One essential step in successful negotiations is to anticipate what the other side needs or wants and attempt to come as close as possible to that position to arrive at a compromise.
This process is followed effectively on a daily basis in businesses, families, and legislatures. While the rhetoric has been harsh from the Republican majority in the House of Delegates about not approving an expansion of Medicaid in the state, I understood their partisan and ideological stance but was confident that some middle ground, or as Governor McAuliffe calls it “common ground,” could be reached. My optimism is starting to wane.
Last week, Republican Senator John Watkins introduced a compromise plan. He chose to call it Marketplace Virginia and not to call it Medicaid expansion because the term raises such strong objections among his partisan colleagues.
His plan embodies so many basic Republican principles, that I thought it would be accepted. His proposal is a market-based solution that would use federal funds to provide basic coverage from competing private insurers to those who would qualify. Participants would be required to pay a co-pay amount based on their income, and they would need to meet minimum work requirements. The insurance would be good only as long as the premiums were paid. If the federal government reneged on its funding commitment in future years, the policies would be subject to cancellation.
Under this plan, the federal taxes paid by Virginians to support health insurance would be returned to the state.
The proposal seemed like a winner to me. I endorsed it as a reasonable solution. Within a day of its introduction, however, the House leadership rejected it without acknowledging that its provisions seemed to respond to their earlier concerns. Where does that leave us?
Virginia businesses are paying to the federal government tax dollars to support the program, but those dollars are not coming back to the state. The Commonwealth is losing $5 million a day!
More than a million Virginians continue to be without health insurance — including the 250,000 that would have been insured under Senator Watkins’ proposal. The Senate in a bipartisan way continues to press for a solution. Governor McAuliffe is a strong proponent of extending insurance benefits to more Virginians and wants a compromise. The House Republican majority refuses to budge.
This is clearly an impasse that will keep the General Assembly in session beyond the March 8 scheduled adjournment date.
In the meantime, I hope that citizens will continue to call, email, or write members of the House of Delegates to ask for their support of a compromise that will extend benefits to some of our neediest citizens. Thanks to the many people who have already contacted legislators from my earlier request. We need to keep working for a solution. About a quarter million Virginians are counting on us!
Del. Ken Plum has represented Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates since 1982. He writes weekly on Reston Now.
Last week, the Virginia General Assembly reached the midpoint of its annual session, or “crossover” as it is called in the legislature.
At this time in the calendar,the House of Delegates and the Senate have completed work on the bills that were introduced into the respective houses. Any bills that were passed are now sent to the other body for consideration. In order for a bill to become a law it must pass through both houses in identical form and be signed by the governor.
When a bill is passed in different form in the two houses, a conference committee with representatives from both legislative bodies is appointed to work out differences in a compromise that must then be approved by both houses.
While final action is still pending on most measures, there is some good news to mention in this halftime report. Significant legislation reforming the mental health system has passed both houses in different form and now must be reconciled.
In response to the tragic events in Sen. Creigh Deeds’ family, the length of time that a person who is undergoing a mental health episode can be held without their consent through a temporary detention order will be increased from the current six hours that clearly was not adequate for Senator Deed’s son to eight hours proposed in the House or to 24 hours approved in the Senate.
The final length of time to be worked out in a conference committee must balance individual civil liberties with the need to protect the person and the community from harm. Beyond the procedural issues to be resolved is the question of the level of funding for mental health programs that clearly needs to be increased.
Bipartisanship broke out in the House with representation from both parties working together to craft new ethics legislation that will increase transparency and accountability within the context of a part-time citizen legislature. Twice per year disclosures of economic interests will be required with all reports available for review electronically by the public. Ethics training will be mandatory for all public officials, and an ethics commission will be established to provide oversight for the process.
There is consensus among parents and educators that the current Standards of Learning (SOL) system needs reform. A bipartisan group of delegates developed reforms that were unanimously approved in the House and are likely to be agreed to by the Senate. There will be fewer SOL tests, opportunities for alternative assessments, and a commission to consider additional reforms.
Repeal of the tax on hybrid vehicles will be approved.
The remaining key issue about which there continues to be major differences among the political parties and the two houses of the legislature is the expansion of Medicaid to provide health insurance for as many as 400,000 Virginians.
