Tag: General Assembly

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In brief: Adjournment day, Short stay, Fashion Square buzz and more

Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax presides over the state's senate in Richmond, Virginia, U.S., February 11, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake (Newscom TagID: rtrlten858176.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

Scandal marred

It was the most eventful—and scandal-plagued— session of the General Assembly in recent memory. Over in the executive branch, Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring’s past blackface antics were revealed and drew calls for Northam to resign. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax faced accusations of sexual assault, which he denied and called a “political lynching.” Both the Northam and Fairfax scandals were initially publicized by a right-wing website owned by Reilly O’Neal, a North Carolina political operative whose clients have included Roy Moore and Corey Stewart.

Local Delegate Rob Bell plans to hold a hearing on the Fairfax allegations in the Courts of Justice Committee, which he chairs, although it’s unclear if Vivian Tyson, who says Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in 2004, will attend, amid her concerns of being “embroiled in a highly charged political environment,” according to her lawyers.

And Delegate David Toscano, 68, who served as House minority leader for seven years, announced on the last day of the session he will not seek reelection to an eighth term representing the 57th District.

Amid the scandals, legislators, all of whose seats are up for grabs in November, also passed some new laws.

Laying down the laws

  • Gerrymandering: Long an issue for legislators like state Senator Creigh Deeds, a redistricting bill finally got the nod from both houses. The constitutional amendment, which would establish an independent commission to draw state and congressional lines, still has to pass the General Assembly next year and then go to voters before it’s official.
  • Felony DUI: Drunk driving that results in serious injury, as was the case with an 8-year-old Palmyra girl who was almost killed in a 2017 crash, will now be a felony with passage of a Rob Bell bill.
  • Jamycheal Mitchell’s law: Another Bell bill requires the Board of Corrections to establish standards for mental health care after Mitchell, 24, stole $5 worth of snacks and languished in a Hampton Roads jail for months before dying of heart failure and severe weight loss.
  • Tommie’s law: Penalty for animal torture is upped from misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony. The bill passed both houses unanimously after Tommie, the Richmond dog tied to a pole, doused with accelerant and set on fire, died.
  • No-excuses voting: Citizens can cast absentee ballots in person one week before an election, starting in 2020.
  • Wage discrimination: A Jim Crow-era law that allowed employers to pay less for jobs once frequently held by African Americans—such as newsboys, shoe-shine boys, and doormen—passed both houses, with Delegate Matt Fariss one of the 14 “no” votes.
  • Keep talking: The General Assembly was poised to ban driving while using a hand-held cellphone, but at the last minute voted to allow talking, but no texting or web surfing.
  • No spoofing: Displaying Virginia area codes if not in the commonwealth is prohibited, but whether the toothless Class 3 misdemeanor will deter robo-callers remains to be seen.
  • Public notice: Before state universities hike tuition, they must hold public hearings—if Northam signs the bill into law.

Quote of the week

“This was their chance to actually take a vote on ratifying the ERA, and they blew it.”—Delegate David Toscano on House Republican leadership redirecting a vote on the Equal Rights Amendment back to committee

In brief

More to C

A revised tourism campaign, which features a “more to C” theme, wins points with the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau after an earlier campaign touting “C’villeization” bombed.

Rumor mill

Several people have contacted us to ask if Fashion Square Mall is for sale—and one said UVA had purchased it. Not true, says UVA spokesman Anthony de Bruyn, who adds the university has no interest in doing so. And Washington Prime Group, the parent company of Fashion Square, “has no plans to close or sell the mall at this time,” says spokeswoman Kimberly Green.

Can’t get a date

Charlottesville for Reasonable Health Insurance, which called out Sentara-owned Optima’s 2018 tripling of health insurance premiums here, says it wasn’t invited to Congressman Denver Riggleman’s February 19 meeting with Sentara Martha Jefferson to find ways to make health care affordable, nor, says the group, can it get on Riggleman’s calendar.

Back where he came from

Former Trump staffer Marc Short, who drew controversy—and two resignations—when he joined UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs as a senior fellow in August, is stepping down and headed back to the White House, where he’ll serve as chief of staff to Mike Pence. Tweeted UVA professor of religious studies Jalane Schmidt, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

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Bare-breasted Virtus

ERA activist Michelle Renay Sutherland was arrested February 18 for enacting the Virginia state seal, which features Virtus with an exposed left breast. A judge initially ordered her held without bond for the misdemeanor charge, but she was finally released three days later.

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Punishing: Repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions dies in subcommittee

Delegate Rob Bell was on the subcommittee that killed a repeal of automatic driver’s license suspensions.  AMY JACKSON SMITH

Things were looking good for opponents of Virginia’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of court costs. A federal judge had opined the state law is likely unconstitutional, a Republican state senator carried a bill that repealed the law, and it passed the Senate 36-4.

