David Toscano

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David Toscano
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General Assembly Update (Feb. 20, 2015)

February 20, 2015 by David Toscano

The 2015 General Assembly session is scheduled to adjourn on February 28, 2015. The revised budget is just about done and will likely include some raises for teachers and state employees. It is also likely to include some additional monies for higher education. These are important advances, though I would like to see additional funding for education.

The budget does not go far enough in a number of other ways, and still does not provide for the expansion of Medicaid, which could bring back hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars to help Virginians secure health insurance, create jobs, and strengthen our hospital systems.

A number of the major initiatives that I have worked on look likely to pass in some form. The bill to expand the DNA database, which was proposed in response to the Hannah Graham murder, has now passed the Senate in a form slightly modified from the one that was passed by the House. This means that there will be a conference committee composed of Senate and House members to reconcile the two bills for final passage. The same is true with the campus sexual assault reporting bill. I hope to be involved in the final discussions on these bills and expect them to be passed and signed by the Governor.

In the energy arena, one of the major debates focused on the bill proposed by Dominion Virginia Power to freeze electric utility rates for the next five years. This is drawing considerable controversy in the press, and much of the focus has been on the initial form of the bill, which was extremely detrimental to consumers and those of us who support greater investment in renewable energy. The bill that passed, however, is substantially different than the one that was proposed. In fact, the amended bill was not opposed by the Sierra Club, nor the League of Conservation Voters. It includes a requirement that Dominion undertake a weatherization program for low-income persons, and unprecedented initiatives to expand solar and other renewables. The bill provides some comfort to consumers as it will freeze the “base rates” of the utility for the next five years. Your utility bill may or may not change, however, as your bill also reflects the cost of fuel. If natural gas continues to decline, that decrease in price will be passed on to the consumer in the form of lower bills. If there is a spike in natural gas or other fuel sources, your bill will likely rise. But the base rate, which is determined by the cost of other operations of the utility, such as maintaining its infrastructure and repairs and replacements generated by weather events and natural disasters, will be borne solely by the utility. In the event that Dominion “over earns” after the five year period, they will have to provide a credit to consumers, or an actual reduction in base rates.

My efforts to reform the coal tax credits have not yet succeeded. Republicans in the House and Senate have not yet been convinced of the economic arguments opposing the massive taxpayer subsidies provided to the coal and utility companies. This has amounted to approximately $600 million over the last twenty years for an industry that has lost three quarters of its workforce during this period and is now mining substantially less coal. Unfortunately, some people are so “locked in” to the so called “war on coal” argument, and are willing to allow their constituents to further subsidize an industry that is failing. The better approach is to take the money and invest it in emerging industries in southwest Virginia that will create better jobs in the long run. We will continue to fight for reform.

Several of my other bills will soon pass both bodies and go to the Governor. Included in these is my bill to give property owners more flexibility in how they deal with the city’s zoning ordinance for sidewalk construction (HB 2051), a bill to eliminate paperwork for small businesses as they file their personal property tax documents with their localities (HB 2098), and a bill requiring universities to provide more information about their sponsored research programs and the degree to which these initiatives are creating more commercial activity in the Commonwealth (HB 1959).

And, for your viewing pleasure, you may be interested in a floor speech I gave this week on “millennials” and how Democrats are responding to their concerns in Richmond. You can see it here.

I am looking forward to returning to Charlottesville to spend more time with my family, resume my law practice, and serve my constituents from my local office. It is a pleasure serving you in Richmond.

Sincerely,

David Toscano

David Toscano

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Filed Under: General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: Affordable Health Care, Charlottesville sidewalk funding program, Coal Tax Credits, DNA Database Expansion, Education, Environmental Protection, K-12 Education funding, Medicaid expansion, Renewable Energy, Sexual Assault Policy, State Employee Compensation, Virginia Higher Education Funding

General Assembly Update (Feb 4, 2015)

February 5, 2015 by David Toscano

We are approaching “crossover,” the day on which all bills must be passed by one body so they can be sent over to the other body for consideration.  As a result, there are long floor sessions, and meetings that begin in the early morning and extend late into the evening.

