David J. Toscano

Attorney at Law

General Assembly Update (Feb. 13, 2015)

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Crossover and the House of Delegates Budget

Crossover has now come and gone, and so too has the debate on amendments to the budget. On the budget front, the good news is that the Commonwealth is doing better financially, and as a result, the House budget provides raises to state employees and teachers. The House budget includes 1.5 percent pay increase for school teachers and employees, and an additional pay increase for other state employees. The budget, however, does not go far enough. Our teacher salaries in Virginia are now $7,500 below the national average. State per-pupil spending, even with this new budget, is still lower than it was in 2009. The result has been that localities are forced to pay more of the cost of education than they did in the past, and property tax rates have increased as a result.

Medicaid expansion

The budget also does not go far enough in that it continues to reject Medicaid Expansion, a decision that continues to cost the Commonwealth $4.4 million per day in federal funding ($1.8 billion lost to date) as we continue to send our tax monies to Washington instead of  bringing them back here to aid some 400,000 people who do not currently have health  insurance. The House budget includes a slight increase for free clinics, but they do not have the capacity to address the vast unmet need for quality medical care. We are very fortunate in Charlottesville that our free clinic does better than most, but neither the extra monies nor our facilities are sufficient to adequately address the problem. House Republicans have accepted elements of the Governor’s Healthy Virginia Plan, but this will affect fewer than 30,000 citizens, and we have yet to determine whether the House proposal will be approved by the Obama administration.

Pre-K spending

The House budget also cuts pre-K spending substantially and does not give the Governor the flexibility to move some of the money around so that it can service more people throughout Virginia. The budget does not go far enough in dealing with the tax preferences that represent massive transfers of Virginia taxpayer dollars to a small number of corporations, particularly coal and utility companies. Instead, we have a budget that includes a “reform” to the Land Preservation Tax Credit, a program that does a lot to conserve rural land against future development. You may hear my comments on the budget below.


 

DNA database expansion

A number of my bills survived Crossover either in their original form or combined with another Delegate’s legislation.  My DNA bill passed the House resoundingly as incorporated into Delegate Bell’s bill. This bill allows samples of DNA to be taken from people who have committed, and are convicted of, certain misdemeanor offenses. This does not include juveniles or minor misdemeanors. The samples will be included into the DNA database which can be used to exonerate those people who have been improperly charged with a crime and help apprehend people who have committed more serious crimes.

Campus sexual assault

The language of my campus sexual assault bill found its way into another bill (HB 1930), and has now passed the House. After listening to many constituents and advocates for survivors, my bill was transformed into a survivors empowerment bill that none-the-less gives university Title IX Coordinators the ability to report serious offenses in the event that the perpetrator might be a danger to the community. This bill will undoubtedly be changed as it moves through the process, but I think we will have a measure passed that will increase the likelihood of survivors reporting these cases and making more perpetrators accountable for their actions.

Health insurance coverage for children with autism

Two other interesting bills passed that can make a difference to health challenges faced by Virginia. House Bill 1940 requires health insurance carriers to offer coverage for autism in youngsters between the ages of two and ten; any family which has a child with autism realizes what a challenge this is. And HB 1445 decriminalizes the use of cannabis oil for the medical treatment of epilepsy.

We have two more weeks left in the session if we finish on time. It is a pleasure serving you in Richmond. As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office should you have any questions or if we can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,

David Toscano

David Toscano

P.S. Eugene and Lorraine Williams, civil rights pioneers, were honored by the House of Delegates last week.  You can watch here:

General Assembly Update (Feb 4, 2015)

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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:

[su_row]18.2-57       (Assault & Battery)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-60.3    (Stalking)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-102     (Theft of Vehicle Valued under $200)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-121     (Criminal Trespass)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-186.3  (Identify Fraud)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-195     (Credit Card Fraud)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-308     (Concealed Carry)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-387     (Indecent Exposure)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-387.1  (Obscene Sexual Display)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2-460     (Obstructing Justice)[/su_row]
[su_row]18.2- 479.1 (Resisting Arrest)[/su_row]

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

Medicaid – A Full and Fair Debate?

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As early as January 2014, House Republicans promised a plan to address the 400,000 Virginians who fall into the health insurance coverage gap because they make too little money to qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.  The Governor and Democrats have offered, over the last eight months, three separate proposals by which we could access several billion dollars in federal monies to provide coverage.  As you may recall, present Medicaid spending is matched, dollar-for-dollar, with federal monies.  With the proposed Medicaid expansion, however, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost for the first several years, eventually dropping to 90 percent.   I believe that this is a good deal for the Commonwealth.  We could take monies that we save in the first years and apply it to the later years in the event that the federal government does not live up to its responsibility, a fear cited by House Republicans as a reason not to expand Medicaid, but an unlikely event.

Democratic proposals since January 2014 have included a two-year pilot plan advanced by Gov. McAuliffe; straight Medicaid expansion; and “Marketplace Virginia,” a proposal offered by Senate Democrats and Republicans to use federal monies to buy private health insurance through private companies.  All of these plans have been summarily rejected by the House Republicans.