Then it got to a House subcommittee, where four Republicans, including Delegate Rob Bell, torpedoed the measure 4-3.

Senator Bill Stanley, a criminal defense attorney who represents a chunk of Southside, was not pleased, particularly with Bell and House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert and their grip on the Courts of Justice subcommittee.

He told the Roanoke Times February 11, “They just want to continue to punish people, they just want to continue to punish the poor, they just want to continue to put their will forth as the will of the commonwealth, two people determining the fate of 600,000 Virginians. This is rule by fiat.”

Stanley, who carried the same bill last year, figured it had a better chance this year, particularly after Judge Norman Moon issued a preliminary injunction in Stinnie v. DMV ordering the reinstatement of the plaintiffs’ licenses, which had been automatically suspended when they couldn’t afford to pay the fines and court costs, which thrust them into spiraling debt and, in some cases, jail for driving on suspended licenses.

Legislators who didn’t support the measure last year told Stanley they would vote for it this year, he says. “When Judge Moon made his decision, I thought we’re either going to fix this problem of debtors prison or a federal judge will,” says Stanley. “It looks like the judge will.”

He calls the automatic suspensions “punitive,” and the $145 DMV reinstatement fee a tax. “This has nothing to do with bad driving,” he says.

Bell “respectfully disagrees” with Stanley. For serious offenses like passing a school bus or texting while driving, “when someone violates those, I do think it’s appropriate they be punished and they pay some penalty,” he says.

The General Assembly passed a law in 2017 that requires courts to offer payment plans or community service. “As long as you’re on the payment plan, you have your license and you can drive,” says Bell. “We do require you to have some punishment.”

“You miss one payment and your license is suspended,” retorts Stanley. And those plans are used “exclusively for those who are in front of the court. It does nothing for the 600,000 who have already had their licenses suspended.”

Stanley says the automatic license suspensions punish people for being poor, and makes it difficult for them to get to jobs and provide for their families. “It perpetuates poverty,” he says. “I don’t think you can have economic growth without removing the crushing cycle of poverty.”

He adds, “You’d think Republicans would want to get people off dependency.”

Angela Ciolfi, executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center, represents the plaintiffs in the federal case. She says her team did an analysis of the results of the payment plan legislation and found that the new policy made almost no difference in the number of licenses suspended.

“And the suspension law hasn’t changed, either,” she says. “When someone doesn’t pay or falls off a payment plan, the law says that suspension is automatic, with no notice, no hearing, and no consideration of why the person didn’t pay.”

She’s working on making the case a class action suit, and anticipates the parties will be back in court soon.

Stanley believes that if Judge Moon orders the DMV to reinstate all the licenses suspended for nonpayment of fines, “it will create havoc in the DMV” that could be avoided if legislators fixed the problem.

And he’s still not happy that a subcommittee killed a bill he thought had broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly. “The rule of a few is determining the future of 600,000 people.”

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Raising the vaping age: Will General Assembly deter the latest teen addiction?

CVille Smoke Shop’s Jim Carlson says if you’re old enough to go to war or vote, you should be able to buy a cigar. Photo by Eze Amos

By Shrey Dua

Daniel Devlin is a 20-year-old UVA student who’s been vaping since he was 18. If Virginia lawmakers get their way, he could soon face civil penalties for pursuing his habit.

Last week, a bill that would raise the age to buy tobacco and vape products from 18 to 21 was passed by both houses of the General Assembly. It’s the latest attempt to curb the vaping trend that has become a mainstay amongst college, high school, and middle school students.

A number of states and more than 400 localities have already raised the vaping age to 21. Last year, the FDA declared the underage use of e-cigarettes an epidemic, and in November it banned sales from convenience stores, as well as fruity flavors. The administration says from 2017 to 2018, there was a 78 percent increase in e-cigarette use among high school students, and a 48 percent increase among middle school students.

People between the ages of 18 and 20 who are currently able to legally purchase vapor and tobacco products would once again be considered underage, and face a $100 fine or community service for the first offense. UVA students in particular would immediately feel the effects of the new law because college students often make up a large proportion of the vaping population.

Devlin believes the legislation is an impractical method for keeping vapes out of underage hands. “If middle schoolers are vaping and addicted to nicotine when the age is 18, then raising the minimum age would only expand the black market for nicotine products,” he says. “The only thing that would change is that people would stop going to 7-Elevens and go to the black market instead.”

But not all students agree. Karim Alkhoja, who is 20 and a third-year at UVA, says there hasn’t been enough research into the effects of vaping, and “if the argument is that at 21 people are more likely to make more evidence-based and common sense decisions, why would we continue to allow the purchasing age for these products to be 18 and not 21?”

