Virginia Higher Education Funding

Democrats Sustain the Governor’s Vetoes

April 22, 2016 by David Toscano

General Assembly Retains Focus on Building New Virginia Economy

In Governor McAuliffe’s State of the Commonwealth address in January, 2016, he made clear his priorities for the upcoming General Assembly session. He argued that our focus should be on building a new Virginia economy that is diversified and robust, and investing in education at all levels to encourage creativity and innovation. He also stated that if Republicans in the House or Senate sent him legislation that was socially divisive or that threatened workers’ rights, women’s ability to control their reproductive health choices, discriminatory measures, or bills that transfer public investments from public schools to private entities, he would veto the bills.

The Governor kept his promises. He proposed a budget that included major new investments in ports, airports, and economic incentives. He proposed almost a billion dollars in additional funding for K-12 education, and substantial new investments in higher education. He supported the initiative of private business leaders called “Go Virginia.” During the General Assembly session, both the House and the Senate adopted most of the Governor’s proposals, and even increased funding for others. That was a wonderful example of finding common ground for the benefit of the Commonwealth.

Along the way, however, Republicans passed, as they have done in recent years, a series of measures that would undermine the rights of Virginia citizens. In response, Gov. McAuliffe vetoed 32 pieces of legislation coming out of this session.

During our Reconvene session of Wednesday, April 20, 2016, Democrats sustained every one of the Governor’s vetoes. Among the vetoes that were sustained (this means that the bills will not become law), are measures that would:

Defund Planned Parenthood.
Undermine efforts of the Commonwealth to produce a clean power plan.
Extend inefficient and costly tax credits to coal producers.
Deny localities the ability to contract with private companies to pay a living wage.
Allow discrimination under the guise of religious freedom.
Reverse the Governor’s executive orders to keep guns out of state administrative buildings.
Remove the discretion of sheriffs and local law enforcement in handling immigration detention requests from the federal government.
Place additional barriers on citizen’s ability to register and vote.
Limit the ability of localities to determine the status of monuments in their cities and counties.

In addition, we passed a number of the proposals made by the Governor to change legislation and include new items in the budget. These included new additional monies for bioscience support and initiatives in cybersecurity.

Our efforts to enact a Solar Tax Credit targeted to investment in Southwest Virginia failed in a party line vote, as did the proposal to build a smaller and less punitive juvenile detention center.

Finally, the Governor’s proposal to make it easier to get drugs for lethal injection was passed by the General Assembly. This proposal arose in response to a bill that would make the electric chair the default execution method in Virginia in the event that the lethal injection drugs were not available. The Governor’s proposal proved very controversial because it would keep secret the identities of companies manufacturing the lethal cocktail as well as the components of the mixture. Civil libertarians argued against the measure and this was one area where I departed from the Governor by voting against it. In my career, I have voted against any measure that would expand the death penalty or make it easier to administer. While lethal injection is perceived as less cruel than the electric chair, it is nonetheless replete with all kinds of problems, and there have been many botched attempts using these drugs for execution. Accepting the Governor’s recommendation means that the death penalty will continue to be carried out in Virginia.

Town Hall Meetings

In the next month, I will be convening several town hall meetings to discuss the General Assembly session. I am also available to speak to groups about what we did and did not do in the 2016 session. We will provide more information about times and locations.

The Budget and Adjournment

March 11, 2016 by David Toscano

House and Senate budget conferees came to an agreement late Tuesday, March 8, and published their proposed two-year budget on Wednesday in a “conference report.” The agreement contains many good things for which we have fought.

Highlights include:

