Last week, rest stops across Virginia re-opened — at taxpayer expense — to ensure that folks who travel our highways have a place to “rest”: to get a snack, look at a map, stretch their legs, walk their pooch, and otherwise relieve themselves. How nice.
Meanwhile, in nearly every county and city across this state elected officials and parents of school-aged children are reacting to massive cuts to education funding, making plans to layoff teachers and increase class sizes in order to balance their budgets.
Last week, the House passed legislation to regulate car title lending in Virginia by a vote of 96 to 2. Although far from ideal — and I mean far — the measure is a significant step forward for low and moderate income consumers. For starters, the bill closes the open-end credit loophole to car title lenders. That was one thing we were working toward. The bill also requires car title lenders to be licensed and regulated by the State Corporation Commission. That was something else we wanted.
By: Michael Cassidy, Director of The Commonwealth Institute
Many Center members embraced the important findings of The Commonwealth Institute’s report back in the fall on the growing costs of state tax expenditures and the general lack of accountability and transparency in this part of the budget that now costs $2.5 billion. As the legislative session draws to a close, we do have a small, but important victory in that area to celebrate.
On March 8, 2010, the House unanimously passed HB 355, sponsored by Delegate David Englin (D-45) to strengthen transparency and accountability in the budget process by improving the annual corporate income tax relief report produced by the Department of Taxation. The Senate had already unanimously passed the legislation on March 4, 2010.
Fox News icon Glenn Beck is comparing congregations that work for social justice to bastions of communism, and he is telling viewers who attend those churches to leave. Holding up a swastika and a soviet flag, Beck recently ranted on Fox News that houses of faith preaching justice are like Nazis.
I don’t know Glenn Beck personally, and I only occasionally hear him on AM radio, but I am saddened that he wants to split congregations along the lines of those who care for the poor and those who think helping others is really not their job. Of course he has no theological or scriptural basis for his position, choosing instead to characterize everyone who uses the phrase “economic justice” as anti-American. I could not disagree more.
At this stage of the legislative session, the budget has entered the shadowy world of the budget conference process. During this time there are no public meetings or hearings. The budget conferees from the Senate and House meet as needed, in private, to negotiate and hash out the differences between their two versions of the state budget. What were those differences? In a nutshell both budgets cut public services deeply: health care, public education, the arts, etc. They both also raise revenue, though the Senate raises more revenue than the House with an assortment of fee increases. Both houses emphatically rejected general tax increases.
Hate is meant to incapacitate righteousness. We witnessed hate this week in Virginia when the Westboro Baptist Church came to the Commonwealth. They’re the jewskilledjesus.com and godhatesfags.com crowd. While we rarely use protests to draw attention to an issue, the fact that the Kansas-based anti-Semites sought to protest the Virginia Holocaust Museum motivated us to turn out folks to that sacred space.
By: Joe Stanley, Director of Va Interfaith Power & Light
As we face one of the most difficult economic environments since the Great Depression, Virginia must get the most out of every tax dollar. SB109, patroned by Sen. Chap Petersen (D-34) will enshrine in law an executive order which requires that all executive branch state facilities that are built (from drafting process onward) or significantly renovated meet either LEED Silver or Green Globes “Two Globes” certification. This bill, as written, will not require a budgetary amendment. We strongly support passage of this legislation.
For the second year in a row, the House of Delegates has rejected legislation to help Virginia’s unemployed workers. Senate Bill 239, introduced by Sen. John Watkins (R-10th), would have extended eligibility for unemployment compensation to individuals who leave their jobs for compelling family reasons and to individuals enrolled in certain job training programs.
In addition, this legislation would have enabled Virginia to draw down $125 million in federal stimulus funds to bolster the state’s unemployment insurance system. Earlier this week, a House subcommittee voted to “lay the bill on the table,” that’s a genteel way to say they killed it. The action taken by the House is in stark contrast to the overwhelming support shown by the Senate, which approved the legislation with a vote of 31-9, just two weeks ago.