Jim Carlson co-owner of the CVille Smoke Shop, which sells a variety of cigars but no vaping products, says he totally disagrees with the proposed legislation. “I don’t think the government should be a babysitter,” he says. “If you’re old enough to vote or go to war, you should be able to buy a cigar. What’s really the difference between being 18 and being 21?”

Dawn Morris, owner of local smoke shop Higher Education, is more open to the change: “Unfortunately I do understand why it’s necessary to raise the age to 21 with all these vape companies and vape juices that are specifically flavored for children,” she says. “No adult is vaping Fruit Loops. Someone needs to protect that situation, and until we can change that, it’s probably a good idea.”

Delegates Rob Bell and Matt Fariss voted against the measure in the House, where it passed 67-41, with the support of delegates Steve Landes and David Toscano. State Senator Bryce Reeves was a co-sponsor of the bill in the Senate, which passed its own bill 32-89 with the support of Senator Creigh Deeds.

If approved by Governor Ralph Northam, the law could go into effect July 1.

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The work goes on: What’s happening in the General Assembly

With so much going on in the executive branch, it's easy to neglect what's happening in the General Assemblyl as the session hits its . midpoint. File photo.

With Richmond in turmoil over Governor Ralph Northam’s blackface past and assault allegations against Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, it’s been hard to focus on the legislature. But the session is halfway through, and February 6 is crossover day, when each house sends the bills it’s passed to the other chamber. Here are some survivors—and some that didn’t fare so well.

Alive

New lines

After years of killing redistricting bills—and a federal court ruling that House of Delegates districts were racially gerrymandered and federal judges must draw new districts for this fall’s election—Republicans, including Speaker Kirk Cox, are suddenly on board with an independent redistricting commission. The Senate passed a constitutional amendment for a bipartisan commission, 40-0. The amendment must pass again in the next session, and will then go before voters.

Mental health in jail

The death of Jamycheal Mitchell, a mentally ill inmate who died of possible heart failure and major weight loss in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail four months after being arrested for shoplifting $5 worth of snacks, prompted Delegate Rob Bell to carry this bill, which sets standards for mental health care in jails. It made it out of one House committee January 29 and now goes to the House Appropriations Committee.

No excuses

A bill that would allow in-person absentee voting a week before an election—without an approved excuse—made it out of the House’s notorious Privileges and Elections Committee, where the Equal Rights Amendment died in subcommittee. Voters would still have to meet state-approved reasons to vote earlier. A more expansive bill, which would allow absentee voting 45 days before the election without an excuse, passed the Senate 40-0.

“Hearing-impaired” axed

After lobbying by advocates who don’t like the term “impaired,” “deaf or hard of hearing” and “hearing loss” could replace “hearing-impaired” in Virginia Code following the House’s unanimous approval of HB2131. The measure now goes to the Senate.

180 days of Airbnb rentals

A Senate bill that would allow Fairfax County homeowners to do short-term rentals for 180 days a year, up from the county’s current 60-day limit, passes the Senate February 4. Albemarle County is currently considering regulations that would limit homestay rentals to 45 days a year—and the owner must remain on the property.

Dead

Tax clarification

Virginians are poised to get hit with higher state taxes because their tax code doesn’t mesh with new federal tax law. If you take the $12,000 personal deduction on fed returns, you can’t itemize on state returns and are faced with Virginia’s much lower $3,000 standard deduction. An emergency bill failed in the House February 4, leaving the state unable to process returns.

Mandatory ultrasounds

Delegate Kathy Tran’s bill that removes some medically unnecessary procedures required for women seeking abortions, including first trimester ultrasounds, doesn’t make it out of a Courts of Justice subcommittee, with Delegate Rob Bell one of the 5-3 votes to table the bill on January 28. The bill’s hearing set off a firestorm that engulfed Tran and Governor Ralph Northam when he described what happens in rare third-trimester cases of serious fetal abnormalities or unviability on WTOP.

Blouse v. shirt

If it’s a man’s shirt, it must be cheaper.

Dry cleaners can continue to charge women more. A bill that would have established gender-parity in dry-cleaning pricing died in an all-male House Courts of Justice subcommittee 6-0, according to VCU’s Capital News Service.

Student reporters

Freedom of the press protections for student journalists didn’t make it out of a House subcommittee. The bill, carried by former WDBJ reporter Delegate Chris Hurst, would have prevented blatant censorship, which typically involves criticism of the school administrations.

