Dear Democrats and Friends in and around the 43rd District,

It has been an interesting ride over the last months as the redistricting process for the House of Delegates unfolded.  I can only guess now how it will ultimately turn out.  Maybe we will know by next week—there is a hope among Democratic senators and Republican House members that the Governor will NOT again veto the next bill he is sent.

I have been a member of the committee of jurisdiction, the Privileges and Elections Committee, since my arrival in the House eight years ago.  Over the years, I have been a strong supporter of non- and bi-partisan re-districting legislation, voting for it year after year in Committee and Subcommittee, always on the losing side.  As a member of the minority (House Democrats) for my entire time in Richmond (member since 2004), I often wondered whether I would have any involvement or influence over the redistricting process if it was done by the P&E Committee the way it has been done in the past, basically the majority party taking care of its interests first. 

It turns out that I did have some input as a Committee member, helping to create reasonably sensible, common interest House districts across Northern Virginia, particularly the Fairfax County seats – partly because Fairfax grew at a slightly slower pace than the rest of the Commonwealth, since the majority could have easily included two or three incumbents into the same district and created open seats giving their challengers a better opportunity.  The Republican majority could have eliminated the open 49th District in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax being vacated by Delegate Adam Ebbin in his run for the State Senate, and moved incumbent members into the areas he is leaving, but they did not do that.  In fact, the majority party did not move a single Delegate into a district with another incumbent in Northern Virginia.  In every case downstate where two Democrats were combined into the same district, except maybe one, population shortfalls in Democratic-held or leaning areas led to the choice: eliminate a majority member district, or eliminate a minority party member district.  If we were in the majority, I know what we would have done.

So, after shoring up their incumbents, the majority was open to many suggestions to reduce splits of communities of interest.  While this process is less than ideal, I do believe that many citizens will be satisfied with the results.  As far as the House plan surviving judicial scrutiny, I do not believe that it violates the Voting Rights Act.  I could be wrong, and the Justice Department has 60 days to tell us if it is upon receipt of the plan, or an outside entity could bring a lawsuit thereafter, but the Republicans have good lawyers too, and if the plan violates the law they will certainly be surprised, since they have every reason in the world to pass a legal plan.  For the record, all racial minorities in the Democratic Caucus voted for the plan.

I look forward to getting this behind us, and finalizing our district lines, recruiting candidates, and reminding Virginians why it is important to elect Democrats regardless of where they live.

Mark Sickles (D-43rd)
www.MarkSickles.com

The 2011 Virginia General Assembly session convened Wednesday, January 12th, and adjourned Sunday, February 27th.

• Regular Session
  The General Assembly meets annually, beginning on the second Wednesday in January, for 60 days in even-numbered years and for 30 days in odd-numbered years, with an option to extend annual sessions for a maximum of 30 days.
• Special Sessions
  The Governor may call a special session when it is deemed necessary or advisable, and must do so when petitioned by two-thirds of the members of both houses.
• Reconvened Sessions
  A reconvened session is held on the sixth Wednesday after adjournment of each regular or special session for the purpose of considering governor’s recommendations and vetoed legislation.

Lee District is represented in the General Assembly by four Delegates (Englin, Sickles, Surovell and Watts) and three Senators (Barker, Puller and Ticer). Each has done a tremendous job during this term, and here are their reports:

• Virginia House Democratic Caucus
  • Del. David Englin
  • Del. Mark Sickles
  • Del. Scott Surovell
  • Del. Vivian Watts
• Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus
  • Sen. George Barker
  • Sen. Toddy Puller
  • Sen. Patsy Ticer

Did You Know

from the VA General Assembly Visitor’s Guide

The Virginia General Assembly dates from the establishment of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown in 1619. It is heralded by Virginians as the “oldest continuous law-making body in the New World.”

The 1776 Virginia Constitution confirmed our bicameral legislature, which consists of the House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia. The present state Constitution, adopted in 1970, provides that the House of Delegates shall consist of 90 to 100 members and the Senate shall consist of 33 to 40 members. All members of the General Assembly are elected by qualified voters within their respective House and Senate districts. The terms of office are two years for members of the House and four years for members of the Senate. Members may not hold any other public office during their term of office.

The General Assembly’s chief responsibilities are to represent citizens in the formulation of public policy, enact laws of the Commonwealth, approve the budget, levy taxes, elect judges and confirm appointments by the Governor.

