City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2013
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: RASHAD M. YOUNG, CITY MANAGER /s/
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Consideration of Recommendation and Status Report on Legislation Introduced in the 2013 General Assembly Session.
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ISSUE: Recommendations and status report (No. 2) on legislation introduced at the 2013 General Assembly Session.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council approve the following recommendations of its Legislative Subcommittee (Mayor Euille and Councilman Smedberg):
(1) Approve the legislative positions included in Attachment 1 (Recommended Position on Bills Before the 2013 General Assembly Session); and
(2) Support budget amendments to provide additional funding to Healthy Families; and State funding for the local match for the State-required bonus for local Health Department employees (both of these are discussed briefly later in this memorandum).
DISCUSSION: The 2013 General Assembly Session is scheduled to adjourn in less than two weeks, on February 23. Over half of the 2,326 bills and resolutions that were introduced are now dead, and some of the remaining ones will be defeated before Session ends. A good deal of the remaining days of Session will likely be spent on budget issues.
City Package. The following bills and budget amendments seek the enactment of proposals from the City's legislative package (Attachment 2 is a status report on "City Package" bills):
· The Governor's proposal to end the Local Aid to the State program has been accepted by both the House and the Senate. This will save the City about a million dollars that otherwise would have gone to the State in FY 2014.
· More than half a dozen bills were introduced to allow school boards to set the opening day of school on the day they determine to be best for their schools. The Senate overwhelmingly killed this idea in committee on an 11-4 vote. Although a House bill to let school boards set the opening day is still alive, it will undoubtedly die in the Senate.
· The House has defeated constitutional amendments and related legislation that would provide a new procedure for the restoration of civil rights for persons who have been convicted of nonviolent felonies, but completed their sentence, probation, and parole. A Senate measure was approved by the Senate and is now before the House, where it is almost certain to be killed.
· Both the House and the Senate have defeated the bills that were introduced to allow unrestricted absentee, or early, voting.
· Legislation aimed at making voter identification requirements more stringent, thus making it potentially more difficult to vote, was overwhelmingly approved in the House. Similar Senate legislation faced a tie vote on the floor; the Lieutenant Governor broke the tie in support of the bill. Both the House and the Senate bills will require a voter to present a photo ID before he can cast his ballot.
· For the eleventh year, the General Assembly has refused to enact legislation to allow access to higher education by undocumented persons-even if he can meet a series of requirements that would demonstrate that he has been a resident for a substantial period of time, and that he or his family has been paying Virginia taxes.
· As noted in the last legislative update, City-proposed legislation to require nursing homes to have backup power (e.g., generators) sufficient to support critical patient needs when normal power fails was put aside in favor of budget amendments requiring the State Department of Health to study the issue and report back to the General Assembly later this year. The Senate approved the study; the House did not. Staff will work in the remaining days of Session to try and get the House to agree with the Senate on this important issue.
· Budget amendments were approved to keep beds open at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute for persons with psychiatric emergencies, albeit at a lower level (fewer beds and money) than the localities had proposed.
· Additional money was allocated to support community placements of individuals leaving State Training Centers; and to provide additional funding for early intervention services for infants and toddlers.
· SB 1224, which would have made it unlawful to discriminate against someone who wishes to purchase or lease a home, based on the source of income they propose to use (e.g., public assistance or child support), was defeated.
· Bills were introduced in the House and Senate to change the way State transit funding is provided to localities. The House bill was defeated; the Senate bill is still alive, but has been modified to address many of the City's most serious concerns (the predictability and reliability of funding; allocation formulas).
Transportation Funding. Of all the major transportation funding proposals, only one remains under consideration-HB 2313 (the Governor's proposal). As it passed the House, HB 2313 would eliminate the gasoline tax (but keep the tax on diesel fuel); increase the sales tax by eight-tenths of a percent, and use the additional funds for transportation; earmark taxes from internet sales (which must be authorized by Congress before they can be collected) primarily for transportation; increase certain vehicle registration fees; and take some of the revenue from the existing sales tax (used currently for programs such as education, public safety, and mental health) and earmark it for transportation.
The Senate defeated all the transportation bills that were introduced in that body (this occurred while the Senate redistricting legislation was still under consideration by the House). The Governor's bill (HB 2313) is now before the Senate; the Senate Finance Committee must make a recommendation on this bill by the beginning of next week. Thus far, it has given no indication of what its recommendation will be, but it is very unlikely to agree to the Governor's bill without substantial modifications.
Virginia Railway Express. Legislation to give the McDonnell administration a significantly greater vote on the VRE Operations Board has been defeated in the Senate but passed by the House (HB 2152). If enacted, it would grant the Chairman of the Commonwealth Transportation Board (the State Secretary of Transportation is the Board Chair) a vote equal to that of the largest locality vote on the Board (the Board's procedures call for weighted voting in some cases). The House Bill is now in the Senate, where opponents are working to defeat it.
