Senator Creigh Deeds

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You are here: Home / Archives for State employee compensation

Budget, Budget, Budget

February 26, 2016 by Creigh Deeds

The 2016 Session of the General Assembly is now in warp speed. We are merely two weeks from adjournment, and it seems everybody is in two or three places at the same time. Whether you are presenting a bill before a committee, hearing other presentations in other committees, meeting with constituents or other individuals who have an idea they wish to discuss, or taking part in long floor sessions, this is a wearisome time of the session – and a dangerous time. Bills are amended, deals are cut and things happen quickly. One simply has to pay attention.  [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Virginia General Assembly 2016 Tagged With: Higher Education funding, juvenile justice, K-12 funding, Medicaid expansion, mental health policy, Standards of Learning, State employee compensation, Virginia budget

Another Week Down

February 5, 2016 by Creigh Deeds

We are rapidly approaching the midpoint of the 2016 General Assembly Session. In legislative lingo, the midpoint is called the crossover, that period when Senate bills crossover to the House of Delegates and House bills crossover to the Senate.

To this point, much of the work has been handled by committees that meet around the clock. My committees shifted some this year. I am no longer on the General Laws and Technology and the Rehabilitation and Social Services Committees, but I was appointed to the Courts of Justice Committee. Courts meets twice a week and handles a large volume of bills. I continue to serve on the Privileges and Elections and Transportation Committees.

The problem has been that on Wednesdays, Courts typically meets all afternoon. In fact, one week we did not complete work until after 9:00 p.m. Transportation meets the same afternoon. As a result, I miss the work of the Transportation Committee. I am not the only member with such a conflict. I carefully review the docket and materials sent to me and leave a proxy with another member to ensure my voice counts on those bills.

Current Issues in the General Assembly

Aside from the topics I’ve covered in past updates, I have been actively working on a number of issues in the Virginia General Assembly:

Recognizing conservation officers

For many years in an effort to recognize the work of conservation officers at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, I’ve tried to increase retirement benefits and give them parity with similarly situated state employees. This year I introduced legislation to accomplish this goal again. The bill was carried over to 2017.

Statue of Limitations for prosecution of sexual misdemeanors involving children

I sponsored legislation for the third year in a row to lengthen the statute of limitations for prosecutions of misdemeanors of a sexual nature involving children to a year past the 18th birthday of the child victim. Typically, statutes of limitations on misdemeanors are a year from the date of the offense. This year, after receiving scrutiny and support from the State Crime Commission during the interim, the bill will pass.

State Park in Highland County

Another project of several years has been to organize and develop a state park in Highland County. I once again introduced a budget amendment to accomplish this goal. This year might be the right year since the Governor included a bond package in his introduced spending plan. However, there are rumblings about long-term revenue projections of our budget. The bond itself is in some jeopardy. Last week I had a chance to make my case for a state park in Highland County, and I will continue to press the issue.

Tax credit for farmers who donate to food banks

I am privileged to work with First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe and Delegate Ben Cline of Rockbridge County to carry important legislation this year to create a tax credit for farmers who donate food crops to food banks. This could help stock food banks at a time when they are having to adjust for the increasing costs of food and declining federal subsidies, in addition to helping local farmers.

Loan forgiveness for public mental health workers

The work of the Mental Health Joint Subcommittee goes on through the end of 2017, and our major work is still ahead of us. However, this year, I introduced a bill along with Delegate Joseph Yost of Giles County to create a fund for loan forgiveness. The program is intended to increase the number of individuals seeking to enter this field and also to attract and retain workers within our public mental health system – our local community services boards or the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. The Education and Health Committee passed and referred the bill to the Senate Finance Committee due to the $2.5 million cost associated with the proposal. The bill is scheduled to be heard on Monday afternoon in subcommittee.

“Free fishing days”

This year I worked with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to make “free fishing days,” which the Department uses to encourage people to fish and to learn about Virginia’s diverse fishery, actually free. If Senate Bill 349 passes, streams stocked with trout will be included in these special days.

Addressing the rapid decline of pollinators

People who are familiar with my work know I have been concerned for a number of years about the rapid decline of pollinators. Pollination is critical to the agricultural economy and our food supply. This year I introduced legislation to create a workgroup, including various state agencies and the beekeeping and agricultural communities, to develop a balanced approach and strategies to address the decline. Thus far the various stakeholders have not been able to develop a consensus, and I am hopeful passage of this bill will be a catalyst for results. The bill passed the Senate with unanimous support and is awaiting action in the House of Delegates.

