measure I introduced to expand their availability to other illnesses has been heard in subcommittee and will move to the full Courts of Justice Committee soon. And Democratic bills (including mine) to mandate 12 weeks of parental leave for state employees when they add a child to their family, by birth or adoption, are awaiting action in an Appropriations subcommittee; I hope to be able to report progress on this soon. [Read more…]

STATUS OF MY BILLS

Vote Tomorrow, November 6, 2018

GUNS AND WAR MEMORIALS

Preservation, Medical Marijuana, And Parental Leave

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