Surovell: 2020 Virginia Legislature to consider many reforms
This column was submitted by State Sen. Scott Surovell (D-36), and does not necessarily represent the views of Covering The Corridor.
Election Day, November 5, 2019, brought a political earthquake to Virginia. The Governor’s office, House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia will be controlled by Democrats for the first time since 1991.
Virginians voted for change and we are likely to see significant changes in Virginia policy after nearly 30 years of delayed and avoided actions. The 2020 session is a welcomed opportunity to bring Virginia up to speed with the rest of the country. Your state legislators are now preparing for the session, which will begin on January 8 and end in March.
People should expect to see funding for education at all levels prioritized. Virginia’s teacher salaries have dropped from the top third in the country to the bottom third over the last three decades. This hurts teacher recruitment and retention and ultimately the quality of education. We will work for progress toward universal preschool.
Virginia’s state-supported colleges now have some of the highest tuition rates in the United States. I expect the legislature to work toward lowering tuition.
Voting reforms will be high on the agenda, including expanding early voting. I will work to move state and local elections to even years, but that may take time and requires a state constitutional change.
Virginia’s criminal justice system is unnecessarily punitive, has significant racial disparities and falls short on rehabilitation. We will likely revisit Virginia’s still low misdemeanor-felony threshold of $500, along with measures to increase diversion, promote expungement and second chances and reconsider mandatory minimum sentences.
We will move the long-overdue Equal Rights Act ratification early in the session. The legislature will also put Roe v. Wade into law to protect against the U.S. Supreme Court going backwards. We are also likely to revisit Virginia’s mandatory ultrasound requirement for women exercising their constitutional reproductive rights.
Several groups have ranked Virginia as the worst state in which to be an employee. The General Assembly will consider raising the $15 minimum wage phased in over time. We will also address measures to strengthen workers’ rights, including eliminating the ban on project labor agreements in public contracts, requiring a prevailing wage in public contracts and measures to provide real remedies to employees who experience wage theft.
Virginia has a recent history of hostility to people in our lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgendered (LGBT community). We will be considering measures to prohibit discrimination in housing and employment against LGBT Virginians and prohibiting the misguided practice of conversion therapy.
Virginia’s newest residents have also been unfairly demonized over the last two decades. My legislation to provide one-year driver’s privilege cards to certain undocumented immigrants will finally receive serious consideration along with in-state tuition privileges for Virginia children brought to the United States as minors.
The legislature will give serious attention to investments in wind and solar energy, including incentives to make it easier and more affordable for Virginians to install solar panels on their own homes. We will also likely consider mandating renewable energy targets for the entire state. These measures will help reduce polluting, carbon-based, greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet at unsustainable rates.
The General Assembly will finally truly take on predatory lending. Online lenders who charge 400 percent interest rates and hide behind out-of-state Native American tribes will face regulation. Car title lenders who currently charge 267 percent interest rates authorized by Virginia law will likely face lower rates.
Many of these changes will require additional resources. Virginia should not have repealed its estate tax in 2008. The repeal only affected about 50-100 families per year and has cost taxpayers nearly $2 billion since it was done. Virginia’s income tax is effectively a flat tax given that our top bracket is at $17,500.
Considering all of these changes will not be easy and will require significant time, focus and consideration. Public support is critical and feedback from constituents is important to make sure the General Assembly gets these proposals right.
As we work toward fulfilling our commitments to voters and prioritizing policies, I look forward to your comments and encourage you to reach out to me at [email protected]. It is an honor to serve as your state senator.
So, the fun begins. With the democrats soon to be running Virginia what will be on our plates for the future? Higher taxes (of course what democrat isn’t always for that); an artificial minimum wage that will only result in more of the check it out yourself kiosks at local stores and fewer employees (how about working hard and getting a better job with a higher wage that you are actually worth being paid); more coddling of illegals and now giving them driving privileges (Don’t you love how Surovell calls them “newest residents.” – good grief); and then of course abortion on demand – can’t live without that one – well the unborn cannot. OK, I’m off my soapbox, but I did not read one single thing in Surovell’s article that has any significant redeeming value. Seems like every time we turn around we hear the worn out cry that we need more money for schools. Perhaps if the schools worried more about education and not spending money studying what bathrooms kids need to use they would not need more funding-or perhaps keeping kids in school and not giving them a free pass to attend some idiotic protest could cut 3 days off the school year and we could save some money that way. If they can gleefully waste school and tax payer resources on their social and politically correct radical agenda items – they don’t need any more money – they have plenty. As a now 60 year resident of Northern Virginia – born and raised here and raised my family here in Fairfax County it saddens me that what was once a great place to live has turned into an area of traffic choke/high taxes/political correctness run amok and a place that I cannot wait to leave when I retire. Both of our children left the northern VA area several years ago never to return and we are not far behind them. They cannot even consider living here due to the high cost of living, taxes and nonsense that we must put up with. Frankly, my wife and I cannot wait to live in a place where our citizenship is valued, our hard earned money is respected and where social engineering is not the highest priority for the schools. It is a shame, but we have nobody to blame but ourselves – we elect leadership that takes us down this path and we have learned nothing from the other democrat controlled states and cities that have become untenable for so many of the very people who originally helped build them. Some are cheering this “change,” I am saddened by it. I really wonder if the voter truly understands what they voted for – I know I don’t understand their thinking nor do I share it. How about you?
My federal taxes went up significantly (as did the federal deficit) under national federal Republican leadership.
Garry, bravo! My sentiments exactly! We should place bets on when our taxes (“additional resources”) will increase.
To answer your final question, “No, the Dems have no idea what they voted for.” Only that they voted against Trump (?!?) and Soros’ millions helped spread the lies (e.g. Descano’s literature indicated that his opponent, Fahey, was a Republican — An outright lie, as they knew Fahey was running as an Independent).
They’ll feel the pain in Fairfax County when they receive notification that their child will no longer attend the nearby school. After all, the school board needs to make all decisions under the lens of “equity.”
So sad for our children.
Excellent reply, Garry! Don’t forget the Democrat bills to confiscate, not regulate, very common guns! Wait until young mothers abandoned by their husbands and forced to live in rough neighborhoods hear about this. Democrats will lose support with their radical gun confiscation agenda, not to mention their ties to Soros and Bloomberg money that bought so many elections.
Amen,! I will be leaving also and my entire family!
Thank you for taking on these challenges.