It’s hard to believe that it is already August. With Labor Day rapidly approaching, I am still trying to figure out what happened to June and July. I have been busy attending many meetings, including the Department of Education’s hearings on the Special Education regulations, the special session on transportation, and the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit.  I have also been engaged in research on a host of issues, and am beginning to prepare my legislative package for next session. I welcome you to take a look at some of the things I have been working on over the last couple of months.

New Website

I am pleased to announce that we have recently launched our new website: www.senatorbarker.com. We will be developing it more over the next few weeks. I want you to be aware of what is going on in the 39th District and to be able to easily access information about me and my issues. I hope you will find the new site informative and easy to navigate.

We Remember Joe Gartlan

Last month I attended the funeral of respected leader and dear friend Joe Gartlan. Joe served 28 years in the Virginia Senate before retiring in 2000. At the funeral his grandchildren gave a magnificent prayer that highlighted many of the issues he championed, including the poor and the homeless, the environment and the Chesapeake Bay, those with mental health problems, and civil rights.

Joe was an extraordinary leader who knew both how to fight for what he believed and how to work with others to get things done. I had the privilege of sitting in the Senate gallery with his family when he gave a superb speech announcing his retirement. The measure of the man could be seen last year when, eight years after he stepped down, retiring Republican Senators cited Joe as a person they admired and enjoyed working with. Joe Gartlan served as a mentor to many of us who are now serving in the General Assembly, and he will be remembered for his outstanding service to our communities.

Transportation

Governor Kaine called a Special Session of the General Assembly to deal with transportation funding, a dominant issue for us in Northern Virginia that became even more critical after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the central funding mechanism of the 2007 transportation bill. The Session was convened in June, recessed after a week, and met for one final day in July. In the Senate we passed a comprehensive transportation plan, but, unfortunately, the House did not pass a comprehensive bill. I spoke with Republicans and tried pushing some things that I thought could get us to 51 votes in the House. Unfortunately, we never found a plan that could get 51 votes on the House floor.

Our Senate plan wasn’t perfect, but I felt it had some good features. It would have stopped, for at least several years, the “stealing” of $1 million a day from construction to cover our maintenance budget shortfall, generated most of the new revenue from transportation sources, provided more new money for Northern Virginia than we paid in taxes, increased taxes on out-of-state drivers, and provided tax relief by eliminating the transportation sales tax on food.

Transit was featured prominently. Of the new state funding, 25 percent would have gone to transit, which is far above the rate of just under 15 percent in the current formula. Largely because we get 73 percent of transit funding, Northern Virginia would have been a net recipient, not a donor region, under the Senate plan, getting about 34 percent of the additional statewide monies while contributing only about 25 percent of the revenues. In addition, we would have had our own regional plan.

A fundamental component of the plan was a gas tax increase of 1 penny per gallon each year for the next six years. Although there was some resistance because gas prices have increased substantially (although they have fallen about 10 percent in the last month), there are several reasons why a gas tax increase was part of the package.  First of all, the gas tax targets those who use the road the most; those who drive the most and those with the heaviest vehicles, and hence do the most damage to our roads, will have to pay the most. It is also important to note that the gas tax is 17.5 cents per gallon, and doesn’t increase when the price of gas goes up. It hasn’t been increased since 1986, at which time the effective gas time was 25%, now it is less than 5%. In addition, out of state and commercial drivers pay about 30% of the gas tax, so Virginia citizens have less of the total tax burden for gas tax than for virtually all other forms of taxation. In addition, only 17 percent of the gas taxes are from sales in Northern Virginia. We also amended the bill to eliminate the 1/2 percent state sales tax on food (used for transportation), which would have given modest income families a tax reduction greater than their increase in gas tax even after the six cent increase would have been complete in six years.

Regrettably, our plan and our logic were not well received in the House of Delegates. I am very disappointed that we were not able to reach a compromise and implement policy solutions that would address our transportation problems. Although I am not naively optimistic, I will work to see if we can reach a solution next year.

