This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is one sentence long:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Commonly referred to as the “right to bear arms” amendment, it could as easily be called “the state militia” amendment. Clearly the Founding Fathers had something in mind about the state militia, or the National Guard as we now call it, when the amendment was proposed and passed. Otherwise they could have simply provided that “the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed” as some argue today.
For most of our history, the connection between the right to bear arms and the militia was acknowledged and respected. In recent years there has been a rigorous and well-funded political campaign to put the emphasis on individual gun ownership.
This is a commentary from Del, Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.
Technologists have applied their big data and computer-crunching to determine where in the world and where in the United States are the happiest places to live. “The Happiest Places in America-2016 Edition” was released last month by Smart Asset, a firm that uses technology to help consumers understand finances.
Since my constituents reside in Fairfax County, which the study rated the second-happiest place to live in America and next door to the happiest place, Loudoun County, I thought it would be interesting to examine how the counties got those distinctions.
While I am certainly a happy person surrounded by many happy people, I believe the methodologies employed, while useful in understanding the communities in which we live, can also create a false sense of community satisfaction.
Loudoun and Fairfax Counties are the two happiest counties in the U.S. when you limit your study to counties over 50,000 in population. The only other nearby counties in the top 10 in happiness are Howard County in Maryland (No. 7), Chester County in Pennsylvania (No. 4), and three counties in New Jersey. The rest are in the Midwest. No county west of Douglas, Colo. (No. 8) made the list.
This is a commentary by State Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston). It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.
The Commonwealth of Virginia prepares its budget on a biennial schedule. The budget proposed this year by the Governor and adopted by the General Assembly will become effective July 1, 2016, and extend to June 30, 2018.
Although technically the General Assembly does not pass a new budget in odd-numbered years, practically there are many adjustments that are made mid-course in the biennium budgets based on changes that may have occurred in revenues or expenses.
While this system of budgeting over two years may reduce some administrative paperwork, it also presents some challenges. Essentially, the governor and the General Assembly must estimate revenues 30 months into the future. These are not simply planning projections; these are actual numbers upon which budgeted expenditures are based. Economists in government and in business are consulted in coming up with revenue estimates.
The challenge of estimating government revenue has been obvious over the last few years. Two years ago there was a revenue shortfall of $439 million coming almost entirely from a huge drop in estimated payments of income taxes that are not withheld from payroll but paid on stock gains by investors who chose to cash in on their investments.
A projection of that shortfall from the end of fiscal 2014 led to a projected $2.4 billion shortfall through this biennium. Fortunately, revenues recovered last year, and the state ended the year with its biggest surplus ever.
Revenues collected through April of this year were trailing projections by 1.9 percent, or $347 million, after declining 6.7 percent from the previous April. If by the end of the fiscal year revenue collections are one percent under the annual forecast, or $169 million, the state is required by law to reforecast revenues for the new two-year budget. Also, state employees who were promised a raise based on the higher revenues may not get them.
Virginia gets top marks on the handling of its finances by all the outside entities that evaluate these kinds of things. It is one of only about a half- dozen states with the highest AAA bond rating. A volatile economy is challenging to predict; we should take pride in our high rating.
My concern continues to be the selective accounting that the General Assembly follows in ignoring federal monies that are available that would free up several hundred million dollars in state general funds for appropriation while providing health care to as many as 400,000 working Virginians. Gov. McAuliffe’s proposed budget included these funds, but the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees took them out.
They refer to these funds as Obamacare as though that term alone should be enough to refuse the money. Virginia turns its back on $4.4 million per day and has refused more than $4 billion in Medicaid funds the last several years.
As careful as the state is in its budgeting and counting its pennies, how can it selectively leave these monies out of its budget? It’s selective accounting, bad economics, and in my view, immoral!
This is a commentary from Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
In 1956, the then-appointed Fairfax County School Board appropriated $50 per month to be paid as a supplement to a school administrator to start an adult education program.
Since the schools were still racially segregated, a program for white adults was started at Annandale High School, and a program for black adults was started at Luther Jackson School. The favorite offerings at both locations were classes in sewing including the Bishop Method of Clothing Construction, as well as typing and shorthand.
The inexpensive, evening classes proved popular, and the program grew rapidly. Basic education classes for those adults who could not read and write were added as were night school classes to complete high school and to prepare for the G.E.D.
Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a 60th anniversary celebration of the program at the Plum Center for Lifelong Learning on Edsall Road in the eastern part of the county. I was honored several years ago when the Fairfax County School Board chose to name its first full-time adult education center for my work in adult and community education that spanned half the years of its existence. Read More
This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Attorney General Mark Herring recently issued an official opinion at my request and the requests of others as to the meaning of sex discrimination under Virginia law.
His thoroughly researched, 18-page opinion concluded that, in many instances, discrimination against LGBT individuals is actually illegal sex discrimination that violates both federal and state law.
Attorney General Herring’s opinion is both historic and courageous. It advances the work that many of us have been attempting to do in the legislature to ensure that individuals do not face discrimination in their housing or their workplaces because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is courageous in that the Attorney General could have chosen to duck the issues and leave it to the courts.
Simply stated, if an individual faces discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity, that person can seek relief under the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA). This act and others in the Virginia Code provide a clear declaration that the Commonwealth of Virginia does not and will not tolerate discrimination or allow someone to be treated unfairly because of their gender. Read More
This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.
Those who were concerned that the 2016 Energy, Sustainability and Resiliency conference sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Foundation would be business as usual were in for a surprise.
This recent conference in Richmond was about anything but holding onto the past; it was about seizing opportunities in a dynamic and exciting future whose issues of sustainability and resiliency in our energy future reign supreme. Read More
This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum, who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Last week, I attended my first meeting as a member of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). I have admired the professional work of JLARC since it was established in 1973 to evaluate the operation and performance of state agencies.
JLARC performs its duties in three major work functions: studies, oversight and fiscal analysis, and support. The Commission is made up of nine delegates and five senators, but the actual work of the oversight arm of the General Assembly is done by a professional staff. Major topics of research are developed and approved by the General Assembly and sometimes by the Commission. There are more topics proposed for study than there are staff or time to pursue.
Our meeting last week followed the Commission’s usual procedure of adopting a work plan for the year. Some of the items on the work plan are continuation of studies started last year as the magnitude of many studies take more than a single year to complete. Read More
This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Earlier this year, a group of attorneys, the Virginia Coalition for Racial Diversity in the Justice System, brought to the attention of the community and the General Assembly that “there is a glaring, longstanding, and inexcusable lack of racial diversity amongst sitting judges, prosecutors, and public defenders in Virginia’s criminal justice system.”
Their statistics are very revealing: Currently, in Northern Virginia where more than 33 percent of all residents are racial minorities, only 7 out of 74 judges (10 percent) are African American, Hispanic, or Asian American.
They project that if the General Assembly continues to fail to appoint racially diverse judicial candidates that it is likely within two years only 4 out of 74 of those judges (5 percent) will be minorities.
The Coalition also found that racial diversity among virtually all of Northern Virginia’s Commonwealth Attorney and Public Defender Offices is similarly bleak. The bottom line for their study is that “the public’s confidence in the fairness and impartiality of the Virginia justice system is undermined when the system bears so little resemblance to the community it serves.”
This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s General Assembly. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order recently restoring civil rights of voting, serving on a jury, running for office, or being a notary public for persons who had been convicted of any and all felonies in the past but who have completed the terms of incarceration and who have completed any period of supervised release of probation and parole.
The restoration of civil rights after completing a sentence has been automatic in most states and routine in those that have had an application process. Virginia required an application before the Governor’s order, but the waiting list for acting on applications was notoriously long until Gov. McAuliffe came into office. His executive order will cover more than 200,000 people.
Most, including myself, have applauded the Governor’s action. As he described it, “it’s the right thing to do.” Other have accused him of playing politics. Actually, I believe the laws in Virginia that denied the right to vote to people who had served their sentences were political, and what the Governor did was to take some of the politics out of registering to vote. A review of history will explain what I mean.
Denying civil rights to persons who had been convicted and served their sentences was part of an effort during the early part of the 20th Century to limit the electorate in the state to white men who supported the political establishment. Jim Crow laws that were primarily aimed at black people required voters to write on a blank sheet of paper information that was required in the state constitution and to answer any question posed by election officials. Read More
This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
A little over a week ago, there was a memorial service for Reston’s founder and namesake, Robert E. Simon, Jr., who passed away in September.
