December 18th Newsletter
It is just a coincidence that the Governor’s annual budget presentation comes during the peak of the holiday giving season. But I appreciate the shared themes of generosity and helping people in need that the Governor’s budget amendments and this season bring.
I have highlighted below the most significant aspects of those amendments. I was particularly pleased to see that the Governor has prioritized supporting children’s mental health, early childhood education, and teacher salaries. These are priorities that I share and plan to advocate for as the General Assembly reconvenes on January 13th. As the Governor and his Secretary of Finance presented on Wednesday, Virginia’s economic performance and corresponding revenue outlook are improving and we should have the opportunity to fund, at least partially, many of the important initiatives that we needed to postpone at the beginning of the pandemic.
Although our session will again need to be virtual because of the ongoing COVID threat, you should feel free to contact me by phone and email (see below) to share your thoughts and suggestions on legislation and the budget amendments. This is a short session year and we may meet only for 30 days. I can assure you, however, that we will still be able to pass significant legislation and budget items to help our Commonwealth recover from these challenging times.
I will continue to keep you informed with relevant, accurate information via Twitter, Facebook, and my website. Please email my office at delrwillett@house.virginia.gov or call us at 804-698-1173 if you have any questions or need assistance. Please note that given the upcoming holidays I will not publish newsletters for the next two Fridays, December 24th and January 1st.
Speaking of holidays, I wish all the best to you and your family, and please stay well.
Sincerely,
Rodney
New Information
Governor Northam Presents Proposed Budget Amendments
On Wednesday, Governor Northam presented his proposed budget amendments for the 2021 legislative session. We typically consider our even year sessions as “budget sessions,” however, changes can be made every year if needed. 2020 has been a very tumultuous year for our budget. As a reminder, before the start of the pandemic during the 2020 legislative session, our budget made significant investments in early childhood education, health care, and the environment. Unfortunately, we anticipated significant economic setbacks due to COVID-19, and we met again in April to freeze over $2.7 billion in new spending to help our Commonwealth prepare for an economic downturn. As the pandemic continued we convened again for a special session this fall and reworked the budget again to align with new economic forecasts and re-allocated spending to support Virginians struggling through the pandemic.
As we prepare for our legislative session in January, the Virginia economy is doing very well compared to other states. In a press briefing on Tuesday, Virginia Finance Secretary Aubrey Layne said that “We are an anomaly. Virginia is one of the few states that is showing increased revenue growth.” Our economy has begun slowing again as the virus worsens, however, our new forecast anticipates $1.2 billion more in revenue than what we had previously anticipated in August. Some of the contributing factors to this new projection are the stability of larger employers, such as the federal government, defense contractors and the tech sector, as well as an increase in liquor sales. While our revenues are above what we had originally anticipated, our economy is still struggling in many areas. We have lost over a quarter of all Virginia small businesses, and thousands of Virginians are still out of work and struggling to pay their rent or mortgage payments. I am pleased to see the Governor’s amendments include funding for education, health care, and housing support, and I will continue to advocate for funding directed to help everyday Virginians stay afloat during this challenging time.
Below are a few highlights of the Governor’s proposed budget amendments. You can see full list and description of all proposed budget amendments online here.
COVID-19 Response:
Vaccines & Response: The budget includes $240 million for public health pandemic response, including $90 million to support Virginia’s vaccination deployment.
P-12 Education: The budget invests over $500 million to prevent reductions to school division funding due to COVID-19. The budget invests $27 million in school counselors and includes $80 million for a two-percent bonus for teachers and support positions. The budget also restores over $16 million to expand access to early childhood education.
Evictions: The budget invests an additional $25 million in Virginia’s Housing Trust Fund (HTF) in FY2022 to help local and regional efforts to craft housing affordability solutions, matching the $55 million that is maintained in FY2021 to bring Virginia’s HTF to its highest level ever of $55 million annually. The budget also includes $15.7 million in FY21 for the Rent and Mortgage Relief Program, and $1.5 million in FY2022 to fund additional housing attorneys at the Virginia State Bar.
Internet Accessibility: The budget invests an additional $15 million in the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) in FY2022, matching the $50 million that is maintained in FY2021 to bring the Commonwealth’s broadband funding to $50 million annually, a historic high.
Investments In the People of Virginia:
Workforce: The Governor’s budget includes $36 million in FY2022 for the G3 Program to get free or low-cost job skills training in high-need fields through Virginia’s community college system.
