The Virginia state Senate is expected to vote Monday on a measure that would weaken a land-use tool used for decades by local governments to get builders to add roads, parks and other improvements to new home developments.
The bill, which calls for placing restrictions on what local officials can ask for in development negotiations, is one of two measures working its way through the General Assembly. A House version of the bill passed 68-27 last week.
Both measures are generating strong opposition from local officials in Northern Virginia, where development deals have helped shape the character of some of the region’s fastest-growing communities.
Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William county officials say that changing the legislation would hamper their ability to negotiate for extra amenities from developers that, in the past, have been crucial to community support for new housing in places like Merrifield or Woodbridge. Officials also argue that amending the land-use tool would open them up to lawsuits if builders whose projects were rejected argued that they were denied because of their refusal to agree to “unreasonable” proffer requests.
Democratic Terry McAuliffe has often been referred to by Republicans and Democrats alike as an “opportunistic carpetbagger.” Just what is that?
Northern Virginians are often seen as not being “real Virginians.” Stop laughing. It’s true. I grew up in Charlottesville, therefore I have real Virginian cred which I have almost lost because I have spent my adult live here in Northern Virgina. I have even had people say, “back when you were a Virginian….” Go north of Bull Run and you are doomed. Just doomed.
After delaying a decision on the contentious bill for eight days straight, the Senate voted 23 to 17 to send it back to committee, effectively killing it for the year.
Three Republicans joined all 20 Democrats in voting to recommit the bill, which has been vigorously opposed by the Virginia Education Association.
The move was a political defeat for McDonnell, who had made overhauling teacher contracts a key part of his education agenda.
“This bill does nothing but kick teachers in the teeth,” said Sen. Philip Puckett (D-Russell), a former teacher and principal.
According to findings of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Virginians are the most content of all the states regarding their politicians. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports the following regarding recent polls:
The poll … shows that voters overwhelmingly oppose proposed legislation from Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, that would define life as beginning at conception, 58 percent to 32 percent. And 50 percent of those polled say protecting gun rights takes priority over controlling gun ownership, while 45 percent see things the other way around. But 62 percent oppose lifting the state’s law limiting handgun purchases to one a month. And just weeks after another shooting at Virginia Tech, 75 percent of those polled say guns should be banned on college campuses.
Voters also say by a 48-42 percent margin that the state’s projected $1 billion budget deficit should be addressed only with spending cuts, not tax increases. Sixty three percent of those polled also support the state’s policy of using tax incentives to attract new business compared to 25 percent who do not.
Gov. Bob McDonnell on Monday unveiled a two-year, $84.9 billion spending plan that balances increases in transportation, higher education and the state’s pension system with $882 million in targeted reductions largely to Medicaid and public education funding. The proposed budget for July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2014, contains no tax increases but raises certain fees, including $10 million worth from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
If fees are increased at the DMV, doesn’t that really constitute a tax increase, by another name?
Additionally, if items like Medicaid and public education get shortchanged, doesn’t that simply make local governments more strapped for much needed cash? The real estate market has not rebounded all that much which is where the taxes come from in most localities. There is also a movement under way to do away with the BPOL tax.
Somehow politicians need to accept that we are not all that stupid. We know that neither PWC nor Virginia can print money. We know that a certain amount of money is needed for schools and for medicaid. If the buck stops here, we either do without cops and other public safety services or we have 40 kids in a classroom.
How do you cut back on Medicaid? Where do you start? Do you disqualify people? I don’t know the answers. It just seems that we are playing a shell game. The fed cuts what it gives to the states. The state cuts what it gives to the localities. The localities have things they must do like provide medicaid, education money and public safety. So we move it around.
This is like the song, Where have all the Flowers Gone. Gone to Flowers everyone. McDonnell is on Fox News bragging that he has a surplus. Not really. How about that money owed to VRS that has not yet been repaid? How about what is being shorted the localities? How about the increased fees? Just because we don’t call it a tax, is it still a tax? Yup.