Several hundred people gathered at the Hyatt Regency Reston to hear the stories and to celebrate the life of a truly remarkable man. He became head of Carnegie Hall in New York at age 23 when his father passed away. The sale of the hall later would give him the money to buy the more than 6,000 acres in Northern Virginia that would become Reston.
Drawing upon his experiences of living in Europe for extended periods of time, he would build a community that through its mixed-use design with village centers would foster the development of community.
Most remarkable for its time in the mid-1960s was his insistence that the community be open to all persons including black people. Virginia at the time was a very segregated society. Massive Resistance was being used by political leaders to keep from integrating the schools as the Supreme Court had ruled nearly a decade before. Housing patterns and communities were strictly segregated.
Some suggest that Bob Simon’s adamance that his new community be open to all people was a response to the discrimination he felt as a Jew particularly when he was at Harvard. He was not casual in his beliefs that his new town should be inclusive; that policy made financing very difficult and for a while seemingly almost impossible. With all the other many good things that can be said about Robert E. Simon, Jr., I consider him a real civil rights hero.
Last week gave me an opportunity to see another of my civil rights heroes, former governor Linwood Holton, who came to George Mason University to participate in a ceremony naming one of the plazas at the University in his honor.
Governor Holton served as governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974 — the first Republican to be elected governor since Reconstruction. George Mason University was interested in honoring him because he was the governor that signed the bill that converted the former University of Virginia extension to the new George Mason College. It is now the largest university in Virginia and is in the top tier of research universities in the country.
I consider Linwood Holton a civil rights hero because one of his first actions as governor after he had moved his family into the Executive Mansion was to enroll his children in the local public schools that were the segregated black schools. A picture of him walking one of his daughters into an all-black school to enroll her was on the front page of the New York Times. It was a signal to the world of the emergence of the New South where racial segregation was slowly but surely being cast aside.
I am honored to have known both men and to have them as friends. As courageous as they were, I do not think that either thought of himself as courageous. Each simply believed in doing the right thing. They are examples for all of us to follow.
This is a commentary from Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Almost a year ago the Washington Business Journal carried a headline, “George Mason University sells Patriot Center naming rights.”
For nearly $7 million over the next decade GMU agreed to change the name of the Patriot Center to the Eagle Bank Arena with the new name prominently displayed on the sides of the sports and events complex. If the deal is renewed for another decade, the deal would grow to $13.7 million.
Selling rights to sports venues is of course not new. Most arenas, stadiums and fields are named for the highest bidder in the competition to get the recognition that comes with such naming rights. For the college or municipality the deal brings revenue to support the sports program and the facility. Some states are selling naming rights of bridges and highways as a way to raise revenue.
Just last week, George Mason University announced pledges totaling $30 million to the George Mason University Foundation to support the School of Law. “The gifts, combined, are the largest in university history,” the GMU press release noted.
The press release went on to say, “in recognition of this historic gift, the Board of Visitors has approved the renaming of the school to The Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University.” Read More
This is a commentary by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
A concern in Virginia over who was financing campaigns in the Commonwealth led the state’s largest newspapers in 1997 to create the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP).
The idea was simply to make public information on campaign finance documents as to who was funding political campaigns. Virginia does not limit contributions to campaigns, but requires that the names and addresses of contributors and the amount of contributions be filed periodically with the state on designated forms.
The advent of VPAP as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization put that information on the Internet for the public to see. Visit vpap.org to see who contributes to me and to all the other elected officials in the state.
The original purpose of VPAP is a very important one, but its board and staff have creatively turned its website into a very important place to visit if you want to know more about Virginia and its governance. Read More
This is an opinion column by De. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s General Assembly. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
Folks back home where I grew up in Page County, Virginia, were not known to have a lot to say about events. In fact, they were suspicious of people who talked too much. Someone who talked a lot about themselves was considered a braggart, and there was little need to talk about circumstances beyond ones’ control.
As often is the case, people of few words can pack a lot of meaning into the words they do say. Some of the wisdom conveyed to me in simple words and phrases of the folksy sayings of my childhood came to mind during the recent legislative session.
I was always advised by my parents and others to “Never cut off your nose to spite your face.” That, however, is exactly what the General Assembly did this session. Over the last couple of years various reasons have been given for not expanding Medicaid to provide health care to the working poor.
