Virginia’s legislature is about to begin its whirlwind session - 46 days in which lawmakers will consider some 25-hundred bills. However, there’s one problem that could make this an especially contentious experience.
Money is the lifeblood of government, and this year it’s in short supply. That’s the view of State Senator Creigh Deeds, who says Virginia is entering a new era thanks to federal budget cuts.
“Probably since the end of World War II, we’ve gotten drunk off of the largesse of the federal government. We’ve lost over nine billion dollars in defense contracts just in the last couple of years. We’re going to have to diversify the economy.”
Delegate David Toscano, the minority leader in Virginia’s house, adds that the state is already struggling.
“We usually lead the country in coming out of a recession. We’ve not been doing that. The result has been less money in the state coffers that can help fund the things that people consider important.”
Still, Governor McAuliffe’s two-year budget calls for increased spending to help school districts facing massive pension payments to retired teachers and to pay deputy sheriffs more. To diversify the economy, McAuliffe says he also needs more money to lure new companies to Virginia.
So where might the money come from? Toscano says it’s time to end generous tax credits to King Coal, freeing up $20 million a year.
“The coal tax credit was created to encourage job and economic growth in the coal region of Virginia. Well, it went to a very small number of corporations, and we found at the end of the day that not only did it not encourage coal production, but it also didn’t encourage employment.”
In fact, coal company employment has fallen 54% since 1990. Even so, in 2012 the General Assembly extended the expiration date for subsidies to 2017. Republican Delegate Steve Landes says it’s still too soon to pull the plug on coal.
“It may be something we can phase out as coal is becoming less and less an important part of their economy, but I’m not sure we could go cold turkey at this point.”
It’s worth noting that coal companies, utilities that burn coal, and railroads that transport it are big campaign donors. Landes, for example, represents western Albemarle parts of Augusta and Rockingham counties. No coal mining there, but over the last decade he’s collected $9,500 from coal giant Alpha Natural Resources, $5,000 from the Virginia Coal Association, $15,500 from Dominion Power and about $28,000 from law firms and railroads doing business with the industry.
Also on the agenda for the upcoming session, the governor continues his call to expand Medicaid. Most Republican lawmakers oppose that idea - among them, Delegate Rob Bell.
“The program is growing at an unsustainable rate already. We have doubled our spending in Virginia in the last ten years. Over a longer period it has grown from five percent to 22%.”
But proponents argue that providing health coverage thru Medicaid for up to 400,000 additional Virginians would mean access to preventive care - saving money in the long run. And Democrats like Toscano point out that the federal government will pay the full cost of expansion for a couple of years before scaling back to no less than 90%.
“We’ve got 27 or 28 states now that have decided to take the Medicaid money, and many of those states are run by Republican governors, Republican legislatures, and the reason they decided to take the money is it’s a very good deal financially.”
What’s more, hospitals say they’ll be in big financial trouble without an expansion. It’s an issue of concern to millions of Virginians, but political insiders say this and other pressing issues will not get much consideration during this legislative session. We’ll tell you why in our next report.
