Today David announced the list of bills he has pre-filed for the 2006 General Assembly session, which begins tomorrow. The list includes a number of concepts David outlined during the campaign as part of his Progressive Agenda for the Future.
“I’m told this is an ambitious slate of legislation for a freshman member of the minority party, but we’ll never get what we don’t fight for,” said David. “Clearly, some of these bills are more likely to pass than others. I’m especially encouraged that the Republican leadership has co-opted my bill that would make prescription drugs more affordable, since it means it’s more likely to pass. As George Marshall said, ‘There’s no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.’”
In addition to the legislation David has pre-filed as chief patron, he is a co-patron on a number of important bills, including the Clean Smokestacks Act that would reign in emissions from coal-fired power plants and the Fair Wage Act that would increase the minimum wage.
Click here for the section of the House of Delegates website where you can monitor the progress of David’s bills.
Affordable Prescription Drugs: Establish a memorandum of understand between Virginia and Illinois to allow Virginians to purchase safe, American-made prescriptions drugs at steep discounts through the I-Save-Rx program.
Equal Rights: Repeal the so-called Affirmation of Marriage Act, which makes it illegal for individuals of the same sex to enter into a “civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement” and threatens to overturn private contractual relationships between gay and lesbian couples.
Hunger: Create a joint subcommittee of the General Assembly to study food insecurity (i.e. hunger) in the Commonwealth to develop legislation and policies to monitor, alleviate, and eventually eliminate hunger in Virginia.
Affordable Housing: Provide an income tax credit to low income renters of up to 25 percent of the cost of their rent.
Affordable Housing: During condo conversions, allow certain elderly and disabled renters to assign their existing right to purchase their units to a public or non-profit housing agency that will lease back the units at affordable rates.
T.C. Williams High School: Allow T.C. Williams High School to begin the school year before Labor Day 2006 to accommodate final construction of the new school building during the summer of 2007. (Note: Delegate Adam Ebbin, who sits on the House Education Committee, has a version of this same bill, and the two bill will likely be folded together.)
Energy Conservation: Eliminate the sales tax on products certified as energy efficient under the federal Energy Star program, encouraging individuals and businesses to conserve energy.
Energy Conservation: Eliminate the sales tax on fuel-efficient cars that get more than 50 miles per gallon and sport-utility vehicles that get more than 30 miles per gallon, without regard to the technology used to achieve the fuel efficiency.
No Child Left Behind: Require that the Virginia Department of Education, and not localities, pay all costs of testing required by the federal No Child Left Behind act, reducing the burden of No Child Left Behind on local taxpayers.
Public Health: Increase the state sales tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack, which will reduce smoking among children, save about $1 billion per year in long-term health costs, bring in revenue of about $200 million per year.