Some argued that expansion would add to the national debt, but as a self-funded program it does not. It was called too expensive even though Virginia taxpayer dollars that go to the federal government would have covered 100 percent of the cost in the first three years. It was called “Obamacare” as though the President having something to do with it somehow made it bad.
The state Medicaid program was audited more than 60 times, and proposed reforms were adopted. The federal expansion would have freed up more than 150 million in state dollars that could have been used for other programs like the schools. The inaction of the General Assembly to close the coverage gap in health insurance has left more than $3 billion on the table that could have come to Virginia and as many as 400,000 Virginians without health care.
I believe that the old saying, “penny wise and pound foolish” might apply to the General Assembly in the future if it continues to refuse federal dollars for Medicaid when the 100 percent reimbursement becomes a 90-10 match.
Likewise, the failure to invest regularly in infrastructure improvements will cost the state in the future. A greater investment in bridges is especially important. The Metro system that is critically important to Virginia commuters is another example of penny wise, pound foolish policies of the past. The recent unprecedented closing of Metro in order to identify safety concerns and the finding of a significant number of critical repairs that are needed show how far behind we are in investing in its maintenance.
“A stitch in time saves nine” is always good advice. I am pleased with the additional funding that the state is providing in early childhood education. Many studies prove the point that investing in children’s education early saves money in the future.
Society is more complex than it was in the years of my youth, but the wisdom of that time can still apply to understanding the challenges of today.
This is an opinion piece by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.
My first experience in Fairfax County came as a result of being placed as an intern teacher by the University of Virginia in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
My history/political science undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University did not provide me the necessary credentials to teach; the M. Ed. program allowed me to continue my studies in history while completing a year-long supervised internship. The school in which I was placed scheduled me for three periods of the most challenging students in the school from whom I could learn to teach.
That year and the additional two years I was in the classroom before moving into administration continue to be the hardest work I ever have had to do. And I learned a lot from the students. I prided myself on being able to work with the most difficult students, but even I faced challenges I could not meet.
One student in particular who had been removed from every class in which he was enrolled was finally removed from my class as well. Years later, after I had become director of adult education for FCPS and responsible for the night high school, I saw that same student graduate from high school. He had settled down, gotten a job, and many of the complexities of his personal life had been resolved. He was married and seemed very happy. Read More
Ironically, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus moved into the Richmond Coliseum for its annual stand at the same time last week that a few blocks away the General Assembly concluded its annual meeting and members packed up and went home.
Circus promoters need to come up with a new theme each year to keep its patrons returning; this year’s theme was “Extreme.” Reviewers are likely to come up with very different assessments of the General Assembly session. It was not as extreme as some sessions, but as always there were some really good things that happened and some not so good.
Legislative sessions tend to be ponderous — nothing as exciting as a flying trapeze or person being shot out of a cannon. Progress in changing laws is made mostly in small, incremental steps.
This session, I am pleased that small steps were taken to reduce the flow of students going from the classroom to the courtroom. More emphasis will start to be given to providing alternatives for youth who misbehave but who should not be treated like criminals.
Very small steps were made in gun safety by facilitating background checks for those not required to have one to purchase a gun but who volunteer to do so. My bill to require background checks for all purchases at gun shows was defeated. A new law will deny gun ownership for those against whom a permanent protective order has been issued. Persons who receive protection from the court through such an order will find an easier path to getting a concealed weapon permit, an idea I did not support.
School reform continues at a slow pace, but there seems to be a clear recognition that there is too much standardized testing. School systems struggling with their budgets will receive more state aid but still at a level below 2006. Economic development funds are increased which should help the super salesman Governor McAuliffe attract more businesses to the Commonwealth.
For the first time in history the legislature removed a Supreme Court Justice from office. The refusal to confirm Gov. McAuliffe’s appointee had nothing to do with the credentials of the justice who was acknowledged by all to be eminently qualified but had to do with personalities and struggles between the legislative and executive branches.
A one-day discussion of the possible nomination of former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli brought a public outcry. The legislature in the end confirmed a new justice (without my vote) who is as ideologically conservative as Cuccinelli but not a political activist.
The biennial budget brought good news to many programs as the economic recovery has produced more revenue than in the past. Unfortunately, my bill to expand Medicaid coverage was not approved.
The purpose of the legislative session is serious business and not entertainment like the circus. There are times, however, that it may be difficult to tell the difference.
Information about legislative results from this session is at lis.virginia.gov/lis.
