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.

If past history provides any indication, the 2016 session of the General Assembly will have considered nearly 3,000 bills and resolutions before its 60-day session adjourns in early March.

While the figure is impressive, it can be deceiving without a breakdown of the total number.

For example, in 2014 which was also a 60-day “long” session, the 100 members of the House of Delegates introduced 1,950 bills and resolutions, and the 40 members of the Senate introduced 938 bills and resolutions. Of the 2,888 total bills and resolutions, resolutions accounted for 942.

Most resolutions are memorial in that they recognize someone noteworthy in a delegate’s district who had died the previous year, or they commend in offering praise to a person, sports team, organization, or entity for a noteworthy accomplishment or event. It is seldom that memorial or commending resolutions do not pass.

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This is an opinion post by Del, Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.

All the important bills the General Assembly considered in the first half of its annual session pale in comparison to the most significant action it will take this week in adopting a $100 billion budget for the biennium.

Passing laws is very important, but decisions on how to spend the taxpayers’ dollars may have the greatest impact on the largest number of people.

My constituents have made clear to me that their top priority for the budget is education funding; the Governor had the same priority in preparing his budget. The House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees will be making their decisions on spending very soon. Last week I spoke on the floor of the House of Delegates encouraging the Appropriations Committee to give priority to education funding.

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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.

A report of the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) released last year included some eye-opening findings for Virginia. The Commonwealth leads the nation in student referrals to law enforcement, and minority students and students with disabilities are more likely to be suspended, expelled, or referred to law enforcement.

The CPI analyzed U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) data to find that in 2011-12 (the most recent data available), the average rate of referrals is 6 for every 1,000 students nationwide. Virginia’s rate is 16 referrals per 1,000 students, or 17,863 students referred to law enforcement during that time period.

In the nationwide totals, African American students were 16 percent of U.S. enrollment but represent 27 percent of students referred to law enforcement. Special needs students were 14 percent of enrollment but are 26 percent of students referred to law enforcement.

As more public officers are assigned to schools, more behavior that in the past would have been handled as school discipline issues are turned into law enforcement matters. Resource officers assigned to schools for public safety and education purposes are being utilized as school police.

Appropriate programs to deal with children with minor offenses are limited in the criminal justice system. As the Just Children Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center of Virginia described “Virginia’s school-to-prison pipeline: Resource starvation, unaddressed academic failure, suspension and expulsion, and school policy are pushing students out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.”

The result, the Center says, is that “students are also being funneled from the school system to the already over-burdened justice system, often for typical adolescent misbehavior, such as disorderly conduct and truancy which should be handled by school officials…Ultimately, criminalizing student behavior makes schools less safe and damages communities.”

While a few of the more dramatic instances of school resource or security officers being heavy handed have gained attention in the media, what isn’t seen is the steady flow of students entering the legal system for what in the past would have been considered discipline problems and handled within the school. Escalation of response, particularly for younger children, can be counterproductive and set them on a path that increases their chances of further misconduct.

In the billion-dollar increase in education funding proposed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe is a million dollars to support Positive Behavior Interventions (PBI) programs that are designed to transform school climate by shifting attention to positive behavior and providing students with a tiered system of supports and resources.

In addition, Virginia has a $3.5 million federal grant for “School Climate Transformation” to reduce referrals to law enforcement. A “Classrooms not Courtrooms” initiative is also underway in Virginia to coordinate among agencies to do a better job of keeping youth out of the juvenile justice system unless absolutely necessary.

I will be working to ensure that the legislature supports these initiatives that are investments in our future. Classrooms are much less expensive than courtrooms and far more helpful.

This is an opinion column from Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.

Opponents of legislation to prevent gun violence have said for years that current laws on the books should be enforced before new laws were passed, but they quickly changed their minds when Attorney General Mark Herring moved to enforce Virginia’s law on recognizing concealed weapon permits from other states.

At least 25 states have standards for allowing concealed weapons that are less stringent than Virginia, and his ruling would have ended reciprocity with these states.