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In brief: Happy hour, Master Charles, prof charged and more

Being able to advertise $1-off drinks for happy hour is a “great business opportunity” to bring more people out and to compete with bars on the Corner, says Kelly Creighton, bartender at Jack Brown’s. Eze Amos

Dead or alive

Virginia’s General Assembly has been hard at it for three weeks now, tackling the 2,000 or so bills legislators filed. While most bills will die quietly in subcommittee, here are a few survivors—and committee casualties.

Alive

A judge has already ruled Virginia’s law that suspends driver’s licenses for unpaid court fines is likely unconstitutional. The Senate got with the program January 25, and passed a bill that repeals the state “debtor’s prison” law 36-4.

Finding out about the best happy hour could get easier, thanks to legislation allowing the advertising of drink specials that has passed both the House and Senate. This, too, was preceded by a lawsuit in which a northern Virginia restaurant owner claimed ABC regs violated free speech.

A bill that would exempt menstrual products from sales tax cleared a Senate committee 14-1 January 25, but the “Dignity Act” still needs to make it out of a House subcommittee.

While all the gun safety bills championed by Governor Ralph Northam died in subcommittee, Republican Senator Dick Black’s packing heat in church bill cleared the Senate January 24 in a 21-19 vote on party lines.

Dead

A bill that would allow localities to set their own minimum wage was killed in a House subcommittee 5-1 January 22.

Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to have driver’s licenses in Virginia, and that won’t change with the January 23 demise on party lines of a Senate bill that would have allowed temporary driver privilege cards.

Delegate David Toscano’s measure to limit campaign contributions by utilities like Dominion to $500 died in a House subcommittee January 24.

Quote of the week

“It doesn’t help us as a community for our mayor to be out there in the public criticizing the people who live here.”—Adam Healey, Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau interim executive director, on marketing guru Jerry Miller’s Facebook live, to which Mayor Nikuyah Walker replied, “[Y]ou are the type of citizen who allows the soul of Charlottesville to remain ugly.”

In brief

Experiment gone wrong

The mother of a Greer Elementary student said her 6-year-old was traumatized by a social experiment teacher Vicky Chen conducted. Chen, who has been placed on administrative leave, separated her students by eye color, and gave candy to only the ones with blue eyes for her MLK Day-themed lesson on equal opportunity and inclusiveness. Activists say Chen further marginalized students of color, who typically have brown eyes.

Another creative writing prof

UVA Professor Jeffery Allen has been placed on administrative leave with pay after being charged with felony strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery in November. He follows English Department colleague John Casey, who was on leave for a year and then retired in December after a disciplinary panel found he violated policies on inappropriate sexual contact with a student.

Synchronicity swami

Master Charles developed high-tech meditation at Synchronicity. Photo courtesy Synchronicity

Master Charles Cannon, founder of the Faber spiritual community, died January 24 at age 73. In 2008, Cannon was in Mumbai at the Oberoi Hotel when it was attacked by terrorists and 162 people were killed, including father and daughter Alan and Naomi Scherr, who were with a group from Synchronicity. After the attack, Cannon and Kia Scherr, wife and mother of the two slain Nelson County residents, called for compassion and forgiveness of the murderers.

Juneteenth organizer

California-born Tamyra Turner, 73, a former Charlottesville School Board member who started the city’s Juneteenth celebration in 2000, died January 16. A professor of English literature who taught most recently at PVCC, she met her husband, former Charlottesville NAACP president Rick Turner, at Stanford. She served on a number of boards, including the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library, and the Virginia Festival of the Book steering committee.

Bye, Buyaki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The man who wore a Confederate flag-patterned tie to a county school board discussion of  banning Confederate imagery will not seek another term. Jason Buyaki, who’s been on the board since 2011, also caught the ears of community parents and activists in October when he questioned climate change and the nature of fossil fuels.

National spotlight

Charlottesville native Natalie Hoffman was convicted January 18 after leaving water and food for migrants crossing the desert into Arizona. Hoffman, who was working with the group No More Deaths, was charged with entering and driving in Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge without a permit.

New clerk

City Council hired Lynchburg deputy council clerk Kyna Thomas to become its clerk and chief of staff for $105,000. City spokesman Brian Wheeler, who makes $116K, has filled in since former council clerk Paige Rice took the chief of staff job in July for $98,000 and left in September.

Child porn charges

Forrest Butler, ACPD

Albemarle police charged Avocado Capital co-founder Forrest Butler, 58, with two counts of child pornography distribution January 22. He was released from jail on bond and will appear in court April 8.

Wawa on the way?

The county’s Architectural Review Board has approved plans for a Wawa convenience store and gas station off Route 29 and Proffit Road. It could be built by the end of the year, as long as the Board of Supervisors gives it a thumbs up.