All the other successes at the half pale in comparison to resolving this big issue in time for the legislature to adjourn as scheduled on March 8. Reaching the goal line on Medicaid expansion will determine if this session is a winner.
Del. Ken Plum has represented Reston in the Virginia House of Delegates since 1982.
Despite Virginia’s historic antipathy toward the federal government, the Commonwealth has nonetheless historically ceded decisions to federal authorities on major issues on which the state had been unwilling to move forward. Another issue is about to fall into this category: same-sex marriage.
Regardless of the desire on the part of conservative Virginians to pretend that it is not so, thousands of Virginians love someone of the same gender, an unknown number live together as partners, and some have already gotten married in other states.
While an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as being between a man and a woman passed in a referendum more than a half dozen years ago, recent public opinion polls show a majority of Virginians as accepting of same-sex marriage. Failure of the legislature to act on the issue has resulted in two cases before federal courts challenging Virginia’s prohibition of same-sex marriage.
If the experiences in other states where such cases have been brought in federal court hold true for Virginia, the prohibition will be found to be unconstitutional. With the federal courts’ prodding, Virginia will once again be required to face a reality that it has resisted.
It is not the first time. Virginia also had a law that said that persons of different races could not marry. The legislature refused to acknowledge the unfairness of the law or vote to change it. It took a federal court decision, Loving v. Virginia (1967), to strike down the law.
Virginia segregated its public schools based on race until the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) — of which a Virginia case was a part — struck down racial segregation. Virginia’s decade-long effort to resist the federal decision was called Massive Resistance, “a deliberate, orchestrated campaign…intended to slow to a crawl attempts to integrate Virginia’s schools.” The campaign was unsuccessful, although it did take 40 more court decisions to integrate the schools in Virginia.
Virginia was also part of the Baker v. Carr decision in 1962 establishing the “one man, one vote” principle because the state legislature refused to acknowledge population shifts that were occurring and permit legislative representation to reflect those shifts until the federal courts intervened.
Federal intervention and the Voting Rights Act got rid of the blank sheet voter registration system and the poll tax that disenfranchised most African Americans. While it is good that the federal government has been a backstop to ending discrimination in many forms, it is truly unfortunate that the General Assembly was not willing to recognize the wrongness of their laws and make decisions on their own without the need for the federal courts to protect Virginians from their own government.
Too often the argument for states’ rights has been used to justify a violation of personal rights. I believe the federal courts will strike down Virginia’s marriage amendment. The General Assembly needs to move forward in outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation instead of waiting until we’re forced to by the federal government.
Ken Plum represents Reston in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Between 2007 and 2012, the median wages of Virginia’s highest income earners rose by 8 percent while the lowest income families’ wages shrank by 10 percent, according to an analysis by the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis.
The gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen in Virginia as it has throughout the nation.
A growing underclass of unemployed, under-employed and under-paid creates a challenge for the state and the nation. Too many people are faced with the monthly decision of paying for the rent, utilities, food, prescriptions and school supplies without enough money to cover them all. Public and private relief organizations are strained to keep their food pantries and clothing closets stocked to meet the increased demand.
A sluggish recovery from the Great Recession has contributed to the problem. Many jobs that were lost have not come back. For those in the lowest wage jobs, income has been stagnant. Since 1982 to the present, those in the lowest income brackets have seen wage growth of three percent on average although the growth in the last few years has been less. By contrast those in the upper ten percent of wage earners have seen wage growth of 51 percent. There are actions that the state government can take to enable low income workers to become more active contributors to the state’s economy.
I have introduced a bill to raise the state’s current minimum wage of $7.25 to $8.25 this year and to $9.25 the next. Such an increase would help over 123,000 working Virginians buy their groceries, pay for their car’s gas, and meet basic necessities. I am disappointed but not surprised that it is opposed by the state Chamber of Commerce and by the fast food industries. While a raise of the minimum wage will add to the cost of business, it will at the same time produce consumers who will spend that money back into the economy. If the federal Congress follows the President’s proposal to raise the minimum wage, Virginia under my bill could go to the federal level.