Representatives of the National Rifle Association (NRA) came to the McAuliffe administration to offer concessions on other gun safety proposals if reciprocity with other states could be reestablished. The gun advocates agreed that they would drop their opposition to voluntary background checks and to taking guns from those for whom a permanent protective order had been issued if reciprocity was restored.

This so-called “deal” between the McAuliffe administration and the NRA will continue to be argued as to who was the winner. The legislation to effect the compromise will be debated by the legislature in the coming weeks. I expect to vote for the voluntary background check bill; even though it is limited, it is at least a small step forward.

A subcommittee of the Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee defeated my bill that would have closed the gun show loophole by requiring a background check for all gun sales at gun shows. Under the compromise bill, a state police officer will be at all gun shows to do a voluntary background check on sales that do not include a licensed gun show dealer.

I will also vote for the bill that will take guns from those against whom a permanent protective order has been issued. While this bill is part of the deal, it needs to be expanded to include temporary and emergency protective orders.

I will not vote for a bill that surrenders Virginia’s right to set its own standards for issuing concealed weapon permits. While the NRA clearly favors expanded concealed weapon laws across the states, I do not think it is in the best public safety interest to recognize concealed weapon permits from states with limited standards including those that will issue such permits to convicted felons. I commend Attorney General Mark Herring for the courageous position he has taken on this issue, and I will continue to support him.

Working together across party lines is important to the legislative process. The deal before the General Assembly on preventing gun violence has been described as a small, modest improvement.

As I made clear in a speech on the floor of the House of Delegates, I view this as just a beginning. As the advocates with whom I participate in a vigil at NRA headquarters on the 14th of every month — the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings — make clear, we will not forget, and we will continue to work for more common sense gun safety measures.

Photo from General Assembly floor by Ken Plum

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.

Northern Virginia jurisdictions are among the wealthiest in the country. Yet we have in the schools in the region significant percentages of children on free and reduced-price lunches because of the low income of the households in which the children live.

In Fairfax County, 29 percent — more than 50,000 children — are on the free- and-reduced-price lunch plan. Some schools have breakfast programs for children who come to school hungry. Churches and nonprofits have started programs to send food home with children to ensure that they have something to eat on the weekend.

The disparity in income seen in our region exists throughout the country. There is no one solution to the problem, but 29 states and the District of Columbia and 23 U.S. cities have raised the minimum wage as a way to reduce income inequality.

My bill to raise the minimum wage in Virginia was defeated on a party-line vote of 6-4 in a subcommittee last week. This is the second year the bill has been defeated. Virginia’s minimum wage is the same as the federal $7.25 per hour, which the Congress has also refused to raise.

Since the minimum wage of 25 cents per hour was first adopted in 1938, national and state governments have periodically raised it to keep up with inflation and changes in the economy. The current rate of $7.25 was set by Congress in 2009. Most economists agree that the minimum wage had its greatest purchasing power in 1968, when it was $1.60.

My bill called for a “truing up” to the 1968 level of purchasing power  — that would be $9.54 per hour that I round up to $10 in the first year and increasing over time $15 in 2018. My bill was intended to restore purchasing power to consumers and to move them towards a living wage.

Working a 40-hour week at the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour for 50 weeks produces an income of $14,500, which is below the federal poverty level. In Fairfax County, the median household income is $110,674 and in Loudoun County, $122,294. Representatives of the Reston, Loudoun and Fairfax County Chambers of Commerce, as well as the state chamber,  spoke in opposition to my bill.

Raising the minimum wage could directly affect 725,000 Virginians. Of these people, 90 percent are over age 20, 57 percent work full time, and 31 percent work more than 20 hours per week. Of these persons 82.4 percent have at least a high school diploma and 48 percent have some college education.

I fully support programs that feed and house the hungry, but at the same time I vigorously support programs that compensate workers more adequately for their work. I hope that community and business leaders can get behind future efforts to raise the minimum wage as a way to reduce income inequality in our community.