Major increases in K-12 education funding over the current biennium, including almost $200 million in lottery funding for school divisions, which will greatly help Charlottesville and Albemarle, a 2 percent salary incentive effective December 1, 2016, and additional money for eligible students to receive free or reduced lunch and breakfast at schools.
Major new funding for higher education, including a 3 percent across-the-board raise for faculty. UVA will receive about $10 million for access and affordability, as well as $4 million for the Focused Ultrasound Program, a cutting edge research initiative, and monies for bioscience incentives.
Full repayment to the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) of money the General Assembly borrowed several years ago – a move I voted against – and funding 100 percent of the VRS board-certified contribution rates. Both of these actions will enhance the fiscal viability of the system.
An additional $76.2 million for mental health services.
Fully funding the “Rainy Day Fund,” the special account we reserve for use if Virginia experiences a dramatic economic downturn.
Additional monies for our community colleges to develop new programs to train the workforce of the next decade.
Monies for the “Presidential Precinct,” an initiative developed by UVA, William and Mary, Monticello, Ash Lawn and Montpelier to bring scholars and elected officials from around the world to Virginia to be educated on how democracy works. This is an initiative that I and others in our area have supported, and worked with the Governor to get in his budget.
Major initiatives for job creation through the “GoVirginia” concept. This will allow regions to cooperate in competing for economic development grants and projects necessary to build the New Virginia Economy. GoVirginia creates a great opportunity for our region given the degree to which the University, the city and the county cooperate on policy initiatives.
Monies to fund a new General District Court judgeship in our Judicial Circuit.

In addition to these larger categories, some specific items I proposed are included in the Conference Report, such as:

$900,000 extra funding for court-appointed counsel who take on complicated cases defending indigent clients.
An increase in fees for court appointed mediators.
Support for the Fostering Futures Program, which allows foster care and adoption assistance to be extended for youngsters who would otherwise “age-out” of the foster care program on their eighteenth birthday. Funded with $1.9 million from the general fund (Virginia tax dollars) and $3.9 million in non-general fund money (from the federal government or other sources), the program will benefit a large number of foster children who otherwise might experience tremendous difficulty transitioning to adult life.
Additional money for the Centers for Independent Living. We have a wonderful center in Charlottesville called the Independence Resource Center, and this new money will help the IRC and other centers around the Commonwealth build their programs on behalf of disabled persons.

The largest missed opportunity continues to be the Republicans’ refusal to embrace Medicaid expansion under the ACA. It is ironic that despite their negative rhetoric, our budget does expand some Medicaid services, but in the most inefficient way possible. Under present law, every dollar we appropriate for Medicaid is matched by the federal government with another dollar. Consequently, when we implement new Medicaid spending for substance abuse treatment or to provide new waiver slots for intellectual or developmental disabilities in this budget, we are saying that we trust the federal government to fund its 50 percent of these programs. Yet we still hear the argument that Virginia cannot trust the federal government to continue funding “Medicaid expansion” if it happens under the ACA, where the federal government would pay 90 percent of the costs. This rejection of readily-available Medicaid money has become an article of faith for our Republican counterparts; without a change in the General Assembly’s political composition, Medicaid expansion is unlikely for the next several years.

On Thursday, the General Assembly approved a new Supreme Court Justice after an extremely flawed process. I did not support the appointment and you can see my speech explaining why in the video below.

As the session concludes, I thank you again for all of your input and support over the last sixty days. I am happy to be returning to Charlottesville to be with my family and continue my law practice. I remain available to serve constituents’ needs, and will shortly organize a series of town halls and smaller meetings to discuss the successes and failures of this General Assembly session.

The Last Week of the Session

March 8, 2016 by David Toscano

The 2016 Session of the Virginia General Assembly is scheduled to end on Saturday, March 12, and there is significant work remaining. Most efforts are now focused on reconciling the House and Senate budgets. The good news is that there is a lot of common ground; both bodies supported much of the Governor’s introduced budget, and have provided substantial increases for K-12 education, higher education and job creation. Some specifics on how to implement certain investments in higher education and job creation remain to be resolved. In my view, the House budget has erected an overly cumbersome screening process for some research and economic development projects that may make it difficult to respond quickly and nimbly to opportunities. Universities, for example, may need to move quickly to attract talent from other states with funding packages that will ensure they will relocate to Virginia; too many bureaucratic hoops may make recruitment more problematic. The same is true for efforts to recruit and retain businesses in the Commonwealth. These issues are likely to be resolved, and I expect the House and Senate conferees will reach agreement on a budget in the next several days.