I have also introduced a bill to make a portion of the federal earned income tax credit refundable as it is in about 20 states. Currently the lowest paid of workers can receive a credit on their income tax based on the limits of their income. By refunding a part of the credit that cannot be applied because of their limited tax liability there is additional money for working people to spend to support themselves with less reliance on social service programs. If refundable tax credits are available to those in the film, coal and agricultural industries, such a program should be available to help as many as 343,000 working Virginians. Unfortunately a subcommittee of the House Finance committee defeated my bill.
No one gains with the sharp division between the haves and the have-nots in our society. Paradoxically, efforts to help those most in need will help all other parts of the economy as well.
Ken Plum represents Reston in the Virginia General Assembly. He can be reached at [email protected].
For the first time in a history that goes back to Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia governor has been indicted on federal corruption charges.
Although information on the activities of the federal grand jury had been leaking out for many months, former governor Bob McDonnell and his wife, who was indicted with him, and their stable of taxpayer-paid-for attorneys were able to stave off the formal indictment until he left office.
But the alleged wrongdoing took place while he was in office, during which time he and the first lady accepted a total of at least $165,000 in cash, loans and lavish gifts from the CEO of a diet supplement company. A review of the particulars of the indictment reveals a picture of a family that was in financial trouble with huge credit card debt but with a taste for designer clothing and accessories.
The former governor — who worked as a criminal prosecutor, who served in the House of Delegates as a member of its Courts committee and who was attorney general of the state before becoming governor — acknowledges the loans and money that he has paid back and the gifts he received. But he continues to maintain his innocence despite federal law that makes it illegal to use a public office to enrich oneself. The former governor was clever in using his intimate knowledge of Virginia law to escape reporting the gifts by having them go to family members rather than to himself and by selling stock before the end of a reporting period and buying it back after the reporting deadline to escape disclosing it.
The entire episode is a huge tragedy for the McDonnell family and for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The former governor and his wife may go to jail. The “Virginia way” that has always prided itself on clean government has been sullied.
Committees in the House and Senate are at work to tighten up ethics laws for the legislative and executive branches of government. I participated in a bipartisan panel to get the process underway. Reporting requirements for anything of value received will be expanded to include family members and will be required at least twice a year.
An ethics commission is likely to be established to rule on the appropriateness of activities of members of state as well as local government. As part-time legislators who live in the local community much more time than in the capital city, legislators need to be able to participate in the activities of the local community as long as they do not conflict with their legislative duties. The new ethics rules and the commission should help clarify which activities and expenditures are acceptable.
The presence of laws does not completely stop wrong doing. It is up to individuals to first police themselves and to act in an ethical way. Ultimately it will be the voters who decide if their elected representatives are adhering to the common-sense ethical standards that they expect.
Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s General Assembly.
Each year, the Governor of Virginia addresses a joint assembly of the House of Delegates and the State Senate in a speech. It’s not unlike the President’s State of the Union address, except that the Governor provides a “State of the Commonwealth” as well as his recommendations for legislative action.
Last week, I heard the 35th such speech since I have been a member of the House of Delegates. I think Gov. Terry McAuliffe made the best of any of the speeches I have heard over my career in the legislature.
He emphasized the need for all to work together: “…as we launch this new chapter in our history, let us resolve to show the partisans in Washington and across the nation that here in Virginia, in a Commonwealth that pioneered government by consensus, there is no challenge too great, no debate too intractable and no idea too ambitious that we cannot come together on common ground to build the future our families deserve.” The theme of his inaugural events was “common ground.”
He will put an emphasis on economic development. In his speech, he announced two economic development projects that he had already concluded after just three days in office.
“In today’s modern economy, Virginia has to be smarter, more productive and far more aggressive than our sister states for new jobs and investment,” he said. From the tone of his speech it is obvious that no one will be accusing the new Governor of not being aggressive enough in economic development.
His goals are clear, and he does not duck controversial issues. In his own words, “We should stop over-testing our students…The General Assembly should not wait another year to pass the bipartisan Dream Act…On Saturday I was proud to sign Executive Order Number One, which prohibits discrimination in state government on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity…An open and welcoming Commonwealth requires a state government that trusts women to make their own health care decisions, and works to expand access to quality care…I am eager to work with the coalition of Virginia leaders who agree that we need to strengthen our democracy by passing legislation putting Virginia on the path toward non-partisan redistricting.”