This is an opinion column from Del. Ken Plum, who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not reflect the opinion of Reston Now.

In the early years of the 20th century, travelers were advised not to come to Virginia because of the poor condition of the roads. Deep ruts, mud holes, and lack of maintenance made travel precarious in the Old Dominion.

In 1925, State Sen. Harry F. Byrd, who as a young man had worked part-time on a private toll road (the Valley Pike in the Shenandoah Valley), ran for governor on the campaign slogan “Get Virginia out of the mud.”

Byrd’s campaign was successful, and in his single term as governor he established the Virginia Department of Highways. His centralized highway system led to the present-day highway system that is one of the largest in the country with 57,867 miles of highways and 20,991 bridges.

Byrd also implemented a “pay as you go” financing system that keeps the pace of highway construction and improvement at the rate of current revenue without borrowing. Old timers in the state remember traveling on roads that went from two to four lanes and back to two every few miles as money was available in the highway construction fund to complete the widening. Read More

This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum, who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.

Resolutions for the new year are easy to make; I have made dozens in my lifetime. The challenge is to keep resolutions and to bring about the changes they imply. Resolutions in a political context are even more difficult as agreement on the part of many is necessary to cause action to take place. A couple of examples will make my point.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe presented a budget last month. It is the strongest statement that can be made about the future course of government under his administration. For the first two years of the term, a governor of Virginia works under a budget that had been presented by his predecessor. The budget just presented mid-term sets priorities for the final two years of his term. The final budget a governor presents is implemented by the successor. Read More

Most of us have mentors or authority figures whose example in the way they lived affected our own lives.

In my political life one such person was the late Senator Clive DuVal, who represented parts of Fairfax County in the Virginia Senate from 1971 to 1991. In 1969, when President Richard Nixon announced on the eve of state elections in Virginia that he had a plan to end the hated war in Vietnam, a grateful electorate went to the polls and defeated all Democratic incumbents and voted in all Republicans in Northern Virginia with one exception: Democratic Senator Clive DuVal of McLean.

How did he survive? He was an effective progressive legislator and was the only one that I knew who sent out periodic newsletters. As a member of the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission, I was also pleased with his progressive focus on consumer protection issues.

When I was elected to the House of Delegates, I followed Senator DuVal’s example and continue today to send newsletters. The technology has changed considerably from the 1970s when offset printing was essentially a printing plate created from a photograph of a document created on the typewriter and some black and white photographs.

My most recent newsletter that was digitally produced should have arrived in your mail boxes last week. If you did not receive a copy and would like a printed version, send your address to me at [email protected], or you can view or download it.

Just like Senator DuVal, I ask for your opinion on issues before the 2016 General Assembly session. You can pull out the survey page and mail it to me or complete the survey online at www.kenplum.com (on the right side of the home page below the “Keep in Touch” box). Either way, there are open-ended questions for you to address issues of specific concern to you. I do review the results of the survey as important information from my constituents. The results are not necessarily the same as a public opinion poll.

While I attempt to summarize the issues before the upcoming legislative session, my campaign account that pays for the expense to the newsletter would not be able to afford to publish a newsletter with enough pages to fully cover all the issues. I invite persons who are interested in more issues on a continuing basis to subscribe to my weekly e-newsletter at www.kenplum.com or read my weekly column in the Connection newspaper or online on Reston Now.

Following the example of Senator DuVal and other legislators I admire, I also schedule periodic public meetings. Senator Janet Howell and I will hold our annual pre-session public hearing on Thursday, January 7, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m., at the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne Plaza. No registration is needed; just show up and share your views with us.

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.

I often quote from papers written by the staff of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis; they provide the most fact-based, nonpartisan, clear analysis of key issues facing Virginians.

Recently, I attended the 2015 Policy Summit held by the Institute in Richmond. Topics at the Summit included the declining state support for public schools in Virginia, accessing health care, and returning more money to the working poor through the Earned Income Tax Credit. One topic around which there seems to be a high level of political consensus developing was “Criminal Justice Reform: Opportunities to Save Money and Help Communities.”