Restrictions and Regulations on Firearms and Related Issues. As it has done in the past, the 2013 General Assembly has now defeated nearly every bill that would place additional restrictions on firearms. The only remaining such bill-SB 864-has passed the Senate and is being reviewed by the House Courts of Justice Committee. It would prohibit a person who has been prohibited from contact with someone by a protective order from having possession of a firearm while in the presence of the person with whom contact is prohibited.
State Budget. The House and Senate approved budget amendments (with some differences between them) on Thursday. Proposals affecting the City (and not described earlier in this memorandum) include the following:
· The House recommended restoring $6 million in Cost of Competing funds for K-12 support (non-instructional) positions in Northern Virginia schools; the Senate recommended $12 million for this program. Northern Virginia localities had asked that $33 million be added to the budget to fully fund this item. If the House budget prevails, Alexandria Schools would likely receive slightly less than $100,000; if the Senate prevails, it would be twice that amount.
· Funds were included to give 3 percent raises to state-supported local employees.
· Both the House and the Senate have agreed with the Governor's recommendation to shift a portion of sales tax revenues out of the general fund to pay for unmet transportation needs (in its 2013 Legislative Package, the City opposes such a transfer).
· Both the House and the Senate have included a 2 percent salary increase for teachers and other school employees (note that because of the State funding formula, the City will actually pay most of this salary increase).
· Total State funding for Alexandria Schools as proposed by the House is $34.6 million for FY 2013, and $36.1 million for FY 2014. The Senate has proposed $34.6 million for FY 2013 and $36.2 million for FY 2014 (note that the budget adopted by the 2012 General Assembly appropriated $34.0 million to ACPS for FY 2013, and $34.7 million for FY 2014).
· The Senate incorporated language in the budget which authorizes the Executive Branch to extend coverage of Medicaid under the federal health care legislation without further General Assembly action if the federal government agrees to certain waivers and conditions. The House does not have such a provision, but would require additional action by the General Assembly before Medicaid expansion could occur.
· Additional funding was included by the Senate, but not the House, for Project Discovery.
· Both the House and Senate increased funding (to different levels) for local libraries.
· The House, but not the Senate, included funds to pay the local match for a State-required bonus for locally-based employees of the Virginia Department of Health.
· The Senate increased funding to Healthy Families by $1 million; the House proposed a $190,000 increase.
· The Senate included $1 million for child psychiatry and mental health crisis services; the House added $450,000 for the same purpose.
· The House proposed an additional $1.85 million to provide mental health first aid training on how to recognize and respond to mental and emotional distress; the Senate did not appropriate funds for this training.
The House and Senate will spend the remaining two weeks trying to reach agreement on differences between their proposed amendments. Other than the Medicaid issue, there do not appear to be significant issues between the House and the Senate-although transportation funding could still become a budget issue.
Opportunity Educational Institution. Legislation that has passed both the House and Senate (HB 2096 and SB 1324, both introduced at the request of the Governor) will create a new, statewide school division to act as a school board and oversee any K-12 school in Virginia that has been denied accreditation. It can also assume responsibility for any school that has been accredited with warning for three years. There appear to be four schools that have been denied accreditation: two in Petersburg, one in Norfolk, and Jefferson-Houston in Alexandria. A number of other schools throughout the State have been accredited with warning for at least two years now, and may be eligible for the new division when it begins taking in schools (after the 2013-14 school year).
The new statewide division will be funded by the State and the localities whose schools have been placed in the division. Proportionate state, local, and federal shares of per pupil funding will be transferred from the local school division of residence to the Institution; this includes local funding over and above what is required to match State funding (in Alexandria this is more than $9,000 per year per student, in addition to the $5,000+ required to match State K-12 funding). There is no requirement in the proposed statute that the Alexandria funding be used for Alexandria students; it appears possible that the statewide division could transfer a portion of Alexandria's money to another school in the division.
Redistricting Legislation. HB 259, which was introduced in the 2012 Session to make technical changes to House districts, was substantially rewritten in the Senate earlier this Session to radically redraw the map of State Senate districts (reducing Alexandria's representation from three Senators to one). The Speaker of the House recently ruled the Senate rewrite was not germane to the original bill, and prohibited its consideration by the House.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1. Recommended Positions on Bills of Importance to the City, February 8, 2013
Attachment 2. Current Status of City Package Bills, February 8, 2013
Attachment 3. Current Status of Bills on Which the City Has Taken a Position, February 8, 2013
STAFF: Bernard Caton, Legislative Director