He was just as direct in his support for an expansion of Medicaid to help those “families (who) are just a major illness or accident away from financial ruin.” As he pointed out, if we fail to exercise the option of federal funding for Medicaid, “we will forgo $2.1 billion annually in federal funding over the next three years. That is more than $5 million per day.”
The Governor has extended an invitation for legislators of both parties to work with him. I look forward to working with him in moving Virginia forward.
To read the full text of the Governor’s speech, go toGovernor’s Address.
Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s General Assembly. He writes weekly on Reston Now. He can be reached at [email protected].
Virginia taxpayer dollars not returned to them has amounted to $5 million each day since Jan. 1, 2014, and will continue at that rate each day that Virginia refuses to expand its Medicaid program.
In addition, at least 400,000 working Virginians will continue to be uninsured.
The 2013 session of the General Assembly created the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission (MIRC) to consider whether reforms to Virginia’s Medicaid program were sufficient to allow Virginia to proceed with some form of coverage expansion through the Affordable Care Act. MIRC members have been assured by staff that all requested reforms have been made, but the Commission members from the House of Delegates have refused to acknowledge the reforms and continue along with the Speaker of the House of Delegates to oppose expansion of Medicaid.
For otherwise fiscal conservatives to turn down $5 million of Virginia taxpayer dollars being returned to them to pay the full cost of Medicaid expansion shows the continued animosity that some Republicans have toward the Affordable Care Act that they refer to as Obamacare. To the concern that the federal government will not be able to continue funding the program into the future, Virginia could make a decision to withdraw at that time.
At the same time, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce business plan for the Commonwealth, “Blueprint for Virginia,” supports the Medicaid reforms that have been made and recommends Medicaid expansion. Chamber leadership has termed Medicaid expansion to be both an economic development as well as a workforce issue. Most of Virginia’s one million uninsured residents are employed. It is projected that the expansion would create an estimated 33,000 jobs and bring $21 billion dollars back to the Commonwealth.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is a staunch supporter of Medicaid expansion. As he stated to the Chamber, “Let me be clear on one point. If Medicaid expansion is not the business community’s number one priority in your communication with the General Assembly, it will not happen.” He calls for “coming together, putting old ideological differences aside and focusing on what makes sense from a business perspective.”
The case for Medicaid expansion goes beyond the strong business case; it is also a humanitarian cause. Social justice organizations, faith communities, and individuals need also to give priority to making their views known to legislators. Give priority to writing or calling House and Senate leadership and members of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees and ask them to approve the expansion of Medicaid. Contact information is available at House and Senate members.
Five million dollars a day is a lot of money. It is too much to turn down, especially when it can improve the health and well-being of Virginians. Please make sure your voice is heard on this issue.
Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. He can be reached at [email protected].
Last month, the disAbility Law Center (dLCV) issued a report on the condition of mental health services in Virginia. It is an eye-opening report: Broken Promises, the Failure of Mental Health Services in Virginia. (Broken Promises Report)
Its findings are direct: “Despite the promises of reform to the mental health service system in the last decade, Virginia’s mental health services system fails to serve many of those in need of its services.”
According to dLCV, there are more than 40,000 Virginians living with serious mental illness and thousands more with less serious emotional disorders that require treatment including an estimated 130,658 children between the ages of 9 and 18 who need treatment. The dLCV which advocates for all people with disabilities to be free from abuse, neglect, and discrimination considers the problem in part to be a misallocation of resources.
As its report points out, on any given month about 10 percent of residents of state hospitals continue to be hospitalized even though their treating professionals have found that they no longer need to be hospitalized. Thirty-one of the 133 individuals in such hospital placements in November, 2013, had been waiting for discharge for more than a year. The problem is that there are inadequate or nonexistent facilities or programs in the community to continue services to these persons. At the same time, there were an estimated 26,990 inmates confined in local and regional jails of whom nearly 25 percent were known or suspected to be mentally ill. More than 3,500 persons in jails were diagnosed with a serious mental illness.