Free tax help

The local branch of the United Way is offering free tax preparation for most taxpayers with household incomes of $55,000 or less. Through its program called Cville Tax Aid, partners such as the UVA Community Credit Union have prepared nearly 20,000 returns since 2007, and organizers expect to help more than 2,700 community members this year. To schedule an appointment, call United Way at 434-972-1703 or visit www.CvilleTaxAid.org.

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In brief: Killed bills, uneasy homage, big checks and more

Niko has been behind bars for about four years and it doesn’t look good for him to get out. Courtesy Prayers for Niko

Dead or alive

The General Assembly has been in session two weeks, and it is whittling down the more than 2,000 bills legislators filed. Here are some bills that have survived so far—and others that were DOA.

Alive

  • An in-state tuition bill for undocumented students made it out of the Senate Education Committee January 8 on an 8-7 vote, with one Republican senator joining the ayes.
  • The General Assembly doesn’t often consider freedom of the press, and this year it will look at two bills. Delegate Chris Hurst, a former reporter and anchor for WDBJ in Roanoke, carries a bill that protects student journalists from censorship and their faculty advisers from punishment. Former print journalist Delegate Danica Roem’s bill shields reporters from revealing sources in most cases.
  • A bipartisan group in both houses of the General Assembly want to raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21.

Dead

  • The Save Niko bill, which allows dogs found dangerous to be transferred to another owner or shipped to a state that doesn’t border Virginia, made it out of an agriculture subcommittee last week, only to have members change their minds this week. The bill could have freed cat-killer Niko, who has been on doggie death row at the SPCA for about four years.
  • The ’70s-era Equal Rights Amendment passed the Senate 26-14 January 15 and headed to the House of Delegates, where it traditionally dies in committee. This year was no exception—the amendment was tabled by a Republican-led Privileges and Elections subcommittee January 22.
  • More than a dozen gun safety bills, including universal background checks, temporary removal of firearms from the home of someone deemed a risk to himself or others, and Delegate David Toscano’s bill restricting open carry at permitted events like the Unite the Right rally, were swiftly dispatched January 17 in the rural Republican-controlled subcommittee of the House Committee on Militia, Police, and Public Safety, chaired by southern Albemarle’s Delegate Matt Fariss.
  • Several bills that would decriminalize or even legalize pot died January 16 in a Courts of Justice subcommittee, with Delegate Rob Bell voting to prevent Virginia from going soft on personal marijuana use.
  • A bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 made a rare appearance on the Senate floor January 21, where it died on party lines 19 to 21.

Quote of the week

“I believe there are certain people in history we should honor that way in the Senate . . . and I don’t believe that [Robert E. Lee] is one of them.”—Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a descendant of slaves, tells the Washington Post after ceding the dais and gavel during a tribute to Lee January 18

In brief

Shutdown scams

Attorney General Mark Herring warned about scams that target furloughed employees. Don’t accept an employment offer for a job you didn’t apply for, he says, and be cautious of predatory lending, including payday, auto title, open-end, and online loans. And those seeking to help should be cautious too—Herring says to avoid cash donations and only give if you can confirm the charity or fundraiser is legit.

Sally Hudson announces run. Eze Amos

Biggest donations in local races

Local philanthropist Sonjia Smith wrote a $100,000 check to UVA prof Sally Hudson, who wants the seat now held by Delegate David Toscano, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Smith also gave $10,000 to Sena Magill for City Council, $5,000 to Albemarle sheriff candidate Chan Bryant, and $20,000 to an Andrew Sneathern for Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney committee, which donated $9,635 to Jim Hingeley, who will announce his run January 23.

Government heavy

The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau came closer to being stacked with elected and government officials when county supes voted 5-1 for a 15-member tourism board in which industry experts would be outnumbered 9 to 6 by government people. City Council had its first reading of the changes January 22.

$2.3 million roof

Carr’s Hill’s $7.9 million renovation went up another couple of mil when workers discovered the 14,000-square-foot manse’s roof needed to be replaced, not repaired. It’s the first major overhaul of the 1909 Stanford White-designed home of UVA presidents, and Jim Ryan is temporarily housed in Pavilion VIII on the Lawn while the work goes on.

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‘Big deal’: Nearly 5,000 locals eligible for coverage with Medicaid expansion

House Minority Leader David Toscano says not only will 400,000 Virginians get coverage with Medicaid expansion, but teachers will get raises and other budget items will be funded with the influx of federal dollars. Ellie Williams

Mary Linn Bergstrom was in Boston over Memorial Day when she got a really bad, eyes-swollen-shut case of poison ivy. “I had to wait to go to the doctor until I had enough money in the bank,” says the 38-year-old Nia instructor.

Bergstrom is one of almost 5,000 people in Charlottesville and Albemarle who will qualify for Medicaid under the biennial budget Governor Ralph Northam signed June 7 that expanded health insurance coverage for nearly 400,000 Virginians who make too little to qualify under the Affordable Care Act or too much—or are too healthy—to qualify for Medicaid.

