Dear friend,

The 2012 session of the General Assembly has officially "crossed over." The term refers to the last day the Senate can consider senate bills and the House of Delegates can consider house bills. The remaining bills from each body crossover for consideration in the other chamber of the General Assembly. The exception to the rule is revenue bills, which will be considered over the next few days. In fact, while this session of the General Assembly has generated a lot of headlines, the real work lies ahead when the House and Senate budget proposals are announced this weekend.

On Tuesday, February 14, crossover day, the daily floor session lasted about six hours. Over a decade ago, when I served in the House, it was routine for crossover to produce 12 to 14 hour long sessions. It has become routine for the House and Senate to wrap up business on crossover in just a few hours. Tuesday was unique.

Some of the highlights from this session are as follows:

• The property rights constitutional amendment, which I have written about before, passed on a bipartisan vote. The Senate approved legislation putting it on the ballot this fall and defining some of the terms contained in the amendment. I am pleased the issue will go before the voters; however, some of the terms that were adopted in the bill, those for "lost profits" and "loss of access," are so tight that I am afraid people will not be able to prove those sorts of losses.
• Reproductive rights have been in the bull's eye this session. A bill passed at crossover that grants a woman, her estate, and the father the right to sue for wrongful death in the event of a death of a fetus. Although support for the bill was bipartisan, I voted against it because I believe existing statute already covers this circumstance. I am not in favor of putting extra words into the Code of Virginia when the remedy sought is already covered under some existing provision of State law.
• Transportation remains a significant topic of discussion. This year the Governor advanced a plan to raise money by transferring dollars from the General Fund to the Transportation Trust Fund and by granting naming rights of bridges and tunnels. Both of those ideas failed in the Senate. Many General Fund obligations are underfunded as it is, and it is not good public policy to take more money from those priorities. Likewise, it makes no sense to name bridges and tunnels, which have already been named in many cases for fallen state troopers, deputy sheriffs, or soldiers, and sell additional naming rights. Rather, the Senate passed a transportation plan which is built around an indexing of the gas tax. The plan is very modest and will not solve our long term problems, but it does allow us to begin putting more money into transportation. The proposal would result in the state gas tax going from 17.5 cents per gallon to 17.7 cents per gallon this year. The plan had broad bipartisan support.
• The Governor also put forward a number of educational reforms. Part of his plan was built around the elimination of the continuing contract status for teachers and principals. Many people speak of the continuing contract as tenure, but people in public education know the continuing contract does not protect bad teachers or prevent their dismissal. The Governor's plan was rejected on a 20 to 18 vote, with two senators not voting. I voted against the legislation. In light of the fact that teachers in many localities have not seen pay raises for a number of years, I remain concerned that changes to the continuing contract would affect morale in school divisions and essentially accelerate departure of good teachers from low-pay, rural jurisdictions to higher-pay, wealthier localities. While I am open to reform in the area of public education, I'm convinced we need to keep the student in focus. We build our next generation of workforce and leadership primarily through our public schools. Because I was concerned the legislation could seriously affect our ability to provide a quality education in all of our localities, I voted against the bill. Similar legislation is coming over from the House of Delegates.
• One of the primary issues this year is the reform of the Virginia Retirement System. Two bills passed the Senate this crossover, one with unanimous support and the other with some opposition. One bill created a hybrid plan with both defined benefit and defined contribution features for state employees. I voted for this bill. The second bill provides reforms for local employees. I voted against this bill, not because I disagree that we need reforms, but because the bill essentially mandates a five percent pay increase to pay for the employee share of the retirement contribution. While I am not opposed to employees receiving pay increases, I am concerned that the Commonwealth is requiring its localities to spend money at this time when local governments are being pinched from every direction. The bill essentially amounts to an unfunded mandate on local government. Nevertheless, we have about a $24 billion unfunded liability when you combine all of the retirement accounts together. The problem did not arise overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight. I am convinced we must all work together to achieve our goals in the retirement system-- preserving the trust of those employees who are members of the system and providing an incentive to attract quality employees to the public work force.
• A bill passed to require drug testing for welfare recipients. I voted against the bill. It may sound like a common sense proposal to many, but the facts do not bear out justification for the proposal and only serve to reinforce a stereotype about welfare recipients. In other states, implementation of the program has cost large sums of money in order to save few dollars. In addition to the fiscal impact of the bill, I suppose this legislation could be a precedent for requiring anyone who benefits from tax dollars to be drug tested.

With crossover behind us, the focus now switches to the budget as the remaining bills continue to move through the process. Each General Assembly puts its imprimatur on the budget, which contains the real priorities of each session of the General Assembly. This document is very important this year because it is the Governor's only budget during his four-year term. The political dynamic of the Senate is making this an even tougher year. Although our economy is improving, the needs continue to outstrip means, and the governor has made proposals which take significant dollars from the safety net. Because he has placed a much needed priority on fixing the retirement system, funding in other areas, such as K-12 and higher education, has been shortchanged. We have a lot of work to do to achieve a balanced budget.

In the Senate, the Republicans, who represent 50 percent of the membership, have used the Lieutenant Governor's tiebreaking authority to wrest power over committees from the Democrats, who also hold 50 percent of the seats. Bipartisanship on the budget, however, is required because the Lieutenant Governor has no tiebreaking authority there. We are in truly unchartered waters, and our work together over the next seven days will determine our ability to work to lead Virginia forward.

It is an honor to serve you in the Senate of Virginia. If I can be of service to you, or if you would like to share your thoughts or ask a question, or if you would like to visit Richmond and see the legislature at work, please contact me or Tracy Eppard, my legislative aide, at district25@senate.virginia.gov or (804) 698-7525. Best,

Creigh

(Electronic mail, February 24, 2012)