The dLCV maintains that funding is misdirected towards unnecessary hospitalization when funding is needed desperately for community-based crisis response services and housing options for people with mental health needs. Their position is not without controversy. Others maintain that both more hospital spaces and more community-based facilities are needed.
The tragic event surrounding the family of Senator Creigh Deeds has brought the need to the public’s attention. Outgoing Governor Bob McDonnell has proposed a more than $50 million increase in the budget for mental health services and has established a commission to develop a plan for mental health services in the Commonwealth. There is bipartisan support to address the issue in terms of additional funding as well as to amend existing statutes to permit persons who are a danger to themselves and to others to be held for a longer period of time until appropriate treatment is available to them.
We are past the time when we should have met the promises for reform to persons with mental health problems and their families. The 2014 session of the General Assembly must respond. You can view my interview with Colleen Miller, Executive Director of disAbility Law Center of Virginia and another interview with George Braunstein, Director of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, both on the topic of mental health reform at Virginia Report.
Del. Ken Plum (D-36th) represents Reston in Virginia’s General Assembly. He can be reached at [email protected].
Legislation that is proposed for consideration by the General Assembly is called a bill. A bill that has passed the House of Delegates and the Senate and has been signed by the Governor in identical form becomes a law on July 1 after the adjournment of the legislative session and is included in the Code of Virginia.
To know what the laws of the Commonwealth are, go to the Code at http://leg1.state.va.us/000/
In addition to passing laws, the General Assembly passes a lot of resolutions. When famous or noteworthy people die, the delegate or senator from that person’s community is likely to introduce a memorial resolution. These resolutions pass routinely without discussion or debate and are approved on a voice vote.
After being printed in a formal format, these resolutions are given to family members in appreciation of and respect for the contributions the individuals made to their communities. Commending resolutions that recognize the accomplishments of individuals, organizations or businesses are handled in a similar way but could result in some debate if a person or action is viewed as being controversial.
This year, I will be asking the General Assembly to commend Robert E. Simon on his 100th birthday and will be recognizing Reston on its 50th anniversary. Such resolutions are educational for members of the General Assembly as well as the public. Framed resolutions are often hung in prominent places by the recipients. Resolutions also are used by legislative bodies to direct their own operations and order of business and to establish studies of issues. Resolutions do not take up much time of the legislature, but they do provide an important way to recognize outstanding people and events in the Commonwealth and to have the legislature state a position on an issue for which a new law may not be appropriate or needed.
The legislature does not have a tradition of passing a resolution at the beginning of each year stating as individuals often attempt to do with their “new year resolutions” what will be done that year. Debate on such a resolution would take up the entirety of the session, and if ever agreed upon may likely be forgotten as realities of the year and the session set in
Such a lack of resolve on the part of legislative bodies at all levels mean that attention is focused on the next great crisis until it is forgotten and then attention is turned to the next. Few issues are truly resolved conclusively, and in fact, the matters with which legislative bodies deal do not lend themselves to one-time solutions. Most legislative actions are incremental as agreements can be reached and are built upon over time. Since conclusive solutions are not immediately evident for the most contentious of issues, the gradual approach to resolving an issue may make more sense. There is little evidence to suggest that legislatures would be any better at keeping annual resolutions than we are as individuals.
Ken Plum represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. He writes weekly on Reston Now. He can be reached at [email protected].
The editorial in the Sept. 21, 1897 New York Sun, responding to a letter from eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon who had inquired about whether there was a Santa Claus, has become the most reprinted newspaper editorial, according to the Newseum.
Virginia’s father had told her that if she read it in the Sun it was certain to be true. The editor wrote, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.”
Virginians, especially those around the capital city, have long believed in Santa Claus. The “Legendary Santa” has been meeting with boys and girls at Miller and Rhoads — first a department store and now a hotel in Richmond — for more than 75 years.
There is ample proof that he is the “real” Santa Claus for he is able with assistance from the Snow Queen and some technology to call every child by name.
We go as a family of four generations with Jane’s mother and our grandchildren to see him at his latest location at the Children’s Museum of Richmond. Read more about this Virginia tradition in Legendary Santa’s Stories from the Chair. On page six is a photograph of young Jane Durham (now Plum) and her brother visiting Santa many years ago.