By: Joe Stanley, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light
Though it isn’t often that we’ve found ourselves working with Del. Bill Janis (R-56th) on issues of mutual concern, this year we have found a piece of legislation that is both common-sense as well as integral to advancing our causes. HB389 creates an offshore wind authority that will have the responsibility of collecting the data for how the Commonwealth can most safely and efficiently harness electricity from the strong winds off of our coast.
Members of the General Assembly heard your voice and both budgets released by the Senate and House take some steps toward ending corporate tax giveaways and raising revenue. The question now is: how much?
Over the past several weeks, faithful Virginians have been making the case for a moral budget and taking a balanced approach to filling the over $4 billion budget hole. Well now the debate is over. Members of the General Assembly heard your voice and both budgets released by the Senate and House take some steps toward ending corporate tax giveaways and raising revenue. The question now is: how much?
Despite periodic frustration with our friends in the General Assembly, there are times when, if we step back from the moment, we can learn something about them and even more about ourselves.
Listening to my friend Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-24th) of Mt. Solon, Virginia in the lower Shenandoah Valley, for example, you get a sense that he has been deeply forged by his Brethren faith, his rural upbringing, and the tenacity so characteristic of valley families. Sen. Hanger was the first in his family to graduate high school and attend college — Madison College (now JMU). He was able to attend this public college because of a basketball scholarship. Sen. Hanger speaks of perseverance and loyalty in ways that are inspiring even when you disagree with him on issues.
In the first issue of Legis-Link, I wrote about the shift in party makeup in the House of Delegates, and the role that the new math of vote counts would play in how legislation would move through the General Assembly. You can get that original article at the link at the bottom of this page. Here at crossover, it is worth looking back at that projection to see how things have turned out.
By: Joe Stanley, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light
As we approach crossover in the General Assembly, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light has done well in achieving our objectives on energy efficiency and creation care. Much of our work has been in the Senate so far. With the party makeup of the House of Delegates being so skewed away from support for our issues, the course of many bills through that chamber can be accurately predicted with or without advocacy work. It is oftentimes too difficult to flip the needed votes for what are generally considered left-leaning bills, and right-leaning bills have no real obstacles any longer to getting sent over to the Senate. With that in mind, I want to focus on five pieces of legislation that have taken been the focus of our work on the stewardship of creation.
It’s half time. Only instead of marching bands and a trip to the concession stand, the players here at the General Assembly stay on the field as the clock counts down to the final whistle. Crossover was Tuesday. That’s the day where each chamber has to complete work on its own legislation, and then everything they’ve done “crosses over” to the other chamber for their consideration. Much legislation has died. But there remains much to do.
Nearly 700,000 Virginians have been able to keep food on the table as a result of the increase in food stamp benefits passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last February, according to new data released recently by The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis.
“The Recovery Act’s food stamp increase has played a critical role in supporting Virginia’s families who are struggling to make ends meet amidst unexpected job loss, cuts in wages, and cuts in hours,” says Michael Cassidy, Executive Director of The Commonwealth Institute.
The Senate Courts of Justice Committee will hear three death penalty bills on Monday February 15: SB7, SB54, SB520. Each of these bills would expand the kind of crimes for which prosecutors can seek the death penalty. The Virginia Interfaith Center opposes any expansion of the death penalty on both theological and economic grounds.
Politics involves money. Lots of it. That’s no secret. And while legislators are hesitant to discuss the influence of money on votes, often outright denying the fact and openly denouncing those who suggest it, a curious exchange occurred this week at an early morning sub-committee meeting dealing with redistricting that shines sunlight on the role of all of that dough.
This week, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee reported out SB 239, which would expand eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits to include individuals who leave their jobs for compelling family reasons and individuals enrolled in certain job training programs.
Car title lenders charge astronomical interest rates, ranging from 25-30 percent per month, which amounts to an annual rate of 300-360 percent. In addition, car title lenders require borrowers to pay transactional fees ranging from $50 – $100.
This past Tuesday, Gov. McDonnell, in response to the State Senate passing an anti-national health care reform bill, said he supports efforts to increase access to health care. Virginians of faith stand firmly with him in calling for greater access for all Virginians, especially our children.