Virginia’s Public Workforce: The Governor’s budget includes $98 million for a one-time bonus for state employees ($1,500), adjunct faculty ($750), and state-supported local employees (1.5 percent), and $9.5 million for the Compensation Board to increase support for Virginia’s constitutional officers. The budget also includes $100 million for the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) to reduce unfunded liabilities in the retirement plan for public school teachers, the state employee health insurance credit program, and benefits for our first responders.
Higher Education: The budget restores over $30 million in previously un-allotted investments in tuition assistance at Virginia’s public institutions of higher education. The budget includes an additional $8.4 million for investments at Norfolk State University and $6.1 million at Virginia State University, as well as $5 million for George Mason University and $5 million for Old Dominion University.
Health Care: The budget includes $23 million to get more Virginians enrolled in the health care exchange and $2.3 million to fund doula services for expecting Virginia mothers enrolled in Medicaid. The budget also increases LARC funding by $1 million and also includes $10 million to update the decades old formula that determines how much the state pays for local health departments.
Natural Resources: The budget invests $12 million in the Department of Environmental Quality to better protect Virginia’s air, land and water, and $13.5 million in water quality and agricultural best management practices (BMPs), bringing Virginia’s BMP investment to $35 million in FY2022. These investments include staff positions that will help move permit requests in a timely manner. The Governor’s budget also invests $276,000 to enhance food safety in Virginia, and $521,000 to develop the hardwood forest habitat program.
Transportation: The Governor’s budget also invests $50 million to support extending intercity passenger rail service from Roanoke to the Blacksburg-Christiansburg area, and to increase intercity passenger rail service on the I-81/Route 29 Corridor from Washington, DC.
COVID-19 Vaccine in Virginia
On Monday, Governor Northam welcomed the first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a Bon Secours hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Our initial allotment of 72,150 doses arrived early this week at health systems across the Commonwealth and those systems already started to administer the vaccine to frontline health care workers. The first dose of the vaccine was at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Tuesday.
Virginia health systems expect to receive an estimated 480,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna by the end of December. The initial allocation will go towards health care personnel and long-term care facility residents. The Virginia Department of Health estimates that there are up to 500,000 individuals in these two priority groups in the Commonwealth. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends that the first vaccines go to healthcare workers, residents of long-term care facilities, people at high risk for severe COVID-19 illnesses due to underlying medical conditions, and people 65 and older. Virginians who do not fall into priority categories will be offered the COVID-19 vaccine when it is more widely available. Children and pregnant adults will be offered vaccines only after the vaccine is tested and approved for those groups. See more information on the COVID-19 vaccine and Virginia’s distribution plan online at vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/vaccination/.
Legislation Taking Effect January 2021
Most of the legislation we passed during our 2020 regular session went into effect on July 1st of this year, however, some bills required a delayed effective date and will take effect on January 1st of 2021. Here are a few of the laws taking effect at the start of next year:
Prohibiting hand held cell phone use while driving (HB874) — Starting January 1st, it is illegal to hold a handheld personal communications device while driving a motor vehicle. When in effect, it will be a primary offense, meaning police can pull you over if they see you on your phone. The penalty is a $125 fine for the first offense and $250 for the second, or if you were caught in a construction zone.
$50 per month insulin cap (HB66) — Prohibits health insurance companies and other carriers from charging more than $50 per 30 day supply for a covered person at the point of sale. The price of insulin has tripled over the past 20 years, forcing many Virginians to have to make difficult choices and consider going without necessary care. No one in our Commonwealth should have to forgo medications due to fear of financial hardship, and I'm proud that this law will help increase equity and access to this drug.
Barbara Johns Statue to Represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol
The Commission on Historical Statues in the United States Capitol voted to recommend civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns to represent Virginia in the National Statuary Hall Collection, replacing the existing statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The Commission was established by the passage of HB1406, introduced by Delegate Jeion Ward, and chaired by Senator Louise Lucas. They worked with the Department of Historic Resources to collect nominations for the new statue and held several virtual meetings that were open to public comment. After considering all nominations and public comment, the Commission narrowed to five finalists, including Oliver Hill, Barbara Johns, John Mercer Langston, Pocahontas, and Maggie Walker.