In a paper published by The Commonwealth Institute, it was reported that Virginia keeps more youth incarcerated than most states. As of 2013, for which the most recent federal data is available, Virginia incarcerated 79 youth in state facilities for every 100,000 youth age 10 or older living in the state. That’s 75 percent higher than the national rate of 45 state incarcerated youth per 100,000 youth in the country.

But that does not mean that Virginians are safer or that more youth are diverted from criminal behavior. In fact, the opposite is true. According to data from the Department of Juvenile Justice, almost three-quarters of youth who have been held in the state’s juvenile prisons are convicted of another crime within three years of release. Of great concern is the fact that youth who are held in the state’s youth prisons for longer periods of time actually have higher rates of re-arrest within a year of release than youth who are held for shorter periods of time!

Virginia’s current youth prison system consists of two youth prisons, Bon Air and Beaumont, in the Richmond suburbs. More affluent areas like Fairfax County have established local alternative programs. The highest rates of commitment to the state youth prisons come from the localities that have the highest poverty levels. As the Institute reported, “not only is Virginia’s current system not working to rehabilitate youth and keep communities safe, it is also very expensive. The per capita cost of incarcerating youth in Virginia’s juvenile correctional centers was $148,214 in FY 2015.” Local programs are lower in cost as well as more effective at reducing recidivism.

Efforts have been underway to reform the current system for a number of years, but that movement needs to be accelerated. Wealthy communities are way ahead in establishing treatment programs, but these programs that are effective in keeping children out of trouble in the future must be extended to all localities regardless of wealth.

The state must resist any effort to dump the problem on localities without providing necessary funds to make alternative programs available. The pipeline from school to prison must be shut off. Alternative solutions that include intensive treatment for offenders and families can keep the community safe, rehabilitate young people before they become criminals, and save money.

There is widespread bipartisan agreement that progress needs to be accelerated in this area. It will bring justice to juveniles.

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.

Last week, I made a journey to Norfolk to say a final goodbye to a former colleague in the House of Delegates, Thomas W. Moss, Jr., who passed away. He was more than just a member, however; he was Speaker of the House from 1991 to 2000. His service in the House from 1966 to 2002 spanned a passing of an era in Virginia’s history, and he was an important transition figure.

Speaker Moss was first elected to the House of Delegates as an anti-establishment Democrat. His campaign slogan, “Get Norfolk Out of the Byrd Cage,” reflected the fact that while a Democratic-controlled political machine dominated the state since Reconstruction it was not good for urban areas like Norfolk.

That machine was headed from the 1930s by Governor and then Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., a tight-fisted conservative who called himself a Democrat but could more appropriately be labeled a Dixiecrat as many white Southerners were known. Byrd vehemently opposed racial desegregation of Virginia’s schools, and his opposition to government spending kept Virginia a backward state for decades.

Mr. Moss was a national Democrat and succeeded in getting himself elected to the House of Delegates where he was in the minority among the more conservative members. Changes in Virginia’s political alignment came about because of the work of leaders like Moss working within the system and federal laws and court decisions influencing the system from the outside.

Getting rid of the poll tax and other restrictive voting laws that kept mostly African Americans from voting, passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and court decisions on redistricting brought about a shift of power where Delegate Moss as a more progressive member became Speaker and the more conservative Democrats switched parties and became Republicans. Eventually this realignment of political allegiance and federally-enforced fairer representation among the regions of the state led to Speaker Moss losing his leadership role in 2000.

He retired from the House after the next term when the new Republican majority drew him into a legislative district with another Democrat. He was elected Treasurer of the City of Norfolk, where he served until January 2014.

Virginia became more progressive during Mr. Moss’s tenure — in the areas of public school spending, investments in higher education, improved mental health and social service programs, and roads. In areas of civil rights, it languished. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) for women was opposed by Mr. Moss until he was challenged by a woman who came close to defeating him in a primary. Virginia still has not passed the ERA.

