Pre-K Education Funding

Why I Serve In The General Assembly

January 7, 2019 by David Toscano

The 2019 Session Is Upon Us

Since my election to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2005, my goal has always been to serve this region with honesty and integrity while pushing the progressive measures which reflect this community’s values. For all of this time, Democrats have been in the minority in the House, with the result that many of the initiatives our region supports have not yet been adopted. Nonetheless, we have achieved some major victories, not the least of which occurred in the last session when we were able, after 5 years of trying, to pass Medicaid expansion, and provide access to health insurance to over 300,000 Virginians. It was the most consequential vote in decades.

Working with others in the General Assembly, we have been able to raise teacher salaries, make more investments in environmental protection and mental health, and provide monies for critical investments in transportation, including roads and mass transit. We have worked to restore and increase funding for education that was cut during the Great Recession. And we have fought efforts to restrict the reproductive rights of women and deny the rights of our LGBTQ and immigrant communities. As Democratic Leader for the past seven years, I was proud to help lead these fights. Under the McAuliffe Administration, Virginia’s economy expanded and many new jobs were created. Under the Northam Administration, growth rates have increased and we have been able to better meet the needs of all citizens in the Commonwealth. I remain committed to the following principles and will work to see policies embodied by them passed in upcoming sessions.

Good Jobs that Honor Work, Provide Opportunity, and Build Prosperity: Virginians Need a Raise

Hardworking Virginians should be able to earn a livable wage and have a decent standard of living, including the ability to access paid time for family leave, vacations, and sickness. Opportunity and prosperity are ensured when employees are protected at work, and have access to health care and other benefits. Virginia families want their children and grandchildren to succeed and not be forced to move from their communities to seek a better life. To that end, we should pass laws to ensure:

A concrete plan to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour, lowest in the nation, to $15 per hour.
Strong paid family leave policies.
Contracting procedures that reward companies which provide health care and benefits to their employees while ensuring workers’ rights to a safe and secure workplace.
Equal pay for equal work.
Nondiscrimination in hiring and employment.
Incentives to ensure that all Virginians have access to affordable and quality health care.
Prohibitions against wage theft in the workplace.
Better workforce training linked to good jobs in the community.
Greater investments in Virginia’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, directing these monies for local use (similar to the $1 million grant we obtained for Habitat’s Southwood initiative).

Access to Affordable and Quality Health Care

Virginians continue to experience problems with accessing health care at affordable rates. Large numbers of Virginians remain uninsured, and in many parts of the Commonwealth insurance premiums take too large a percentage of a family’s income. Medicaid expansion will permit a larger number of Virginians access to quality insurance, but there are other areas where reforms are necessary. I support:

Effective implementation of Medicaid expansion.
Expanding health care insurance options to increase access and hold down costs.
Transparency in providing information about the costs of services and prescriptions so that consumers can make educated choices.
Investment in public health centers and free clinics to assist those who are unable to pay for medical procedures and prescriptions.
Emphasis on preventive public health rather than expensive emergency medicine.
Increasing investments to ensure that food insecurity is eliminated among Virginians.
Protecting women’s reproductive rights.
Lowering drug prices under Medicaid by leveraging the purchasing power of state agencies.
Protecting consumers from surprise medical bills from out-of-network providers.
Ensuring that persons with pre-existing conditions do not lose insurance.
Enhancing the ability of our Bureau of Insurance (BOI) to rein in health insurance premium increases.

[Read more…]

House and Senate Pass Historic Budget with Medicaid Expansion

May 30, 2018 by David Toscano

After almost two months of waiting, the General Assembly has passed a historic budget that expands access to Medicaid for more than 300,000 Virginians. It took a five-year fight in Richmond to get this done, and the battle could not have been won without the efforts of so many Virginians who pushed, especially at the ballot box, for this initiative.

This budget is probably the best I have seen in my twelve years in the General Assembly.

Republican leadership in the Virginia Senate attempted to hold the budget hostage over this issue. Ultimately, they were foiled by members of their own caucus like Emmett Hanger and Frank Wagner, who were willing to expand Medicaid not simply because of human benefits, but because of how the additional federal dollars would help with our state budget. In fact, Virginia’s Medicaid has been expanding for years, but in the most fiscally irresponsible manner. Under the present program, the federal government matches our spending on a one-to-one basis. For every dollar we spend, they match it with a dollar. Under Medicaid Expansion, the federal government will pay over ninety percent of the costs of the new enrollees. This is a much better financial deal for the Commonwealth. Republicans also recognize that the Affordable Care Act is not likely to be repealed, so they concluded it would be better for us to bring billions of tax dollars that Virginians pay to Washington back to the Commonwealth to help Virginians with health insurance and to shore up our budget. [Read more…]

The Fight of Our Lives—Time to Bend the Arc

November 6, 2017 by David Toscano

We are, simply put, in the fight of our lives. The values that we consider important— social equality and economic justice, diversity and inclusion, tolerance and civility— and the opportunities that everyone should have— the chance for our family members, children, and grandchildren to secure a decent education, obtain a good job that pays a living wage, have access to reasonably priced health care and insurance, ensure the protection of reproductive health, and gain fair access to the ballot box— are all under siege. They are being assaulted, not only by an insensitive and thoughtless President, but by politicians across the country who either mimic his message or, in their silence, have become complicit in his efforts to destroy the great American dream for all but the wealthiest among us.

All Eyes on Virginia

On Tuesday, Virginia will go to the polls in the first major election since the Trump upset. We have heard much about various state house special elections, and even the June Congressional race in Georgia, being tests of the Democratic Party’s “post-Trump” viability. But Virginia is the real deal. Our Governor’s race matches a veteran/doctor/former State Senator/Lieutenant Governor against a Republican who masterminded the GOP’s nationwide gerrymandering strategy, which has brought one-party rule to many states and Tea Party control of the U.S. House of Representatives while encouraging the further polarization of the electorate. Since Republicans control the Virginia House and Senate, putting a Republican in the governor’s seat could make Virginia look like North Carolina in just one legislative session. Take a look at the 120 bills Governor McAuliffe vetoed in his four years, because a Republican victory will mean that many of them will become law very quickly. No one can afford to “sit this one out.” Every vote is crucial.

Mark Herring, Attorney General • Dr. Ralph Northam, Governor • Justin Fairfax, Lieutenant Governor
Democratic Candidates, Virginia Statewide Offices [Read more…]

Crossover and Budget

February 10, 2017 by David Toscano

We’ve hit the mid-point of session, marked by what we call “crossover,” the day that all bills from one body cross over to the other in order to be considered. Many of the most heavily-contested bills arrive on this day, leading to long hours and fierce debates.

My primary focus continues to be passing legislation to help build the New Virginia Economy. That means pushing bills that spur job creation and that provide Virginians a much-needed raise. It also means supporting investments in education at all levels. We have made progress in some areas, but not in others. [Read more…]

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.