During the budget dispute in the spring, the Republicans promised a “full and fair debate” over Medicaid so long as it was separated from the budget.  That occurred, and the Republicans scheduled this so-called full and fair debate for last Thursday, September 18, 2014.  The “full and fair debate” consisted of a 15-minute discussion in the Rules Committee about another compromise proposal on Medicaid expansion, and a short debate on the House floor with the result predetermined.   The Republican answer was another “No.”  If you want to see some of the debate on this issue, click here; for my floor speech on the issue, click here.

Our meeting last Thursday also brought a compromise on addressing our budget shortfall.  If you want to see my comments on how we should try to close some tax preferences to make up our budget shortfall, you can click here.

Finally, three new judges were appointed for our district, and they will take their seats on December 1, 2014.  Although I continue to believe that the selection of judges is overly-partisan, I offer my congratulations to the three that were appointed, Judge Richard Moore, Deborah Tinsley, and David Barredo.  I am confident that they will be very effective judges and will serve this community admirably.

Please feel free to contact me with your concerns.  It is an honor to represent you in the General Assembly.

Sincerely,

David Toscano

P.S.: I want to express my thanks and gratitude to the citizens of this community, the local and state police, City Police Chief Tim Longo, and Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran for all the work being done to bring Hannah Graham home. I was at JPJ Command Central last Saturday and Sunday and watched the volunteers stream in from around the Commonwealth and nation. I saw the line up of City School buses, UVA buses, and Jaunt buses at 7:30am on Sundayready to take the teams of volunteers out into the field to search for Hannah. The generosity and caring of this community is remarkable.

Budget Dispute Continues

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We returned to the General Assembly on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, to continue our debate over the budget. It was a very short session because House Republicans refused to consider a budget passed by the Senate which included provisions for closing the coverage gap for up to 400,000 Virginians. In early March, Governor McAuliffe proposed a new budget that added $225 million for education and public safety because of the expansion of Medicaid. These savings were generated by taking monies that our taxpayers have sent to Washington and bringing them back to Virginia, where they can work for us. With Medicaid expansion, the Commonwealth would receive federal monies to provide 100 percent of the reimbursement of costs of new enrollees. The expansion would create 30,000 new jobs while bolstering our hospitals which are facing large financial losses. We have lost almost $500 million since January 1 by refusing Medicaid expansion.

The McAuliffe budget proposed additional spending in critical areas such as jobs and economic development, public safety, and public education. Charlottesville and Albemarle school divisions would likely receive additional monies if the McAuliffe budget was passed.

There is substantial support from around the Commonwealth to close the coverage gap, not only because it helps real people address their insurance needs, but it makes business sense. Here is just a partial list of the editorials from newspapers across the Commonwealth on this issue:

  • Danville Register and Bee: Patient care, not politics, for Virginia
  • Richmond Times Dispatch: “Marketplace Virginia is the way to go. It is the type of alternative conservatives interested in governing and in serving the entire citizenry should embrace.”
  • The Roanoke Times:  “In January, Speaker Bill Howell penned a commentary calling for an “alternative approach” to expanding Medicaid. Nearly three months later, he has yet to offer any alternative of his own. Meanwhile, the Marketplace Virginia plan sits untouched, waiting for someone to show up at the negotiating table. Like a misplaced pair of glasses, it’s in plain sight.”
  • Loudoun Times-Mirror: Virginia should support Medicaid expansion
  • The Washington Post: “Using allocated federal money to expand the availability of health-care coverage for some of the most vulnerable is a cause worth fighting for — in Virginia and every other holdout state.”
  • The Virginian-Pilot: Good Sense and Medicaid
  • Fredericksburg Free Lance Star: Expand Medicaid
  • The Daily Press: “The best way forward is by using federal money to purchase coverage for the uninsured through a market-based private opinion. It is a plan similar to one in Arkansas, and which already passed the Senate. It is supported by the state Chamber of Commerce and many medical groups as a practical way to break the impasse in Richmond.”
  • Staunton News Leader: “Rather than accept a Republican-written compromise — one of our best of that rare breed, crafted in part by Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon — to accept federal money without expanding Medicaid, the House said no. This means Virginia continues to lose $5 million in federal dollars everyday, money that is supposed to go toward helping our poor get access to health insurance, money that Virginians are already sending to Washington in federal taxes, money that can keep our hospitals fully staffed.”
  • Culpeper Star Exponent: “Virginia should expand Medicaid, even if legislators don’t agree with the ACA.”

The Town Hall meeting held March 19, which Senator Deeds and I organized, was extremely successful. Many people came to support Medicaid expansion and even “Tea Party” opponents who were there raised good questions and debated the issue in a civil and respectful manner. I greatly enjoy having both the proponents and opponents of policy ideas in the same room at the same time because it gives both sides the option to hear the arguments of the other.

Right now, the House Republicans’ refusal to act has put us at a standstill. The Governor’s budget has made it plain; the Commonwealth will gain financially from Medicaid expansion and our localities, educators, and law enforcement personnel would benefit by the passage of a budget that includes it. With the exception of the “veto” session scheduled for April 23, no other meetings have been scheduled – which means another day leaving Virginia taxpayer dollars in Washington and another day without a budget for the Commonwealth.

As always, it is a pleasure representing you in the General Assembly and I hope that you will contact me with your views and comments issues before the Commonwealth.

 
David Toscano

Adjournment Without A Budget

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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

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Email: davidjtoscano@gmail.com
Phone: 434-960-7171

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