I don’t really care. I noticed a huge hit since the last time I renewed my license. I expected it. But lets call it what it is. It’s a tax increase called a fee.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration has awarded a contract to a Pennsylvania-based catering company to sell food, drinks and merchandise at Virginia highway rest areas.
CRH Catering of Connellsville, Pa., will pay the Virginia Department of Transportation about $2 million a year for vending and advertising rights at the state’s 42 rest areas and welcome centers. Most are along interstate highways.
I thought we were prohibited from installing vendor sales at our interstate rest stops because of federal regulations and that Governor Kaine has applied for relief from the regulations. How is it we can now have vendor machines at interstate rest stops? Actually it is a good idea but the bidding should have been limited to Virginia companies first. If no Virginia companies met the specs, then out of state companies could then bid.
Bringing in CRH Catering is supposed to add an extra million dollars a year to help offset the cost of keeping rest areas open. Rest stops should be open. To do otherwise is dangerous and irresponsible to travelers and it hurts the tourist industry.
There are 22 facilities that provide first-trimester abortions in Virginia, and all of them may have to close their doors over the next two years if they can’t meet the state government’s rigorous new health clinic regulations.
Virginia lawmakers passed legislation in the spring that required the Department of Health to release a set of “emergency” draft regulations for abortion clinics that were to go into effect by December 31.
The rules, released late on Friday, borrow a number of very specific physical plant requirements from a rulebook intended for the construction of new hospitals. For instance, a clinic must have 5-foot-wide hallways, 8-foot-wide areas outside of procedure rooms, specific numbers of toilets and types of sinks and all the latest requirements for air circulation flow and electrical wiring.
“On the first read, it seems hard to imagine that many facilities will be able to comply,” Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told HuffPost. “We can fairly say that the regulations as drafted are the most severe, onerous and restrictive that have been proposed anywhere. They’re intended to apply to facilities that don’t yet exist.”
If the Board of Health passes the new standards on September 15, abortion clinics have until January to show the state a plan for the extensive and expensive renovations they’ll have to undergo in order to meet the new requirements.
The new regulations are especially onerous and are in place to make abortion unattainable because no provider can meet the standards of the new hospital regulations. Unfortunately, this entire assault is very disingenuous. If the anti-abortion crew or the state of Virginia really cared about the health of women (and men too, for that matter) they would impose the same standards on other outpatient medical centers that offer invasive dental, cosmetic, optical and digestive procedures. These non-abortion outpatient centers currently don’t face similar state oversight, yet they often involve very invasive medical techniques.
Perhaps all outpatient surgery/invasive procedure centers need an upgrade. If that is the case, let’s level the playing field and put the same standards in place for all. Otherwise, let’s just be honest and say the purpose of the bill to make it impossible to perform first trimester abortions in Virginia. Let’s admit that in reality a minority wanted to impose its will on the majority. It didn’t have the votes to outlaw abortion so it tricked foolish lawmakers into this insidious sneak attack to make abortion simply unattainable in Virginia.
This really was a cowardly vote. However, Virginians were warned last election. I guess they will have to live with it or travel outside of the state if they need services.
Governor McDonnell squawked loudly for Virginia and crowed about lower unemployment numbers and Virginia’s growth. VRS compares very favorably to most other pension plans but needs some tweaking to stay solvent, according to McDonnell.
McDonnell needs to be reminded that the VRS is not the state’s personal ATM. It was very solvent for many years, since 1908 to be exact. Funny how the Republicans discover its woes after all these years. Could it be that Mrs. Cantor wants to shift the burden of payment off the state and and the localities? Isn’t that the Republican way? Maybe the state should keep paying and the employee chip in a little more. That would should good faith. I sure don’t want to hear the Republicans chest thumping about how much money they saved the state in a few years.
Could this red-white-and-blue weekend augur red ink for Virginia?
Default by the federal government, unless the debt ceiling is raised by Aug. 2, has potentially devastating effects for state government.
The flow of dollars from Washington to Virginia — No. 1 in federal spending per capita — would slow to a trickle. Federal workers wouldn’t be paid, driving up unemployment and choking off income-tax revenue. Medicaid, the federally financed, state-managed health-care program for the poor that is Virginia’s fastest-growing expense, would go begging.