Talk with anyone who knew him and you are likely to get a funny story about him. His sense of humor was always evident no matter how serious the moment. Sometimes his wisecracks challenged the boundaries of social acceptance. During tense times in the legislature his levity helped move the business along.

Not only did Mr. Moss get Norfolk and Virginia out of the Byrd cage, he helped move the state into a modern era where public education and strong institutions of higher education were valued and transportation and infrastructure were recognized as critical investments. Speaker Moss provided leadership during the passing of an era for which he will be remembered.

Whether his legacy will be built upon or neglected is in part in the hands of those who mourned him last week.

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.

In the season of giving, when thoughts turn to what can be done to help friends and neighbors in the community who do not make enough to make ends meet, there are many efforts to help them with a basket of food at the holidays, a food and clothes closet and other well-meaning and important giving programs.

With all the heroic efforts of volunteers, faith communities and nonprofits, such programs can be difficult to sustain and can be uneven in their level of support. They also put proud working people in a position of having to accept a hand-out. There is another solution for Virginia that can make a great deal of difference: let working people keep more of the money they earn.

Since 1975, the federal government has offered an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). It is one of the largest anti-poverty programs in this country. Qualifying individuals and couples who are working but with limited income as defined in tax regulations may qualify for a tax credit and if they do not use all the credit can get a refund. For specific qualifications including income limits, go to www.irs.gov/EITC.

Nationwide, almost 26.7 million persons received more than $65 billion in EITC for the 2014 taxable year. The average EITC was for $2,447. In Virginia, 612,000 persons qualified for an average credit of $2,314.

The federal EITC has been very helpful to working poor Virginians. But the program as currently administered in Virginia goes only part way to helping working people. The federal calculations of EITC are used on the Virginia income tax form and credit is given to the amount of the tax liability. There is no refund of unused credit as with the federal income tax and in many states. I proposed legislation last session and will again in 2016 to make up to 10 percent of the credit refundable.

There is a simple justification for such a change: putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families will stimulate the local economy as this money will be spent to pay for basic household and personal needs and services. It will also make the tax structure fairer for working people.

According to the Commonwealth Institute, the lowest-earning families in Virginia pay 9 percent of their income in state and local taxes while the highest earners pay 5 percent. The 2013 transportation bill included sales tax increases that disproportionately impacted low-income families since they pay a greater share of their incomes in sales taxes than do the wealthy.

Enactment of a refundable state EITC could give a tax break to 296,000 Virginians of as much as $600 for a working family to use to keep food on the table and gas in the car. I hope the Governor will include a refundable EITC in his budget proposal. Your expression of support to the Governor and to your representatives in the General Assembly could lead to the working people of Virginia contributing to growth in the economy by spending money for which they qualify and for which they have needs.

 This is an opinion column by Del. Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not represent the opinion of Reston Now.

A recent newspaper headline proclaimed that “Audit finds waste, inefficiencies in Virginia’s Medicaid program.” As often is the case, the real story is beyond the headline.

The audit described in the story is the 62nd audit
of Virginia’s Medicaid program since 2002. This one was conducted by the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) of the General Assembly. The audit was mandated by the Republican majority of the General Assembly, who oppose the expansion of Medicaid for the working poor. As JLARC explained the context of the audit: “Medicaid eligibility determination in Virginia is undergoing significant changes, including new policies for most Medicaid applicants and a new information system used for all applicants.”

Is it any wonder that under such circumstances there would be some audit findings related to verification of eligibility?

In looking at the details of the report, the biggest problem with eligibility determination occurs where the caseload is highest. In Loudoun County, for example, an eligibility worker is responsible for 1,221 cases; in Chesterfield County near Richmond each eligibility worker is responsible for 1,230 cases. It should be no surprise that with such limited staffing and a changing system there would be delays and errors.