Throughout the capital, there is a quickened pace of activity during the holiday season in anticipation of the General Assembly convening on Jan. 8 and the new governor being inaugurated on Jan. 11. There are wish lists from all the agencies and special interests. And, yes, Virginia, if there is a Santa Claus here is my wish list for the legislative session.
Virginia would extend health insurance to nearly half its uninsured working poor by expanding Medicaid. Not only would more people have access to preventative care as well as treatment, but Virginians would get more of their federal tax dollars back and a boost to the economy with the health care jobs being created. Also in the area of health, I want Virginia to increase funding for its presently inadequate mental health care program.
While I am wishing, I want the General Assembly to expand background checks for all gun purchases to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and violent people. I also want the legislature to approve my bill to establish an independent redistricting commission that will fairly and objectively draw legislative boundaries. We would on my wish list repeal the marriage amendment and other discrimination based on sexual orientation. And while we are at it, we need to get the state back to the position of being an equal partner in funding public schools.
None of these goals will be reached by simply wishing for them. Hard work, determination, and public pressure can make them reality. Just like in Santa’s workshop, there will be a lot of work behind the scenes.
Del. Ken Plum represents Reston in the Virginia General Assembly. He writes weekly on Reston Now. He can be reached at [email protected].
In a couple of days, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will present a proposed budget to the General Assembly for the next two years. Early announcements about what it contains have been good: critically needed funding for mental health and restoration of funding to education programs.
What is unique about the budget is that Governor McDonnell will not be around to defend or to implement it. The Constitution of Virginia limits the governor to one term. A governor can run a second time as Mills Godwin did in the 1960s, but the terms cannot be successive.
The limitation on executive leadership goes back to the earliest days of Virginia as a state. Concerned about the excesses of the king, the leaders of the newly independent Virginia limited the governor to terms of one year. Patrick Henry was the first governor who served for multiple years, but he had to be re-elected each year. While it is seriously questionable whether Gov. McDonnell could have been re-elected with his serious ethical lapses, he simply was not allowed by the Constitution to stand for re-election. All governors have been constrained in what they were able to do by the necessity that they get their work accomplished in four years.
I have supported several attempts over many years to amend the Constitution to allow the governor to serve two terms, but these efforts have not been successful. If the legislature approved such an amendment, it would have to approve it a second time after an election and then put it before the people in a referendum. Because of the timeline involved, such an amendment would not apply to the governor who was in office at the time. I continue to support a constitutional amendment to permit the governor to serve two terms, recognizing that the electorate can still enforce a one-term limit if it chooses to do so.
The electorate can likewise limit the terms of members of the House of Delegates to two years or any multiple thereof and of the Senate to four years or any multiple of four. Members serve at the will of the people for the amount of time determined by the electorate and not by an arbitrary number in the Constitution.
There is less need for a specific time limitation because the General Assembly is made up of part-time citizen legislators rather than being full time like the governor. While some states have chosen to limit legislators to a set number of years, the experience in these states has been a serious loss of experience in the legislature and an increase in the power of staff and lobbyists.
To ensure that the people are truly free to choose their legislators, an independent non-partisan redistricting process needs to be put into place. Under the current gerrymandering process, legislators choose the people they want to represent rather than the people choosing their legislators. A commission that I first proposed in 1982 and continue to advocate for would take the task of redistricting from legislators and give it to an independent body. Open elections with competitive races are the best form of term limits.
President Franklin Roosevelt once tried to change the date of Thanksgiving to always be later in November, but he was stopped by merchants who wanted maximum time to sell their goods before Christmas. In those days holiday shopping started the day after Thanksgiving rather than the increasing practice of starting on Thanksgiving evening.
However the schedule is arranged, the last month of the year turns out to be very busy for most everyone, but especially for members of the legislature. The General Assembly session gets underway on Jan. 8, but a great amount of groundwork goes into preparing for it. Beyond taking care of our personal and family responsibilities in December, legislators are rushing to survey constituents on their issues and concerns, get bills drafted and move to Richmond for at least 60 days starting in January.
The two-hour trip from Reston to Richmond — when traffic is moving — means I have to find a temporary place to lease during the legislative session.
