Standards of Learning

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.

The General Assembly adjourned on March 8, 2014 without a budget. This is the third time that this has occurred in the nine years that I have been serving you in Richmond. We have until the end of June to have a budget in place, but most of us want this to occur as soon as possible because our localities need to have firm figures from Richmond as to monies that are coming to them so they can prepare their budgets. The budget impasse is tied up in the Medicaid debate. It is my view that you cannot separate Medicaid from the budget. If we can access more federal dollars as part of Medicaid expansion, we would not have to appropriate monies in ways set forth in the House budget. We could replace millions of dollars in state dollars proposed for indigent care and for hospitals with federal dollars, freeing up state dollars to be spent on education and public safety. This debate will continue to occur when we reconvene in a special session beginning March 24th.

While most press coverage focused on the Medicaid issues, there were several significant actions taken by the General Assembly this session. They include the following:

Mental Health Reform

I served on the Mental Health subcommittee in the House that was able to advance a number of reforms, including the extension of emergency custody orders for citizens in crisis from six to twelve hours, requiring the state hospitals to provide a bed in the event that no other beds are available, and the implementation of a psychiatric bed registry to more quickly find beds for people in need.

Ethics Reform

I was the chief co-patron on a bipartisan bill that enacts a $250.00 cap on tangible gifts, requires that gifts to family members be reported, and ensures that the gift disclosures be made online so that citizens can easily see them. There is still much to be done in this area, but this is the first overhaul of this statute in many years, and represents a good effort to restore some faith in our ethics laws in the aftermath of the McDonnell scandal.

Standards of Learning Reform

We have reduced the number of SOL “high-stakes” tests in Grades 3 to 8, and have created a new committee that will recommend additional reforms.

Transportation Reform

The hybrid vehicle tax that was part of the 2013 transportation reform measure that many of us opposed was repealed.

Utility Service

We passed a bill that will make the undergrounding of utilities easier to accomplish by spreading the costs across the ratepayers. This is a very important measure for older communities like Charlottesville where above ground power lines often fail when major tree limbs fall during storms.

School Reform

We delayed by two years the issuance of the “A-F” letter grades for schools.

Bicycle Safety

We provided some additional protections for bicyclists by enacting a 3-5 foot passing distance around bicycles.

A number of measures were either tabled or defeated that might have some interest. The Virginia Dream Act, which would allow in-state college tuition for children of Virginia immigrants, was defeated, as was an effort to increase the minimum wage. Efforts by conservatives to push a new constitutional convention were passed by the House, but defeated in the Senate.

There were no new attacks on women’s reproductive health passed by the General Assembly, but our efforts to rollback the forced ultrasound requirement were defeated. The proposal to transfer $3 million from the City schools to the County schools was defeated in the House Appropriations Committee.

We have not yet designated a new judge for the 16th Judicial Circuit, which has been pushed back to sometime in April.

We return to Richmond on March 24th to work on Medicaid and the budget. Debates on this issue will likely continue throughout the spring.

As always, it is a pleasure representing you in the General Assembly and I hope that you will contact me with your views on various issues in the weeks leading up to our next session on March 24th.

David Toscano

Why I Serve In The General Assembly