Health Care

I attended the second meeting of the Joint Commission on Health Care, and the Behavioral Health Care and the Long-Term Care/Medicaid Reform subcommittees on July 29th. We covered three important topics during the Behavioral Health Care subcommittee: the adolescent and child services the Community Service Boards provide, methods to address substance abuse in Virginia, and underage drinking. During the full committee meeting Executive Director Kim Snead presented the proposed agenda for the next two meetings, which I have included below. If you are interested in attending either of these meetings, please call my office for more details.  I am looking forward to delving deeper into these important health care issues, and hope that my experience in the field will allow me to be a leader in discussions and in formulating recommendations for the General Assembly.

Please note that these are proposed agenda and are subject to updates and revisions.

September 4th

• State Health Commissioner Karen O. Remley, M.D., M.B.A. will discuss her priorities and new initiatives for the Virginia Department of Health Virginia Health Information (VHI) on new initiatives (including COPN planning, issues with the Gardisil vaccine, and update on the rural health plan).
• Discussion of Mental Retardation Waiver Design and Services
• DMHMRSAS review
• Comments of consumers, families, advocates
• JCHC Staff Reports:
  • Study of “alternatives to traditional long-term care facilities, including intentional communities of clustered homes.”; HJR 69 (Delegate Plum) by letter from Delegate Hamilton
  • Continuation of 2006-07 JCHC study on health care costs (SJR 4 in 2006 – Senator Reynolds); Review advisability of: i) establishing a Virginia health insurance exchange targeted for small businesses, ii) increasing employer adoption of Section 125 plans, and iii) any other health insurance issues as deemed appropriate.

October 23rd:

• Report on Establishing a Lead Agency for Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Briefing on the reporting of convictions as required by Code of Virginia § 54.1-2917 (Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia and Virginia Compensation Board)
• Briefing regarding actions taken related to recommendations from the JCHC preterm/low-birth weight study (VDH, DMHMRSAS and DMAS)
• JCHC Staff Reports:
  • Study on “the use of disclosure, apologies, alternative dispute resolution, and other measures in the case of medical errors and adverse medical outcomes and the impact of such measures on the cost and quality of care, patient confidence, and the medical malpractice system.”; HJR 101 (Delegate O’Bannon) by letter from Delegate O’Bannon
  • Study of “support services for family caregivers of the frail elderly and disabled and community-based caregiver support organizations.”; SJR 102 (Senator Stosch)/HJR 238 (Delegate Shannon)
  • Interim report on two-year study of Virginia’s pipeline for the education of physicians, pharmacists, dentists, and clinical psychologists.

National Conference on State Legislatures Legislative Summit

In July I participated in the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit. Legislators from across the nation met to discuss issues that states are facing, including infrastructure and transportation problems, immigration, health and mental health care, environmental concerns, and energy policy. Throughout the conference I attended seminars and engaged in discussions with legislators on both sides of the political aisle about issues pertinent to our district. I hope that this experience will provide important insights into how other states are handling the problems that the 39th District is facing and will help me to promote better policy here in Virginia. Throughout the week, I sought out legislators who have been working on legislation similar to what I am pushing. Pennsylvania’s Republican Speaker of the House Dennis O’Brien’s presentation about how they passed legislation to mandate health insurance coverage for autism, information on the financial success of high speed rail in Europe (it more than pays for itself!), and a discussion of how Minnesota incorporated mental health care services in health reform were particularly insightful.

Legislation for 2009

I am working on developing legislation to address a wide variety of issues in next year’s legislative session. I plan to revisit many of the issues I tackled last year, including school construction funding options, HOT lanes, the protection of voting rights and the promotion of healthy foods in schools. Additionally, I am pursuing legislation to implement comprehensive policies in schools for handling students with food allergies, to assist parents of children with autism, and to encourage energy and resource conservation. If you have any legislative proposals you wish me to consider, please get in touch.

Conclusion

As always, I value your input and suggestions, and my staff and I are eager to work with you to address any issues you may have. Please contact us with your thoughts and ideas.

Sincerely,
George Barker
Senator, 39th District