The revitalization of downtown Richmond has greatly expanded housing options. Besides the usual hotels that give discounts for a longer stay there are furnished apartments and condominiums available for short-term leasing. Many of those housing units are in older buildings that were factories, warehouses, and stores in the past but have been turned into beautiful apartments that retain much of the original brickwork and heavy wood framing that give them real charm.
Miller and Rhoad — the Macy’s of Richmond for many decades — has been converted into a hotel and condominiums. The Canal Lofts apartment building in which I will be living was originally a Lucky Strike cigarette manufacturing plant. The original tobacco warehouses next door are apartments. My legislative assistant will be renting an apartment in a building that used to be a bank.
Beyond finding a place to live is the most important work of deciding what legislation to introduce and what legislation introduced by others is important to co-sponsor. There is no shortage of local governments, interest groups and individuals to make suggestions. Most of the requests to the professional staff of the House of Delegates to turn an idea or concept into the legal language of a bill are placed in December although such requests continue through to the first week of the session.
Please email your recommendations on needed legislation or support to me at [email protected].
Senator Janet Howell and I will be having our usual pre-session public hearing on Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the Reston Community Center Hunters Woods, 2310 Colts Neck Road. Please complete my legislative survey on my website at kenplum.com, or if you need a printed copy of the survey email me your name and address or leave it in a message on my office phone: 703-758-9733.
On Jan. 11, we will be inaugurating Terry McAuliffe as Governor, along with Senator Ralph Northam as Lieutenant Governor and Senator Mark Herring as Attorney General. For details on inaugural activities, visit www.inauguration2014.com.
Ken Plum (D-36) represents Reston in the Virginia General Assembly. He writes weekly on Reston Now.
The recent tragic stabbing of State Senator Creigh Deeds by his son, who then took his own life, brings to attention the importance of the mental health system and its very fragile condition in Virginia.
While the young Deeds son was evaluated the day before the tragedy by staff of the local mental health board, he was discharged without being held for treatment. Early reports indicated that there was no facility available to accommodate him. Subsequent information seems to indicate that there were several hospitals within reasonable distance that could have taken him, but there is no system for coordination of available facilities and patient needs. At least two investigations are underway to find out what went wrong and why.
Regardless of the facts that are found surrounding this terribly tragic event, there remains a concern that the mental health system in Virginia is inadequate to meet the needs. Clearly the mentally ill are no more violent than the rest of society, and some statistics suggest that a smaller percentage of the mentally ill are violent than in the population at large. At the same time, however, violent people have their own needs for mental health treatment for themselves as well as for the safety of family and society.
The tragic slayings at Virginia Tech demonstrated the consequences of an untreated disease and the faultiness of the system that is supposed to take care of them. The immediate response in Virginia was to provide an instant transfusion of about $40 million to meet the need. Unfortunately with the economic recession and the cutback on spending, that money has mostly disappeared from
the system.
Mental health services had a budget of $424.3 million in FY2009, but that amount had decreased to $386.6 in FY2012. The adoption of a state budget for the 2014-2016 biennium must recognize the continued need and restore and supplement lost funding.
The same Inspector General who is looking into the circumstances of Deeds’ son being released without treatment earlier had looked into this problem system wide. In 2010 the Inspector General found that approximately 200 individuals were returned to the streets in Virginia that year even though there was agreement among mental health professionals that they needed to be hospitalized.
In the view of these professionals, either these individuals were sick enough to harm themselves or others, or they were unable to defend themselves. This is referred to as the “streeting” of individuals with mental illnesses. It occurs when either there is no space for mentally ill people in public facilities or no private facility will take them. About one-third of the persons in local jails are in need of mental health services
My continued prayers are with Senator Creigh Deeds and his family. May time bring about merciful healing. For legislators, may this tragic event spur us to action without the need for more lives lost and communities shattered. The need is clear; we must act responsibly.
Ken Plum has represented Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates since 1982. He writes a weekly column for Reston Now. He can be reached at [email protected].
Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your family!
In previous columns on this date, I have presented the historic evidence clearly establishing that the first Thanksgiving celebration took place at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia on December 4, 1619 — several years before the Pilgrims ever left England to come to Plymouth Colony.