Her doctor’s visit and medication cost almost $400. “I think it’s pretty common to not have that amount of cash on hand,” she says.

And being in Massachusetts, which passed an individual health care mandate in 2006, people found it hard to believe she didn’t have insurance. “Everyone was arguing with me that of course you have health insurance, you must have forgotten your card,” she says.

Bergstrom makes around $7,000 or $8,000 a year, depending on how many classes she teaches. “My last wellness checkup was 11 or 12 years ago,” she says, and the last time she checked, health insurance would cost her around $500 a month. She lives in a household of three working adults who pay all their bills. “Health insurance is the only bill we cannot afford, or even imagine affording,” she says.

To House Minority Leader David Toscano, Medicaid expansion is a “really big deal” and one he’s worked on for the past five years.

Former Governor Terry McAuliffe made it a lynchpin of his administration, but he left office with no success in the face of a recalcitrant Republican-controlled General Assembly.

That all changed with the 2017 elections that swept 15 Democrats into the House of Delegates. “I began to see the possibilities after the election last fall,” says Toscano. Native son Northam won by nine points—“the widest margin of any statewide candidate. There’s always a number of reasons why, but of all of them I think the election was the biggest.”

Toscano represents all of Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle, and 3,400 people in his 57th District could be eligible for coverage, according to the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. And Toscano says as many as 10,000 could be eligible in the region, a “not inconsequential” number.

Virginia’s Medicaid program is one of the most restrictive in the country, with disabled individuals making more than $9,700 a year ineligible, as were poor, able-bodied, childless adults. The expansion allows people making 138 percent of the federal poverty level—$16,643—to be covered, with the federal government picking up 90 percent of the cost.

The expansion has a work requirement, which Tory Brown, spokesperson for Progress Virginia, says will lessen the gains in coverage and require an expensive bureaucracy to manage. “The work requirement was a bit of face saving for Republicans,” she says. “It’s not really that people are too lazy to work.” For people who have to work to get care but need care to be able to work, she calls it a “catch 22.”

Lena Seville, who ran for City Council in 2015 and has no health insurance, is worried that the work requirement could affect her eligibility for Medicaid coverage. “I’m in the middle of starting my own business,” she says, and whether she can get health insurance will depend on how the work requirements are written.

She says she’d hate to have to give up her volunteer work and new business to search for jobs, “which I already do and it’s hard to get a good fit.” Says Seville, “I was excited, but now I’m cautious. I may not have health insurance when it’s done.”

Virginia Organizing board member Emma Hale points out that a lot of people work full-time and don’t have health insurance. “We have a lot of places that don’t pay a living wage—the university is one of the worst offenders.”

People without insurance often delay treatment, she says, and Medicaid expansion could “prevent people from dying.”

Pam Sutton-Wallace, CEO of UVA Medical Center, doesn’t expect “measurably significant” changes from Medicaid expansion because nearly 30 percent of the hospital’s patients already are either on Medicaid, self pay or are indigent. “What we’re likely to see are more self-pay patients using Medicaid,” she says.

Her concern is whether the newly eligible will have access to primary care. “Some doctors aren’t accepting new patients,” she says. That, and whether emergency rooms will see a drop in the number of patients who wait until the last minute to seek care are “areas ripe for study.”

“I want to take preventive action so I don’t run into problems later on,” says Bergstrom. “We would gladly add in the cost of health care for me if it was a number remotely in reach, but we cannot spend nearly 80 percent of my income on one budget line item.”

Who benefits

The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis estimated the number of people who would be eligible for health insurance coverage under Medicaid expansion by legislative district and locality. Here are the numbers for the districts of the four delegates who represent Charlottesville and Albemarle, and how they voted.

25th District

2,000 eligible in Western Albemarle, Augusta and Rockingham counties

Delegate Steve Landes voted no on expansion

57th District

3,400 eligible in Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle

Delegate David Toscano voted yes

58th District

3,100 eligible in parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene and Rockingham counties

Delegate Rob Bell voted no

59th District

3,300 eligible in southern Albemarle, parts of Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell and Nelson counties

Delegate Matt Fariss voted no

Correction June 14: Emma Hale’s name was misspelled in the original version.

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Dominion’s win: Bills reduce refunds, thwart SCC regulation

It was a bill that had its own meme.

“When Dominion writes the law: We pay twice. They get richer,” said a post that swept the web with the hashtags #HB1558 #KILLTHEBILL and #STOPTHESCAM before the House of Delegates voted to pass the bill 63-35 on February 13.