Measured against federal standards, Virginia’s error rate of 0.5 percent in approving Medicaid eligibility was far lower than the national average of 3.3 percent in 2012. Even with the changing standards, the current rate at 2.7 percent is less than the national average.

In 2014, 1.2 million Virginians received Medicaid benefits. Only certain categories of Virginians are eligible for Medicaid. They must fall into one of five primary eligibility categories — children under age 19, parents or legal guardians of a dependent child, pregnant women, persons aged 65 or older, or disabled or blind –and they must have income below the appropriate percentage of the federal poverty level for their eligibility category. Over half of those enrolled in 2014 were children and nearly half of the $7.9 billion in payments went to those who are disabled or blind.

As the JLARC report found, “the eligibility determination process is complex and involves multiple federal, state, and local agencies.” While the goal may be to have no errors, the level of performance in Virginia is much better than the national average and is quite remarkable considering the kind of change the program is currently undergoing. The JLARC report concluded that “the state may have spent between $21 million and $38 million on individuals no longer eligible,” or less than 0.5 percent at a maximum.

No estimate is offered for the cost to the recommended remedies, but certainly they will exceed the cost of the perceived problem — fraud and waste. In addition to costs, the proposed solution opens up a myriad of large data bases on personal finances, real estate holdings, and employment that the General Assembly may not wish to make available to state agencies. The report has no mention of the amount the state will recover; nor does it mention in the case of fraud that the Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud unit was found in 2013 to be the best in the country.

Opponents of closing the coverage gap for an estimated 400,000 working Virginians will no doubt nitpick the latest report and use it as an excuse for not taking action. Such a misuse of information will be felt by the neediest of Virginians.

This is an opinion column by Del, Ken Plum (D), who represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. It does not represent Reston Now.

A chicken-or-egg kind of debate has been going on in Virginia recently as a result of a report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). The agency is charged by law with the responsibility of providing an annual report on the growth of state spending over the last 10 years while identifying the largest- and fastest-growing programs and functions in the budget.

The most recent report was for the period FY 2006 through FY 2015. Among its other findings was the fact that the Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) has overtaken the Department of Education (DOE) as having the largest appropriation of any state agency. The appropriation for DMAS represents 18 percent of the total state budget with DOE being 15 percent, Virginia Department of Transportation at 10 percent, and all the other agencies of state government at under 10 percent each.

The largest program increase in total appropriations from FY 2006 to FY 2015 was in the area of medical program services (Medicaid) from $4,672.8 million to $8,148.6, an increase of 74 percent. Some opponents of an expansion of Medicaid have focused on this number as being a reason to not expand Medicaid for presumably it would cost too much.

Fortunately, the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis has done some research that puts the increase in context. As the Institute points out, “the growth occurred largely during the worst and most prolonged economic recession since the Great Depression and then a sluggish recovery made worse by federal sequestration.

Most recently, Virginia ranked 48th nationally in economic growth. When you lose your job, you lose your health coverage if you were lucky enough to have it in the first place. At the same time, the number of Virginians 65 years and older grew more than three times as much as the overall population resulting in a 30 percent increase in enrollment.”

Beyond these external factors affecting Medicaid costs, state legislators added more than 4,300 waiver slots over the past 10 years for long-term care services for people who are intellectually and developmentally disabled.

These waivers that are critical to the individuals and families who need them are among the most expensive of medical services. An intellectual disability waiver costs about $71,000 per person per year, and a developmental disability waiver costs nearly $33,000 per person per year. The Institute found that last year alone the waivers added $285 million to the budget. Waivers are not limited to persons of low incomes as the rest of Medicaid programs are.

Is it then the chicken or the egg that came first? Did the availability of medical services run up the cost of Medicaid or was it the growing population of older persons and the extension of services to the most needy that added to the cost? In either case, does it not make sense to use 100 percent federal dollars to meet the needs of the working poor and save the 350 million state dollars that are currently appropriated for the indigent? People who need health care come first making an expansion of Medicaid essential.