DNA database expansion

A number of very important measures upon which I have worked are working their way through the process. The first is the DNA database expansion bill (HB 1617), which was proposed in response to the Hannah Graham tragedy. Right now, we collect DNA from persons convicted of felonies. Under the bill, DNA samples would be taken (much as we currently take fingerprints) from persons convicted of serious misdemeanors. The final list of misdemeanors is yet to be determined, but, for the present, in addition to those already included in the law today, the list includes:

18.2-57       (Assault & Battery)

18.2-60.3    (Stalking)

18.2-102     (Theft of Vehicle Valued under $200)

18.2-121     (Criminal Trespass)

18.2-186.3  (Identify Fraud)

18.2-195     (Credit Card Fraud)

18.2-308     (Concealed Carry)

18.2-387     (Indecent Exposure)

18.2-387.1  (Obscene Sexual Display)

18.2-460     (Obstructing Justice)

18.2- 479.1 (Resisting Arrest)

Some people have suggested that the list includes minor offenses such as jaywalking or certain traffic offenses. This is not the case. It also does not include any offenses committed by juveniles. The list has been limited to those misdemeanors that tend to be predictive, to the extent that they can, of future criminal behavior. At sub-committee level, Sheriff Chip Harding and Gil Harrington, the mother of former Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, who was abducted and murdered several years ago, testified on behalf of the bill. Sheriff Harding pointed out that Jessie Mathew, the alleged assailant of Hannah Graham, had been convicted of misdemeanor trespass several years before a rape for which he has now been charged, occurred in Fairfax.  If his DNA had been taken and put into the database, it is likely that the police would have linked him to the Fairfax rape and he would never have met Hannah Graham.

Delegate Bell and Senator Obenshain have similar bills.  My bill has been rolled into Delegate Bell’s bill, and that is the measure which ultimately may be passed by the House, perhaps as early as Monday.

Campus sexual assault and campus safety

Two other initiatives that I have proposed related to campus sexual assault and campus safety are headed to the House Courts of Justice committee, having cleared a preliminary hurdle in the Education Committee. My bill, HB 2201, requires that a college transcript be annotated in the event that a person is convicted of sexual misconduct on campus or withdraws because of such an allegation. This will help inform employers and universities of the person’s previous behavior while in school so that they can make better judgments about whether to admit that person to their institution or hire them.

A more complex bill related to this issue, the College Sexual Assault Reporting bill (HB 2139), has been modified significantly since it was introduced. Originally, it was a “mandatory reporting” bill, but after hearing from many constituents and being briefed on the complexities of Federal law, the bill now is what might be referred to as an “enhanced encouragement to report” bill. I believe it balances the need for a survivor to determine how, if at all, he or she wants to prosecute a case, with the desire of the community to be protected from serial predators (studies indicate that assailants often reoffend).  Under my measure, there is a requirement that employees at universities who obtain knowledge of sexual assault report the incident to the campus Title IX Coordinator or to campus security.

The Title IX Coordinator, with the assistance of campus security, would then convene a threat assessment team, which is composed of campus security, mental health professionals, attorneys, and other designees from the University. Those people would be able to access mental health records and criminal histories on the alleged assailant to provide the team with information about the alleged perpetrator in order to determine whether they may pose a risk to the community. Under current state and federal law, this information is not easily available to the University. My redrafted bill would change that. Using the threat assessment team approach will allow universities to make better decisions on reporting.

The Title IX Coordinator will then have sufficient information to assist in the decision of whether to report the incident to local law enforcement and encourage prosecution as needed.  At the same time, the survivor will be given information sufficient to empower him or her with options of how to proceed, to ensure evidence will not be lost, and to make prosecution easier if it occurs. This strikes the appropriate balance between the rights of the victim and the rights of the community, and I hope that the General Assembly will look favorably upon it.

House revised budget

The House revised budget will be released on Sunday. We are working to include some additional monies to provide raises for state employees and teachers. I am still hopeful that we will reprogram some of the special tax breaks given to the coal and utility companies for spending on public safety and education. (You can see my speech on coal credits on YouTube).

Sidewalk construction and vehicle-to-grid bills

My bill to provide more flexibility to the City of Charlottesville and property owners, which addresses sidewalk construction requirements (HB2051), passed the House today and now heads to the Senate.  Senator Deeds is carrying the bill in the Senate.