To keep the budget in balance as required by law, Gov. Bob McDonnell would have to start cutting.
Also, transportation dollars would evaporate, potentially slamming the brakes on a defining feature of McDonnell’s just-passed road-building program: debt. He is planning to issue $1 billion in bonds backed by an anticipated federal handout.
Virginia has a long Memorial Day past and lots of war dead. Arlington National Cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia. The site of the Lee Mansion has been used as a national cemetery since the Civil War. Mrs. Lee left her plantation for obvious safety reasons, even though she was horribly crippled with arthrits and lived the life of a vagabond until the end of the war.
In the past decade, 233 Virginians have been killed in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. 25 of those were killed just in the past year. On Thursday, Governor McDonnell and members of his administration gathered on the steps of the State Capital to pay tribute.
“This is the story of America,” McDonnell said. “When I think of what defines our country, it is sacrifice and it is freedom…Throughout our history, the price of liberty has always been American blood.” Marlene Blackburn, left, who lost her son, U.S. Army Cpl. William Kyle Middleton, in Afghanistan, is comforted by her uncle Bob Galaspie at the service. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber – AP)
The names of all 233 were read aloud by members of different branches of the armed services. A Coast Guard helicopter performed a ceremonial fly-by in the capital city’s sky, and a bagpiper with the Virginia Department of Corrections played “Amazing Grace.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Virginia’s petition to have its lawsuit against federal health-care legislation bypass appellate review and be heard directly by the court.
As a result, the lawsuit will continue on its current path to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is scheduled to hear the case May 10 in Richmond.
Civil Rights are defined as: the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury, the right to hold public office and the right to serve as a notary public. if someone is convicted of felony, then one loses these civil rights. Virginia Constitution says, “No person who has been convicted of a felony shall be qualified to vote unless his civil rights have been restored by the governor.” There is no limitation on the governor’s power to restore rights, and no mention of having to report the names of such people to the General Assembly.
Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states that do not automatically restore convicted felons’ civil rights. Most states restore these rights upon the completion of a prison sentence, probation or parole. In Virginia, felons convicted of a nonviolent offense must wait three years after completing all court obligations—sentencing, fines and probation—then file an application for the restoration of rights to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
If your conviction is for a violent offense —or a drug manufacturing or distribution offense—the process is much more difficult.
The nonviolent offender’s application is two pages. The violent application is 12. Iachetta calls the violent felony forms cumbersome. “They’re horrible,” she says.
After waiting five years after all court obligations, a person convicted of a violent felony must obtain a burdensome collection of paperwork: a letter from your most recent probation or parole officer, copies of your pre- or post-sentence report, certified copies of every order of conviction and sentencing orders, three letters of reference and, to top it off, a personal letter to the Governor explaining your convictions and how your life has changed.
Iachetta says that roughly half of the people she sees who start the process don’t complete it.
“There’s got to be an easier way,” says Iachetta. “I don’t know at this point what it is. The process can be streamlined. That being said, until it happens, we’ve got to deal with what we’ve got.”
[Note: Iachetta is Charlottesville’s general registrar]
Governor Bob McDonnell has added another hoop for former felons to jump through. He is now proposing that those who want voting rights restored must write an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, Civil Rights leaders and many others interested in prisoner rights, are outraged by this plan. They say it targets minorities, the poor and the under-educated and denies them of their civil rights. Others are cheering on McDonnell for ‘meaning business.’
McDonnell’s administration said the essay requirement is designed to put a human face on each applicant and to help staff members better understand each person’s situation.
“It gives all applicants the opportunity to have their cases heard and have their full stories told,” said Janet Polarek, secretary of the commonwealth, whose office handles the requests. “It’s an opportunity, not an obstacle.”
McDonnell is revamping the entire system for felons to have their rights restored as he works to make good on a campaign pledge to process every application within 90 days, considerably faster than any other administration in recent history.