Changing the way judges are selected

I’ve worked on a couple of issues this year involving judgeships. As I referenced several weeks ago, I have introduced measures to increase the judgeships in the 25th Circuit and the 16th Circuit. I have also introduced legislation, again something I have worked on for a long time, to change the way judges are selected from the highly politicized process we have now to one based on merit.

You may track all legislation with the Legislative Information System or at Richmond Sunlight. As I have explained to many people, legislators make the best decision based on the information they have available. Please never assume I have the best information. If you have an idea or input about an issue before the General Assembly, let me hear from you.

It continues to be honor to serve in the Virginia General Assembly. If I may be of assistance or you would like to visit, please contact us at (804) 698-7525 or [email protected].

Best,

Creigh

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Filed Under: Virginia General Assembly 2016 Tagged With: conservation, judicial appointments, Sexual Assault policy, State employee compensation, state parks

One More Week to Go

February 20, 2015 by Creigh Deeds

With a week to go until the scheduled February 28 adjournment, the Virginia General Assembly is moving steadily along. From what I hear, few areas of controversy remain in the budget deliberations. I still think it is possible, though not as likely as I previously thought, that we adjourn a day or two early. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Virginia General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: mental health policy, power company regulation, State employee compensation

Budget Deliberations Begin

February 13, 2015 by Creigh Deeds

The 2015 Session of the General Assembly is hurtling toward adjournment. The word around here is that we may complete our work earlier than the scheduled February 28 adjournment.

Election year jitters, and a clear partisan majority in both houses, makes it less likely we will find ourselves at a stalemate this year. Medicaid expansion, the issue that held the General Assembly up last year, has been shoved aside. Many Republicans acknowledge that the policy reasons for Virginia expanding Medicaid are compelling.  Virginia’s economy could use the $2.5 billion bump that would be fully funded by the federal government through 2016 and that health insurance for 400,000 people who are currently uninsured would be a boost to Virginia’s economy and health. The problem is political. Virginia’s working poor took a backseat to election year politics.

Both the House and Senate have passed versions of the budget that appear to be close on most issues, thus the optimism about an early adjournment. The last two weeks of the General Assembly will be spent working out the differences in a conference committee. I will only touch on a few areas of the budget.

Pay increases for public employees

Because revenue projections have improved since last December, both the House and Senate included money in the budget for pay increases for public employees. The Senate bumps up the salaries of state and state-supported local employees by three percent, two percent for college faculty, and 1.5 percent for the state share for public school teachers. The Senate budget includes $5.8 million generated by Senator Carrico’s bill I discussed last week to address salary compression issues at the Virginia State Police.

K-12 education funding

The Senate and the House proposals incorporated the Governor’s priorities with respect to K-12 education. The budgets adopted by the House and Senate yesterday do not cut funding to our public schools. The increased revenue, which has allowed some flexibility with this year’s budget, should not be viewed too optimistically. The economy is changing in dramatic ways, and we must diversify. As a result, many of the increases enjoyed in this revenue spurt are being spent on one-time expenses rather than being built into the base budget. The Senate in particular agreed with the Governor’s recommendation of $50 million for school construction and to subsidize interest rates for school divisions with an additional $25 million.

The Governor also proposed using $537,000 for new school breakfast program designed to encourage all school divisions to serve breakfast. The Senate budget targets this program only at elementary schools where free and reduced lunch eligibility exceeds 45 percent.

Mental health services

Last year I feared the legislature would lose focus on the importance of revamping mental health services in Virginia. We took some steps last year but much work remains. The budget proposals adopted this week allay my fears. Both the House and Senate infused significant funding into an array of services. The Senate provided new money for permanent supportive housing, two new PACT teams, and for child psychiatry and crisis response. The House included some of those priorities but also provided funding for four new therapeutic drop-off centers. While the differences need to be worked out, I am heartened to see the continued commitment of my colleagues to improve services in Virginia.

Transportation funding

An area of interest to many of my constituents is transportation funding. For the first time in many years, the administration actually has some transportation money to spend. The transportation funding formula, which historically has benefited rural areas, has not been working since 2009. The money which fueled those formulas has slowed to trickle. With the passage of House Bill 2313 in 2013, additional dollars are flowing to transportation. While the slowdown in the economy diminished those anticipated funds, there are at last dollars flowing to much needed transportation projects.

A couple of bills, HB 1886 and HB 1887, have been introduced Delegate Chris Jones with the support of the McAuliffe administration. The legislation does not change many of the basic principles of the formula, but divides the money up into different pots. The end result is that each district should be getting roughly the same or more money than in prior years, but the money will be targeted in different ways.

