Thanks to President Obama and Democrats in U.S. Congress, the Virginia General Assembly was able to adjourn on schedule Feb. 28 having passed a balanced, constitutional budget that will fund core services and protect quality of life for Virginia families. Going into this year’s legislative session, we faced a $3-billion revenue shortfall and the prospect of having to cut about $400 million each from public education and health care. That would have meant fewer teachers and larger class sizes, the loss of thousands of health care and nursing home jobs around the state, and fewer health care services for the uninsured at a time when rising unemployment means more families are losing their health insurance. To make matters, House Republicans passed an initial version of the budget — over my dissenting vote and strong objection — that robbed $149 million from the state’s Water Quality Improvement Fund to plug the additional Medicaid hole left by their rejection of Governor Kaine’s proposed 30-cents per pack cigarette tax increase. This would have caused a $133 million budget deficit and it would have threatened drinking water safety for my constituents by risking the Alexandria Sanitation Authority’s wastewater plant upgrades.
Fortunately, U.S. Congress passed and President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in time for us to incorporate the $4.8 billion in aid Virginia will receive into the final version of the budget, which I was proud to support. Thanks to these funds, while there still will be some challenging cuts, we were able to largely protect public education, health care, and public safety — including our area’s drinking water. While a serious long-term solution to Virginia’s continuing transportation funding crisis remains elusive — and I believe ultimately will be decided at the polls this November — Virginia will receive roughly $800 million in transportation funding from the Federal stimulus package, including money for public transit infrastructure, and we have a long list of “shovel-ready” projects that we expect to move forward.
In addition to delivering a responsible budget under incredibly difficult circumstances, there are other reasons to consider this year’s General Assembly session a success.
When I filed the statewide smoke-free restaurants bill on Jan. 5 and Governor Kaine announced it a priority at Arlington’s Liberty Tavern the following day, I was hopeful that a unique confluence of factors — from a new committee chairman, to the impending elections, to increased grassroots pressure — would make 2009 the year Virginia would overcome our 400 years of tobacco history and take a major step forward for public health. However, part of me expected this to be another quixotic effort where progressive Democrats from Northern Virginia fight the good fight but are stymied by Richmond politics. Therefore, I took great satisfaction watching years of persistent hard work from grassroots activists, public health advocates, legislators, and Governor Kaine result in the General Assembly giving final approval to a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.
Virginia’s new smoke-free restaurants law will go into effect Dec. 1 and protect both restaurant workers and patrons from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. It allows for only two narrow exceptions — private clubs and facilities with an independently-ventilated, physically-separated room. Although a number of states with smoking bans exempt bars, Virginia’s smoking ban will be one of the strongest in the region — and the strongest among the top tobacco-producing states — because Virginia does not differentiate between bars and restaurants. Knowing that workers in restaurants that allow smoking are twice as likely to develop lung cancer, this new law is a real victory for public health.
Several of my other bills passed with strong bipartisan support, delivering progress in a variety of areas: House Bill 2378 closed a corporate tax loophole that will save Virginia taxpayers $30 million this year and up to $7 million per year moving forward. House Bill 1624 will help schools and teachers address the growing problem of cyberbullying so we can make sure all of our children enjoy the safe and productive school environment they need to be able to learn and to grow. House Bill 2589 will free local school divisions from an expensive unfunded mandate by creating a one-year moratorium on a particular test some education experts consider to be ineffective and potentially redundant. This will help school districts improve service to students for whom English is a second language, ultimately helping them learn English better and faster and making sure we are spending our education dollars more efficiently. House Bill 1643 will give local registrars and election boards more flexibility over when they may administer required oaths to election workers, allowing them to better arrange shifts to staff polls. The bill also includes a provision requested by the City of Alexandria to allow more poll watchers inside larger polling places. This will make it easier for election officials to staff the polls so that Election Day may go more smoothly, especially in larger precincts and during high-turnout elections. The provision in House Bill 1643 to repeal the unconstitutional ban on wearing political clothing while voting was passed as part of an omnibus election reform law.
There were some disappointments this session too. As a member of the Elections Subcommittee, I worked hard to pass bills to create early voting and no-fault absentee voting and to deliver nonpartisan legislative redistricting reform. Unfortunately, these much-needed improvements to our democracy continue to die in subcommittee on party-line votes. Additionally, I carried bills to promote equal rights for gay and lesbian Virginians in housing and social services, as well as to repeal the anti-gay constitutional amendment that passed in 2006. Unfortunately, none of those efforts moved forward, although nobody sponsored bills this year to attack equal rights, which is an improvement over the past.
Thank you to everyone who offered advice and feedback during this session and to everyone who lent a hand to my family while I was gone. It is truly an honor to represent our community in the world’s oldest continuously meeting elected legislature. As always, if there is anything you need from my office or anything I can do to serve you better, please do not hesitate to get in touch at DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov or 703-549-3203.
