Misplaced Priorities and Legislative Overreach

In the last fall's election, we heard much from candidates who promised to work to improve the economy and create jobs. What we are now seeing in the House of Delegates, however, is an emphasis on a socially conservative agenda and a classic case of legislative overreach. The Republican majority in the House is so large that these bills are easily passed despite reasonable arguments opposing them. In this week alone, the House passed two bills that would make it more difficult for citizens to cast a vote and have that vote counted (HB9 and HB63); four gun bills; and an abortion bill that is as restrictive as anything we have seen in Virginia.

HB 9 will discourage people from voting because of its requirement that a person must cast a provisional ballot in the event that he or she does not have identification at the polls. Previously, a citizen could swear under oath that he or she is the person listed in the poll book. If the affirmation was false, it would be punishable as a Class 5 felony. With this new bill, lack of identification would force a person to cast a provisional ballot (not immediately countable) and which would be subject to challenge if the person did not return to prove their identity. Supporters of HB9 claim it is an anti-fraud bill, but even the supporters cannot document any examples of voter identification fraud in Virginia.

With HB940, the House voted to repeal "one-gun-per-month", a measure enacted during the Wilder Administration in 1993 that had a dramatic impact on discouraging gun-running from Virginia into the northeastern states. At the time "one-gun-a-month" was passed, Virginia was the gun-running capital of the United States. The measure substantially reduced the number of guns transported into the major cities of the northeast, and has been deemed a dramatic success. If the Senate passes the measure, citizens will be able to purchase as many guns as they choose whenever they choose. The House also passed HB 375, a measure that would prevent a locality from enacting rules to prevent an employee from carrying a gun or ammunition in their vehicles into parking lots adjacent to his or her workplace. Under this measure, an employee would now be allowed to carry as much ammunition as he or she desires, and store it in plain view - at a child care center, a park, or a recreation center parking lot. This increases the likelihood to attract undesirable activity and create an unsafe environment in such close proximity to our children.

Finally, the House passed HB62, which prevents the funding of abortions for poor women, even if a doctor certifies that "a fetus will be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency." We will likely see more anti-choice bills next week.

Click here to view my recent floor speech on misplaced priorities and recent U.S. employment figures.

While these social debates are raging, I continue to focus on education funding and ensuring that Albemarle and Charlottesville receive more money in the state budget. The Governor's budget purports to provide additional funding for K-12 education, but, when you consider the increasing costs in school divisions and the impact that increased VRS contributions will have on school divisions, many will experience a reduction in actual funding. Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville are two that will. What is sometimes lost in this discussion is the fact that for the last several years, the Obama stimulus package helped Virginia balance its budget and ensure that schools would not experience too deep a cut. With that money now gone, and the state not willing to increase its contribution, school divisions will be financially challenged. As a point of reference, state funding for next year will be $550 less per pupil than we provided in 2009. Our average teacher's salary is $4,500 below the national average. We have 2,000 fewer teachers in our schools today than we did in 2009, but have 45,000 more students. I will continue to fight for additional money for our school divisions.

I appreciate hearing from my constituents, and hope you will continue to contact me to share your comments and views on matters before the Commonwealth.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve you in Richmond. Your input is important to me and I invite you to share your thoughts and concerns with me on all matters before the Commonwealth. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

David

(Electronic mail, January 24, 2012)