Under these proposals, forty percent of the money will go into what will be known as “state and good repair” purposes, which includes major bridge and overpass reconstruction and other significant maintenance projects. That money will flow into each of the transportation districts.

Thirty percent will go to a statewide fund for “high priority” projects, which are defined as “projects of regional or statewide significance” that address such things as congestion, safety, economic development or environmental quality. Projects that might fit into this project include the Route 220 project in Botetourt and Alleghany Counties. The road project not only cuts across county lines but cuts across transportation districts and is clearly a project with regional and even statewide significance.

The remaining thirty percent of funds go to “highway construction districts” grant programs. These are projects that are high priorities within each district.

We are still working through all of the details of the bills, and I am honored to serve on the subcommittee responsible for reviewing the legislation. I am hopeful that the end result will provide real opportunities to move forward on critical transportation projects throughout Virginia.

It continues to be my high honor to serve you in the Senate of Virginia. Please let me know if you if I can be of service to you in any way. You can reach my office during the legislative session at PO Box 396, Richmond, VA 23218, [email protected], or (804) 698-7525.

Best,

Creigh

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Filed Under: Virginia General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: K-12 funding, Medicaid expansion, mental health policy, State employee compensation, Virginia budget, Virginia transportation funding

Busy Days

February 6, 2015 by Creigh Deeds

The midpoint of the 2015 General Assembly Session has passed. We are nearing crossover, the point when the Senate and House of Delegates must complete work on bills generated by its members. While the budget remains the focus, a number of controversial issues have come before the Senate thus far.

With respect to mental health, there are some issues that have to be worked out. A house bill sets up a study for whether emergency room physicians should have the ability, now performed solely by CSB evaluators, to determine whether one should be subject to a temporary detention order. The participation of ER doctors is already being studied by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) and by the joint subcommittee I chair. Nevertheless, it is somewhat in conflict with legislation I sponsored as a result of the DBHDS study on the qualifications and training of emergency evaluators.  My sense at this point is that we will try to work out the differences, but it may be wise to take the cost of improving the program into consideration and try to have the Governor incorporate the changes into his budget and legislative priorities next year.

Senator Mark Obenshain sponsored a resolution to establish charter schools in the Constitution of Virginia and grant decision-making authority to the State Board of Education. I voted against the measure, as I have in the past. Charter schools have a place in our educational system, but unless we develop a different funding source I am not willing to strip local school boards of the authority to determine whether the creation of a charter school is best for their community. Public charter schools would no doubt be funded through the current educational funding stream, and the money would come out of the public schools in the locality where they are located. Therefore, I am not willing to substitute the state’s judgment for that of the local school board.

There has been a lot of promise and a lot of discussion in charter schools. We want children to have the best outcome possible and the best hope for positive outcomes in the future. However, our obligation as a Commonwealth is to make certain every child has an opportunity to succeed. The best way to do that is to make certain our public schools are as strong as possible. Looking around the country at the charter school movement, the results are mixed in states where charter schools are more prevalent. I am not encouraged that charter schools are the answer to addressing the needs in our public school system.

Senator Tom Garrett introduced Senate Bill 1132 to allow guns on school property by concealed carry permit holders after school hours. I voted against the bill because I think it sends the wrong signal. We banned firearms from public school property years ago, and I do not see any reason to change that policy. Over the years I have been an advocate for the rights of law-abiding citizens to own and possess firearms. However, there are limits to everything. Schools need to be a place of safety for young people. In addition, the legislation would have required private schools to allow firearms on their premises. Many of the private schools are run by churches, and I do not think the state should override churches in this regard.

A number of bills of interest relating to energy and power companies are still pending before the legislature. The first, Senate Bill 1338, sponsored by Senator Emmett Hanger would repeal a 2004 law that gave natural gas companies the right to enter onto private property, prior to the exercise of eminent domain, to conduct a survey to determine if the property is suitable for a pipeline. Frankly, the utilities can already do this with permission. I voted against the law in 2004 and am co-sponsoring the bill because I do not think the state absent exigent circumstances has the right to give private companies or individuals the right to come onto the property of someone else without permission. It has effectively legalized trespass and is totally unconstitutional, in my view.

Senate Bill 1349, which is sponsored by Senator Frank Wagner, would remove two of the major energy suppliers in the Commonwealth, Dominion and American Electric Power, from much of the regulation that are currently subject to in exchange for a temporary rate freeze. There is no freeze proposed or promised for the entire period of the deregulation. I am interested in the debate on this bill, but I am inclined to vote no. Public utilities that essentially have a monopoly over services should be subject to regulation.