Finally, my vehicle-to-grid bill (HB 2073) was tabled in the Energy sub-committee of Commerce and Labor on Tuesday.  Under this unique concept, an electric vehicle could return energy stored in its battery to the grid. This would help with the efficiency of the grid while providing a small financial benefit to electric vehicle owners. Delaware has such a program and has been using it for the last two years. Committee members were intrigued by the concept, and asked that it be studied further before enacting it. I will bring this measure back next year and hopefully it will receive favorable treatment.

As always, it is a pleasure representing you in the General Assembly. Please feel free to call us or write us during session with issues of concern.
Sincerely,

David Toscano

David Toscano

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Filed Under: General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: Charlottesville sidewalk funding program, Coal Tax Credits, DNA Database Expansion, Environmental Protection, Sexual Assault Policy, Virginia budget

Update from the General Assembly, Week of 1/26/15

January 29, 2015 by David Toscano

Fourteen days into the Session, and things are really heating up. On Wednesday, several of my bills advanced, including a measure to provide Charlottesville more options in their sidewalk funding program, and a bill to address certain problems that small businesses have in Albemarle County in how they report their assets for tax purposes.

House Bill 1617, my bill to expand the DNA database, got its first hearing in the Courts of Justice criminal law sub-committee on Tuesday. Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding and Gil Harrington testified on behalf of the concept. This bill is likely to have a fiscal impact and we will have to find some monies in the budget to help fund it. But I believe the concept is well accepted by members of the Courts committee, and I believe that some initiative will be passed. Delegates Bell and Obenshain also have bills, but it is not clear which vehicle will ultimately be the one that moves forward. However, the important thing is that we will likely get some change in the DNA database this session which will make it easier to apprehend wrongdoers and exonerate the innocent.

The big disappointment of the day was the failure of the House Finance Committee to report out HB 2181, a bill that would have reformed the coal tax credits in Virginia. Independent of the climate change issue, which I believe is important and one on which we should focus, the economics of the coal tax credit is abysmal. What we have been doing is providing taxpayer subsidies for 25 years to utility companies and coal companies in the form of massive tax credits. The credits provided to these companies total over one-half billion dollars. And what have we gotten for it? Coal tonnage mined is down from 48 million tons per year to 17 million tons per year in the last twenty years.  And employment has dropped from over 11,000 in 1988 to only 3,600 in 2014. If we were running a private company and got that kind of return on our investment, we would be fired.

On Wednesday, I took to the floor to argue for a reform of the coal tax credit program. You can see the speech by clicking here, and read my written remarks with some commentary from the Blue Virginia blog by clicking here. The bill would have raised almost $20 million dollars in the first year that could have helped with education, public safety, and critical services. The bill was defeated on a party line vote, and it is clear that the Republicans view any effort to reform these credits as part of the “war on coal.”

A number of my energy bills will be heard next week, including a bill that will facilitate electric vehicles being able to transfer unused energy back to the grid (HB 2073), and a bill that will encourage greater use of solar energies through what is called the Solar RECs (HB 2075).

The Senate has defeated most of the gun safety bills; many have yet to be heard in the House but will probably experience the same fate. I have one of these bills, a measure that would permit voluntary background checks by private sellers at gun shows. This is designed to close the so-called “gun show loop-hole,” which permits private sellers at gun shows from having to get a background check before they transfer a gun to a purchaser. A voluntary check program would permit these private sellers to request the State police to conduct a background check to insure that their purchasers do not have something in their past that prevent them from obtaining a gun. The Virginia State Police would be present at the show — the check could be easily done.

Finally, the budget is continuing to be refined and will appear in the next week. Given our new budget projections, I am working with others to find monies for teacher and state employee raises, and to protect K-12 funding.

Please feel free to call us or write us during session with issues of concern.

It is a pleasure to serve you in the General Assembly.
Sincerely,

David Toscano

David Toscano

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Filed Under: General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: Charlottesville sidewalk funding program, Coal Tax Credits, DNA Database Expansion, Education, Environmental Protection, Gun Safety, K-12 Education funding, Renewable Energy

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