The bill was a response to the Utility Rate Freeze Bill of 2015, which froze electricity rates, but also removed the State Corporation Commission’s review of the rates of major utility companies like Dominion Energy until 2022.

Over the past couple years, Dominion has gained massive “overearnings” of several hundred million dollars, says Delegate David Toscano, who represents Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the 57th District. HB1558 and its Senate counterpart, SB966, would require Dominion to give refunds to its customers and lead to major investments in energy conservation.

Toscano has called the legislation some of the most significant of this General Assembly session, and though he voted against the bills, he attached an amendment that would prohibit Dominion from “double dipping” by charging ratepayers twice to update the grid and for investments in renewable energy. Put simply, the utility company won’t be able to take from refunds owed to ratepayers—that’s one dip—and still charge extra to finance the same projects—the second dip.

The same amendment was placed on the Senate bill, which passed the House 65-30 on February 26.

“Few would argue that there are some substantial benefits derived from this bill,” Toscano said in a letter to his constituents. Dominion customers will receive $200 million in refunds over the next two years and an immediate rate reduction of at least $125 million. The bill supports renewable energy and requires the utility company to invest almost $1 billion in grid modernization.

But in Toscano’s dissenting vote, he declares that problems with the bill remain. The SCC’s ability to control rates is restricted, and any future rate reductions could have to wait much longer than if the organization immediately resumes regulation.

Costs incurred for utility undergrounding projects have been deemed “reasonable and prudent” without the SCC knowing the actual costs, says Toscano, and that could make ratepayer refunds less than the $200 million promised by the bill.

“SB966 requires Dominion to refund ratepayers just pennies to the dollar of what we are owed,” says Elaine Colligan, director of the Clean Virginia Project, which is a local independent initiative funded by investor Michael Bills and run out of Tom Perriello’s New Virginia Way PAC.

As for future overcharges, Colligan says the bill postpones SCC review of base electricity rates until 2021, and if the organization finds that consumers have been overcharged, it can only order refunds up to $50 million. In 2016 alone, Dominion overcharged customers an estimated $395 million, she adds.

“This is simply a bad deal,” she says. “Consumers should be refunded 100 percent of what we are owed.”

Dominion Energy, a private corporation, owns the publicly regulated electric monopoly in Virginia and, according to Colligan, it is permitted to spend unlimited amounts in campaign contributions and political gifts.

“The passage of SB966 is symptomatic of Virginia’s unique style of political corruption,” she says. “In the absence of publicly financed elections, a full-time and well-funded state legislature and checks and balances on Dominion’s influence on our representatives, we can only expect that the company would try to ram a utility bill through the General Assembly that is a windfall for their profits.”

If the Senate bill is signed into law, Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani says customers will begin seeing refunds in their July bills. The average bill is about $115.75 a month, and the average customer can expect to see a $6 credit for about nine months. Customers can also expect about $125 million in rate reductions from federal tax legislation, he says.

“When you factor in these rate credits, it’ll lower them down to the same rate [customers] were paying in 2009,” he says.

Dominion has drawn major controversy and criticism because of its efforts to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $6 billion and 600-mile gas fracking pipeline that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved in October.

Charlottesville resident Kay Ferguson, who also opposed the utility rate bills, says she’s become familiar with the company in her fight against the ACP.

“It is a big bully,” she says. “It does have a chokehold on the government in Virginia.”

But, says Daudani, “That’s the way the political process is set up. It requires us to make sure our voice is heard alongside other groups that may have their own priorities.”

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In brief: Unregulated militia, the sixth man and more

Militias came to Charlottesville August 12. Photo Eze Amos

August 12 bills killed

After white supremacists invaded Charlottesville with violent clashes that left activist Heather Heyer dead and the community traumatized, legislators carried bills to the General Assembly to give localities more muscle in avoiding such gatherings in the future. Attorney General Mark Herring also wrote a couple of bills to combat white supremacist violence—to no avail.

Senator Creigh Deeds

  • Allow Charlottesville and Albemarle to prohibit the carrying of firearms in public.
  • Prohibit impersonating armed forces personnel.
  • Prohibit wearing clothing or carrying weaponry commonly associated with military combat at permitted events.

Delegate David Toscano

  • Allow Charlottesville and Albemarle to prohibit carrying firearms with high-capacity magazines.
  • Allow any locality to prohibit carrying firearms at permitted events.
  • Localities may remove war memorials.

Attorney General Mark Herring

  • Define domestic terrorism as violence committed with the intent of instilling fear based on one’s race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation. The state police superintendent could designate domestic terrorism organizations.
  • Paramilitary activity is unlawful if done with intent to intimidate with firearms, explosives or incendiary devices.

In brief

Power-less

Dominion Energy says it’s restored power to 42,000 customers in Albemarle following the nor’easter that hit the area starting March 1. At press time 721 were still without electricity.