I pulled three bills this past week. The first was modeled after a Minnesota law that is designed to protect our declining number of pollinators. Bees are the bedrock of agriculture, and thus the economy. Recent declines in the number of pollinators are disturbing. The bill, which was designed ultimately to reduce bees’ exposure to toxins through more stringent labeling requirements, was pulled to give me more time to review the effectiveness of the Minnesota law.

The other two bills I pulled were the bills relating to subaqueous bottomlands. In recent years, Senators Petersen and Marsden, both from the rapidly growing area of Northern Virginia introduced legislation that would have effectively required bottomland owners to open up their land to fishermen and canoeists.  I led the charge against those bills because I thought they were unconstitutional takings. However, in 2013 I requested the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources to direct the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to convene a working group of interested parties to see if there were any areas of consensus. The results of the study, issued in the fall of 2013, prompted the two bills I introduced this year.

The first set up a voluntary process for landowners to determine whether there is a crown grant and thus private ownership of the bottomland. There ought to be a process short of litigation for people to figure these things out. The second would have allowed those landowners to place their bottomlands in easement and receive a tax credit if they chose to open their land up for sportsmen. Both bills were totally voluntary and at the complete discretion of the landowner. An early drafting error fed a campaign of disinformation, and at the end of the day, I heard from many people about how the bills were forcing landowners to do something they didn’t wish to do. I also heard from some environmentalists who thought these efforts did not go far enough. At the end of the day, I decided life is just too short to try and legislate in an area where making anyone happy seems impossible.

Some other bills of note include the following:

  • Senators Bill Carrico and Janet Howell have sponsored legislation to address pay issues for our dedicated members of law enforcement with the State Police and Sheriff Deputies. Pay raises and salary adjustments are a frequent request in these high risk jobs. The legislation this year is unique in that they offer a revenue source to fund those increases. Those bills remain in the Senate Finance Committee, and my sense is that the bills will languish there. I think the Committee is working to find a way to provide a two to three percent pay increase for all state employees.
  • A constitutional amendment sponsored by Senator Rosalyn Dance would allow the General Assembly to establish a process for the restoration of civil rights to people who have been convicted of nonviolent felonies. Since I believe everybody deserves a second chance and there ought to be a pathway for people to restore civil rights, I voted yes. Current law gives the Governor alone the right to initiate this process. Frankly, the last four Governors (Warner, Kaine, McDonnell, and McAuliffe) have done a good job in restoring rights for those who have turned their lives around, but this is a process that should not be dependent on the Governor.
  • Two highly contentious resolutions, SJ252 and SJ269, have generated significant debates, rallies, emails, and phone calls. Both resolutions call for a constitutional convention under Article V of the United States Constitution. One attempts to limit the scope of the convention to a Balanced Budget Amendment while the second sought a more general approach of reigning in the federal government. Given the uncertainty of whether the scope of the convention can be limited and how the delegates are selected, I intended to vote no. Both bills have effectively been removed from consideration.

The General Assembly also recognized the passing of two great community leaders, the Honorable James Brady Murray and Mr. Horton Beirne. Jim Murray was a highly respected businessman, conservationist, and former member of the House of Delegates. Horton Beirne was an active member in a number of community organizations and his church, and added to the significant family legacy in newspaper publishing with his work as the publisher of the Virginian Review. Horton’s love of the Highlands and his work for a better future were unsurpassed. Both are sorely missed by their loving family and friends.

Yesterday, I also had the pleasure of commending the Nelson County Future Farmers of America Farm Business Management team and the Nelson County Middle School Future Farmers of America Agronomy team for each placing second in their respective career development competitions at the 87th National Future Farmers of America Convention and Expo. Several of the students and their parents joined Coach Ed McCann, and the superintendent, Dr. Jeff Comer, on a trip to Richmond to be recognized for their accomplishments.

And on that happier note, I apologize for not issuing a column on January 30. There was a birth in my family that required me to travel out-of-state last week.

It continues to be my high honor to serve you in the Senate of Virginia. Please let me know if you if I can be of service to you in any way. You can reach my office during the legislative session at PO Box 396, Richmond, VA 23218, [email protected], or (804) 698-7525.

Best,

Creigh

 

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Filed Under: Virginia General Assembly 2015 Tagged With: charter schools, mental health policy, power company regulation, State employee compensation

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2021 Virginia General Assembly

Week 6: In the Homestretch

February 19, 2021 By Creigh Deeds

The 2021 Session of the General Assembly is winding down. We only have a week left in the regular session, which is anything but regular this year. We are in a pandemic, and we had to go through extraordinary means simply to meet for the normal 46 days. [Read More…]

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