Unfortunately the Virginia colony did not survive to keep the tradition alive thereby forfeiting to the Pilgrims the more commonly used date for the celebration of the harvest. Setting aside this minor debate over a historic beginning, there is a much more serious debate that needs to take place as we celebrate our blessings and bounty.
That debate revolves around the fact that while some are celebrating and feasting on Thanksgiving a record number of people in this country are unemployed, hungry and losing hope. The shocking income inequality with the shrinking middle class over the past couple of decades is well documented. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has become the chief spokesperson for the cause and has presented the facts very graphically and glaringly. Starting in the 1970s, one percent of Americans have been taking home 20 percent of the country’s income and own 35 percent of its wealth.
It is easy to look at a set of numbers that point to a problem and conclude that the problem is happening someplace else and not here, but a recent report by the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis found that the problem exists in Virginia. In a recent press release, “Rising Inequality Lifting Some Virginians, Sinking Others,” the Institute reported that since the recession, the top 10 percent of earners (making at least $47.97 per hour) have seen their wages grow over 8 percent while the wages of the bottom 10 percent (making $8.19 or less per hour) are now over 7 percent below their pre-recession level.
“As a result of these trends, Virginia faces record levels of inequality that threaten the state’s economic stability and long-term prosperity because the middle class and low-income households that make up most of the population aren’t earning enough to buy the goods and services the economy is capable of producing,” according to Michael Cassidy, President and CEO of the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. The report also states that in 2012 the top 10 percent in Virginia made 2.7 times as much as the median worker. Only California had a greater disparity. Over the past 30 years wages for the top 10 percent of earners grew 19 times as fast as those at the bottom.
Thanks to all who contributed to Thanksgiving baskets this year, but the problem is not a one-day challenge. It is time to look beyond Thanksgiving to start to resolve the income inequality that exists in this state and country. As Reich points out, the problem is fixable.
Ken Plum has represented Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates since 1982. He can be reached at [email protected].
There is no program or service for which public dollars can be invested that will have a greater return than those invested in the care and education of young children.
People who work in early childhood and day care programs have known intuitively and anecdotally for a long time that children in their programs were much more likely to be successful by a number of different measures than were children who did not have access to their programs.
Now, however, there are many longitudinal studies that provide empirical evidence that there is an exponential payback from programs aimed at young children. Children who have early learning experiences in quality preschool programs are much more likely to be successful in school and much less likely to be in trouble with the law or to be on public assistance programs.
The return on public investment in preschool education is not immediate; it accrues over time as the young person becomes a teenager then an adult. Just as one of the secrets to financial investments is to leave your money in place for long-term returns, policy makers must recognize that the returns for funding quality day care and preschool education programs are not realized for decades or more.
As Arthur Rolnick and Robert Gruenewald of the Minnesota Federal Reserve Board have said, “Early childhood development programs are rarely portrayed as economic development initiatives. They should be at the top of economic development investment lists for state and local government.”
Unfortunately the budgeting process in the public sector does not work favorably for programs with long-term payback. In a time of recession or sluggish recovery, there is an understandable reluctance to spend money without an obvious and clear benefit. Saving dollars in future projections is not helpful to public officials who must make ends meet when there is not enough money to go around.
Recent innovations in early childhood education are often the first to be cut because there is no immediate feedback about their successes and there are no alumni associations to lobby on their behalf. Those most in need may be the least likely to speak up in the community and before legislative bodies. Obviously the children cannot do it, but too many times their parents lack the knowledge and skills to do so as well.
Fortunately many faith communities have taken up the challenge and operate day care and preschool programs as part of their missions or social justice activities. These same institutions are important voices on behalf of the needs of children as are nonprofits like Voices for Virginia Children and Every Child Matters that advocate on behalf of children for anti-poverty, feeding and educational programs. Devotion to Children provides scholarships to needy families for day care services.
At a time when food stamp programs are being reduced and educational dollars are becoming scarce, it is important that legislators see and understand the long-term benefits of investing in our children.
Del. Ken Plum (D-36th) represents Reston in Virginia’s House of Delegates. He writes a weekly opinion column on Reston Now. He can be reached at [email protected].