Challenges remain with the so-called reform of the Certificate of Public Need (COPN) process. The COPN system is designed to protect hospitals from being undercut by medical providers who seek to establish stand-alone clinics offering only the more profitable areas of medical care. This would create greater fiscal uncertainty for hospitals, which might need to charge more for other services in order to continue to provide costly indigent care. A compromise that would have allowed some reforms in exchange for contributions to a fund designed to assist uninsured Virginians fell apart Monday afternoon, but it is worth a careful look in the future. COPN reform represents a significant change in how we provide medical services in the Commonwealth, and deserves thoughtful scrutiny before adoption.

Funding for Planned Parenthood continues to serve as a lightning rod for Republicans who seek to undo Roe v. Wade and undermine reproductive rights. HB1090 would prevent any non-Medicaid money from being provided to Planned Parenthood; this would take away much of its resources for family planning counseling and birth control, the major services it offers. Defunding this organization is a symbol to House Republicans, but I will continue to defend against those efforts.

I recently gave a floor speech about the Coal Tax Credit, which you can watch immediately below.

I also gave a statement on the Republicans’ refusal to reappoint Justice Jane Roush to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Several of my measures are making steady progress. My bill to allow our own Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) to compete for neighborhood assistance tax credits was passed by both bodies and is being sent to the Governor for signature. The bill that I introduced to make it easier to hold drivers accountable when they pass a stopped school bus (HB915) has been rolled into another measure, and is now in a conference committee on which I serve. I trust we will vote to approve this measure in the next several days. Finally, my bill to give greater flexibility to school divisions addressing challenges for English Language Learners (ELL) was passed by the House. In the Senate, however, the committee simply decided to send a letter to the Board of Education requesting that they study the issues and determine whether the problems which generated my bill should be addressed at the state level or by local school authorities.

Throughout this session, I have greatly appreciated all of the emails and phone calls from constituents providing very useful advice about how I should vote on bills. In most cases, our views have been similar, but even in those cases where we have differed, the input has been critical and makes a difference in how I think about these issues. Please do not hesitate to continue contacting me about the issues before the General Assembly.

Good Choices and Missed Opportunities

February 26, 2016 by David Toscano

The House and the Senate acted on their respective budgets on Thursday, February 25, 2016. The Governor’s proposed budget includes many good items, such as substantial increases in K-12 and higher education, and for the most part the House budget embraced the Governor’s approach. Many of us have pushed to dramatically increase our investments in public education and the House budget increases K-12 funding by $897 million. For Charlottesville and Albemarle, this means hefty increases in the monies going to the localities, and some increased flexibility in how money gets spent. The House budget includes a 2 percent pay increase for teachers, something I have been pushing for years. Virginia has lagged behind other states in K-12 teacher salaries, and we are finally rectifying this situation.

There is also good news in this budget for higher education. Funding for our universities has lagged behind during the last decade, and the House has now recognized the importance of further investment by increasing funding by $290 million over the biennium. University faculty and personnel can also expect a raise if the House budget is approved. Beyond that, there is substantial money designed to spur research and to encourage the commercialization of creative ideas generated from our universities. This is a tremendous opportunity for the University of Virginia to further increase its impact, particularly in the area of bioscience. Many of you know that Charlottesville has become a mini-hub for bioscience research, both at the University and in the private sector. A number of biotech firms have emerged over the last several years here in Charlottesville. There are many provisions in this new budget that will further encourage collaboration between public and private entities. We have the opportunity to take the first step towards making the Commonwealth a prime location for creative minds from around the country who want to develop therapies and scientific breakthroughs to treat a variety of diseases, from pancreatic cancer to brain disorders.

While the House budget presents good progress in a number of areas, it also includes some significant deficiencies. The most apparent is the failure to embrace Medicaid expansion. Once the House Appropriations Committee rejected that approach, it created a $157 million deficit in the Governor’s introduced budget that had to be replaced with other monies. If we had taken Medicaid expansion, this $157 million could have been allocated to other important budgetary items, such as environmental protection, public safety, or pre-K education. My floor speech on these missed opportunities can be viewed below.

At this stage in the process, the House will consider the Senate budget and the Senate will consider the House budget. Those budgets will then be placed into a conference committee and various issues will be ironed out. We will continue to advocate for Medicaid expansion to address this essential missed opportunity. While this is perhaps the best House budget that I have seen in the last ten years, it is my hope we will continue to work towards creating an even better one that can be supported at the end of the Session.

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.