“Under Republican and Democratic governors, they have had to wait six to 12 months — longer in some cases — to get an answer,” Polarek said. “Under the McDonnell administration, our goal is to restore the rights of everyone who has fulfilled their obligation in the most timely manner in Virginia’s recent history.”
For those who have difficulty with literacy, writing an essay seems like an immovable obstacle. Where in the Virginia Constitution can this kind of requirement be found? Many prisoners and past prisoners suffer from the same malady; under-education plagues prisoners. To ask someone with limited education to write an essay might just fall into the realm of cruel and unusual punishment.
Buying a gun is taking longer and longer these days, here in the Old Dominion. What’s the hold up? It seems that gun sales are up in Virginia. However, there are fewer state and federal employees to do that background checks. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:
The Virginia State Police, the agency that administers the checks, acknowledges that there has been an increase in processing time.
Officials say it is tied to increased demand for firearms at the same time that budget and funding constraints have reduced the number of staffers available to handle the transactions.
Spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that since May 2009, the agency has lost 11 people from its 28-person staff at the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center, including two federally funded full-time workers who used to attend gun shows and conduct the computerized checks on-site.
She said the delays during peak periods can take four to six hours, with a few that require research into out-of-state records taking overnight.
So how many of the people who are grousing and grumbling were also those same people who advocated for smaller government and to cut back state spending?
Apparently some people find the state of the state unacceptable:
“This is not acceptable,” said Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun nonprofit group, Virginia Citizens Defense League.
Van Cleave had more to say:
Van Cleave said the delays are costing dealers money and keeping firearms out of the hands of people who need them.
“It is a safety issue,” Van Cleave said. “A person experiencing a death threat and who is denied a lawful gun purchase overnight would be left helpless at the hands of an assailant.”
He said he has received reports of dealers at gun shows losing up to half their business because purchasers’ background checks have not been completed by the time the show closes.
“We cannot afford to have our dealers weakened by artificially sagging sales and purchasers unreasonably inconvenienced,” he added.
Everyone seems to think their issue is more important than someone else’s. We need more cops, more library staff, more teachers, more magistrates, judges, clerical workers in the Bureau of Vital Statistics, more DMV employees. Too many people are hollering less government but are not willing to make the sacrifices needed. Cutting spending involves us all. Government waste is never in the area of our favorite thing to do. It is always in someone else’s camp.
I would prefer to pay more taxes and have restrooms and shorter lines. Throw in a sunset clause to 2 to get us over the hurdle. When those screaming less taxes and less government wake up to the realization that goods and services cost money and that government employees aren’t the ugly step children of private industry, then perhaps we can stop looking like an underpaid third world nation.
Meanwhile, the gun buyers will just have to suck it up and wait in line longer like everyone else is having to do. I hope they will be right out there leading the charge to raise taxes to pay for the goods and services we need to operate as a state. Should I be holding my breath?
The previous former thread by this name just met with an unfortunate accident. The short version is, I started the thread in the kitchen and finished it in the living room. I was in the kitchen, saw the half started thread and clicked delete, not realizing it would take the entire thread down since it was only one sentence.
Live and learn. It apparently is gone, never to come back.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office says records that would document the time, resources and meetings involved in its lawsuit against federal health-care legislation either don’t exist or are classified as confidential “working papers” of the agency.
Stephen R. McCullough, senior appellate counsel for Cuccinelli, was responding to a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act filed by Democratic Party officials and several media outlets, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
First they raided the state employee and teacher pension fund to the tune of $630 million dollars. Now it seems they will finish the job off by robbing the jurisdictions. State lawmakers call this the new ‘hand in the cookie jar’ technique of acquiring money the ‘reversion program.’ The ‘reversion program is being used to help compensate for the budget shortfall.
To come up with the money, the localities are giving the choice of writing a check or cutting services in programs they receive state funding for. The plan was originally instituted in FY 2009. According to the Washington Examiner:
The “reversion” program — as state lawmakers call it — originally was excluded from the coming year’s budget, but lawmakers decided to incorporate and expand the policy. As a result, counties and cities will have to return $60 million to the state during each of the next two years.