The National Statuary Hall Collection allows each state to display two statues. Since 1909 Virginia has been represented by President George Washington and Confederate general Robert E. Lee. If approved by the General Assembly, Johns would be displayed with the Washington statue and be the only teenager represented in the collection.
I am thrilled to see the Commission recommend Barbara Johns for this honor. On April 23, 1951, sixteen-year-old Barbara Rose Johns led a student walkout at Robert Russa Moton High School in the Town of Farmville in Prince Edward County, protesting the overcrowded and inferior conditions of the all-Black school compared to those of White students at nearby Farmville High School. Her actions garnered the support of NAACP lawyers Spottswood Robinson and Oliver Hill who took up her cause and filed a lawsuit that would later be one of five cases the United States Supreme Court reviewed in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka when it declared segregation unconstitutional. Historians consider Johns’ protest a pivotal moment that launched the desegregation movement in America.
I grew up in Prince Edward County. I did not start school until after the public schools reopened and were integrated but I witnessed the actions of the local leaders of both the massive resistance and desegregation movements. The systemic racism that Barbara Johns was fighting against decades ago persists today in the areas of criminal justice, education, health care, and employment. Placing this statue does not solve these issues, and we still have significant work to do to combat racial inequities in Virginia. I hope that Barbara Johns’ statue, displayed along with George Washington’s, will be a symbol of the rich yet complicated history of our Commonwealth, and remind us all of the work that still needs to be done.
Virginia Employment Commission Updates
Nearly $10 billion in unemployment benefits have been paid since March 15th 2020, with 1,380,000 initial claims filed since January 2020. This is ten times the number of claims for the entire year of 2019, or the equivalent of ten years worth of claims in the past year. The VEC has begun releasing payments to claimants who have received a minimum of one week of benefits and are waiting for a decision on their eligibility. There are over 50,000 claims that have been tied up in a backlog of claims, causing many Virginians to wait months to receive unemployment benefits. These cases most commonly occur in instances where the claimant applies under a layoff or “lack of work”, but their employer is disputing the workers claim, usually asserting that they were fired for misconduct or voluntarily quit on their own without a good cause.
While it is very positive that Virginians who have been waiting to for a determination will receive payments, it is important for claimants to be aware that the VEC will still be reviewing these claims, and you could be deemed ineligible for these benefits and required to pay these funds back to the VEC.
PUA and PEUC are expiring on December 26th. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provides an unemployment insurance benefit for individuals who are not eligible for traditional UI and where the individual cannot work for a COVID-19 related reason. Pandemic Unemployment Emergency Compensation (PUEC) provides unemployment benefits for individuals who have already used the full number of weeks under the state’s program. Congress is considering legislation to extend PUA, PEUC, and add an additional supplement of $300 to the weekly benefit amount for 16 weeks, however the stimulus package is still being debated, and we are uncertain when this additional support will come.
If you need assistance navigating the VEC unemployment process, please contact my office at DelRWillett@house.virginia.gov and we can help you with your claim.
Henrico County Public Schools “Destination 2025” Plan
Henrico Schools officials are seeking the public’s input on their new strategic plan. “Destination 2025: The Plan for HCPS” sets six goals from the school system, as well as methods to reach them and how the goals conform to the school division’s values. The six goals HCPS hopes to achieve by 2025 are:
Academic excellence.
An inclusive, safe and supportive climate.
Recruiting, retaining and rewarding educators.
Cultivating and maintaining collaborative partnerships.
Strength in diversity.
An equitable and secure environment.
You can see the full plan online at https://henricoschools.us/strategic-plan/. You can comment on the plan using one of the following methods. All comments will be carefully considered, no matter how they are submitted:
Email Dr. Tiffany Hinton, director of HCPS’ Department of Assessment, Research and Evaluation at tshinton@henrico.k12.va.us.
Attend a public hearing January 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of New Bridge Learning Center, 5915 Nine Mile Road, Henrico, Va., 23223.
The School Board is expected to vote on the revised Plan at its Jan. 28 meeting. You are welcome to email the School Board. An email sent to this address will be sent to all five Board members: schoolboard@henrico.k12.va.us
Henrico County Utility Bill Relief
Henrico County received $1.8 million in funding from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to assist residents who have past-due utility bills from March 1st to December 30th. Officials plan to release details about the program and eligibility soon. In the meantime, citizens may call (804) 501-4275 to learn more.