“We’re like a mosquito on the giant’s ankle.”—Kay Ferguson about anti-Dominion protesters

ACC accolades

Virginia secured the No. 1 seed and won its final home game of the season against Notre Dame March 3. Tony Bennett was named ACC Coach of the Year, Isaiah Wilkins was named Defensive Player of the Year and De’Andre Hunter was named Sixth Man of the Year.

NBC29 anchor dies

Sunrise and noon anchor Ken Jefferson, 65, died unexpectedly March 4 after a brief illness. According to NBC29, he began his broadcast career with a pirate radio station as a boy. He worked at WHIO in Dayton, Ohio, and WWSB in Sarasota, Florida, before coming to Charlottesville in 2011.

Free tampons in jail

The General Assembly passed a bill February 27 that provides free feminine hygiene products to women incarcerated in Virginia’s prisons and jails. Bills to eliminate the sales tax on menstrual supplies for the non-incarcerated died in House committees.

Cop-car escapee pleads guilty

Matthew W. Carver, 26, whose six-week crime spree last summer included breaking into a Crozet woman’s house and stealing her car, multiple B&Es and kicking out the window to escape from a patrol car while handcuffed and shackled, pleaded guilty to 21 felony counts February 28 in Albemarle Circuit Court. He’ll be sentenced June 6.

Not just talking turkey

When a tractor trailer overturned on Rockfish Gap Turnpike February 25, Albemarle police said on their Facebook page that several turkeys got loose and “enjoyed a night under the Crozet stars” until an animal control officer picked them up the next day and “safely wrangle[d] the rafter into a pretty sweet new ride courtesy of the ACPD.” A rafter is a group of turkeys.

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DOA: Gun safety bills die in subcommittee

Delegate Matt Fariss, R-Rustburg, represents southern Albemarle and sits on the Militia, Police and Public Safety subcommittee that regularly kills gun safety measures. File photo

Andy Goddard has been going to the General Assembly since 2008, the year after his son was shot four times in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. In his 11th year monitoring the legislature and how it deals with mass murders and guns, not much has changed.

“It’s the same old thing,” says Goddard, who’s the legislative director for the Virginia Center for Public Safety. “The one subcommittee in the House that kills all the gun bills used to be 4-1 Republican majority.” Now, with last fall’s Democratic insurgency in the House that brought it to a 49-51 minority, the Militia, Police and Public Safety subcommittee that handily dispatches anything that could restrict gun ownership added another Dem and is now 5-2. “Ludicrous,” says Goddard.

House Democratic Leader David Toscano agrees and says the subcommittee makeup is “unproportional” to the nearly even split of the House.

Subcommittee No. 1 includes southern Albemarle’s delegate, Matt Fariss, a Republican from Rustburg. Fariss did not return phone calls from C-VILLE Weekly to explain why measures such as requiring family day care centers to lock up guns after a 4-year-old boy killed himself in Orange last spring or banning bump stocks—the device used in Las Vegas to slaughter 58 people and wound hundreds—failed.

“Every year we see this,” says Gay Einstein, who heads the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention. “Bump stocks—really?”

Her group started after the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut. The inability to nudge Virginia legislators to support gun safety measures is depressing, says Einstein, despite increased interest in preventing mass murders. The group took a bus of 32 people down to Richmond in January to lobby.

Goddard says 113 firearms-related bills were introduced in the General Assembly this session, and his organization supported 83 of them. Of those, “81 have gone down,” says Goddard.

One of the two survivors is a bill state Senator Creigh Deeds carried that would put restrictions on gun possession on minors who were involuntarily ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

The other? A “stop gun violence” license plate. “The gun boys got really upset and threw everything at that one,” says Goddard, who wonders how gun violence can be stopped when legislators “can’t even abide the words on a license plate.”

Despite the steadfast defeat of firearms restrictions in Richmond, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, high school slayings and the national student-led outrage, Toscano is calling upon fellow legislators to reopen the conversation. “There are three items worthy of discussion,” he says.

First, banning bump stocks. Second, banning the sale of assault weapons to people under 21. “If we could have prevented the sale of an AR-15, the Florida shootings would not have occurred,” he says. And third, a “gun prevention protective order,” which would allow a court to remove guns from someone deemed mentally ill and dangerous “like the guy in Florida,” a measure that has support in conservative and liberal camps, says Toscano.

He knows he needs help from across the aisle to get anything done as this year’s session winds down, and on February 27, he says, “I’m going to challenge Republicans to join us.”

Despite the steadfast defeat of firearms restrictions in Richmond, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, high school slayings and the national student-led outrage, House Democratic Leader David Toscano is calling upon fellow legislators to reopen the conversation.