Dear Friends and Neighbors,
This past week, I got to take a quick
break from the usual legislative routine.
First, I had the absolute honor of
recognizing on the House Floor one of the
37th District’s very distinguished
athletes. Evelyn Aguirre, a Fairfax
High School student, represented the United
States in the 2007 Special Olympics in
China. Not only did she participate,
but she placed 4th in the 50 meter run and
won a Silver Medal in the softball throw.
Next, I was asked to deliver the opening
prayer at the beginning of the day’s
session. In case you are interested, you
can watch the video.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court
ruled that the taxes and fees imposed by the
Northern Virginia Transportation Authority
are unconstitutional. This revenue,
about $300 million annually, was earmarked
for transportation and transit projects here
in Northern Virginia, including
improvements to the Fairfax County Parkway,
Metro, and many other projects. While the
taxes and fees aren’t unconstitutional
per se, the Supreme Court held that the
General Assembly could not pass the
responsibility of imposing the taxes and fees
on to the NVTA.
Regrettably, the ruling didn’t make
our transportation crisis go away.
So the question becomes, with one
week left, where do we go from here?
If I had my druthers, I’d love to step
back and see if we can adopt a plan that is
more sustainable. Many of the taxes and fees
are convoluted and cumbersome to collect.
But there is also political reality, and it
took two years to get what we got. The two
options currently being discussed are having
the General Assembly take responsibility for
the fees by imposing them directly, or
throwing the decision to enact the taxes and
fees on to individual localities. The latter
seems like dereliction of duty on our part
and unworkable from a regional standpoint
– especially if a major player decided
not to participate. While I will be pushing
hard for my first choice, the likely scenario
will be an up or down vote on one of the
latter choices. Once I know more,
I’ll be looking for your
feedback.
In the meanwhile, storm clouds are
gathering on another major issue –
State funding for public
education. While what is being
proposed might help balance the State budget,
the cost to educate our children
hasn’t changed. The result will be to
shift millions of dollars of the cost of
public education to our local governments.
The following explanation is not for the
faint of heart! Every two years, Virginia
goes through a Constitutionally-mandated
process called
“re-benchmarking”
to determine the cost of meeting our
Standards of Quality. Based on that amount,
the State provides its share of funding to
local governments using the Local Composite
Index (a flawed measure of local ability to
pay – but that is another issue).
Under the current process, salaries for
teachers and support staff are calculated
based on an analysis of the “prevailing
wage” – that is, the actual
salaries being paid by school systems to
remain competitive in the market place. This
year, the House leadership is proposing to
phase-out the prevailing wage model and to
replace it with an annual percentage
increase chosen by the General Assembly.
As a result, re-benchmarking would
no longer be a reflection of the actual cost
of meeting the SOQs. Rather, it
would simply be a reflection of what the
General Assembly is willing to pay. Given
Virginia’s less than stellar track
record on pay raises, our local governments
will be placed in a position of having to
make up the difference between the General
Assembly approved wage increase and the wage
increase needed to stay competitive. Worse,
the impact, year after year, is cumulative.
To illustrate the magnitude of the issue,
had the proposed changes been implemented in
the biennium that is now being wrapped-up
(FY06-07), local governments would
have received $227 million less than what
they actually received under the current
methodology.
As with anything involving the State
budget and funding formulas, there is more
to the story. And, in fact, I even thought
about trying to explain it in detail here. I
quickly decided against the idea, but am
more than happy to provide additional
information upon request.
On a high note, my final piece of
legislation (HB394) for the 2008 Session
passed the Senate on Monday for a total of
six successful bills. This bill was
at the request of the Fairfax County Water
Authority and grants water and wastewater
authorities the right to own intellectual
property rights. Yes, in Virginia local
governments and authorities only have powers
that are expressly granted to them. For
instance, the Supreme Court once held that
even though the Code authorizes local
governments to buy and sell real property,
that this did not give them the power to
lease real property. You may be thinking,
“Why would a water authority even need
to protect intellectual property
rights?” Our own Fairfax County Water
Authority has been developing a
state-of-the-art meter reading system that
will greatly streamline its operations. In
order to protect the investment made by the
system’s rate payers, the FCWA is
seeking patent protection. Now they actually
can!
There will be lots more to report by the
end of the week! Until then, please
don’t hesitate to contact me here in
Richmond.
Sincerely,
David Bulova
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