About House Members

from about the House, General Information

The House of Delegates consists of 100 members. Each member represents approximately 71,000 citizens. The term of office for a member of the House of Delegates is two years. Each member receives an annual salary of $17,640.

The Speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the House and is elected by the House in even-numbered years for a two-year term. The Speaker’s duties are dictated by the Rules of the House. Among these duties are the assigning of bills to committee and appointing the membership of the 14 House standing committees.

The Clerk of the House is elected by the House in even-numbered years and continues in office until another is chosen. The Clerk is responsible for the administration of the House under the direction of the Speaker.

About Senate Members

from about the Senate, General Information

The Senate of Virginia consists of 40 members. Each member is elected for a term of four years and receives an annual salary of $18,000. A Senator represents approximately 176,000 citizens of the Commonwealth.

The Lieutenant Governor is the presiding officer of the Senate and is elected in a statewide election for a four-year term. In the event of his absence, the President pro tempore carries out the duties of the presiding officer. The President pro tempore is elected by the Senate for a term of four years.

The Clerk of the Senate is elected by the Senate. The Clerk’s duties are overseeing the daily operations of the Senate, maintaining all Senate records, keeping the daily Journal, and referring bills to committees.

I wanted to remind residents of the 43rd district that my new constituent survey is now available online, click here.

Please take a few moments to share your thoughts on a number of issues facing Northern Virginia and the Commonwealth, from transportation to the budget to immigration.

Thank you for being an informed and active citizen. I hope to hear from you soon.

December 15, 2010 – 12:13pm, Franconia, VA

Late last week Chairman Mullins sent out an e-mail criticizing Democratic members of the General Assembly for not having a transportation plan. While I [Delegate Mark Sickles, D-43] do not speak for my Democratic colleagues, a response was warranted. Below is the e-mail our office received from the Republican Party of Virginia and my response.

Letter from Chairman Pat Mullins

December 10, 2010
Senate Democratic Caucus
House of Delegates Democratic Caucus
910 Capitol Square
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Dear Democratic Legislator:

I hope this letter finds you well and in good spirits this holiday season. We truly live in a beautiful Commonwealth, and that beauty is especially pronounced around the holidays.

I realize this letter is likely unexpected, and we’re all busy preparing for family gatherings and the General Assembly session, so I’ll cut right to the chase.  We’ve all spent hours stuck in traffic jams caused by roads with too few lanes, too many pot holes, and too many cars. There’s not a person in Virginia who doesn’t want to see this problem fixed. What we need are ideas.

Governor Mark Warner is fond of saying, ‘Good ideas don’t come with a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ attached to them.’  While I don’t often agree with Mark Warner, in this case he’s absolutely right. If you don’t like the Governor McDonnell’s ideas for transportation, that’s fine. There’s room for debate. The free and open exchange of ideas is what makes this wonderful experiment in self governance work.

I’m writing to you today to invite you to share your plan with us. Transportation is a big problem, and there’s no room for “inside the box” thinking. If you have an idea, we want to hear it. Ideas are the engines that make our country and Commonwealth move. Governor McDonnell has repeatedly asked you and other Democrats for their ideas to fix transportation, but thus far there has been no response. And that’s understandable. I can imagine the partisan peer pressure that you and your colleagues have faced, discouraging you from crossing the aisle. The first step is always the hardest.

So, if for some reason you feel uncomfortable reaching out to the Governor, just drop by our Headquarters on Grace Street. You don’t even have to come in the front door. We’re putting a drop box in the atrium. Just open the door, and drop your plan. Any format you like.

I’ll go one better – I’ll personally carry each and every idea that you and your colleagues bring to us over to Capitol Square and present them to the Governor. It’s that important. And we will give credit where credit is due. If you, or any other Democrat comes up with the blockbuster idea that solves the problem, I’ll personally announce it and introduce you at a press conference as “The Architect of Our Transportation Solution.” I’m sure the applause will be long and loud. It will be well deserved.

But if the Democratic playbook is what I fear – no new ideas, no new roads, no new construction jobs, no nothing until the gas tax is increased – voters need to know that, too. They need to know which parties are out looking for ideas and trying to solve the problem, and which ones are just digging in their heels to raise taxes on hard working Virginia families in the middle of a recession.

Recent comments from Chairman Moran, House Minority Leader Armstrong and others give me great pause, and I fear that the aforementioned ‘tax-hike or nothing’ might actually be their position. They seem intent on raising taxes, as opposed to the level of discourse. But I hold out great hope for you and the rest of the Democrat caucus.

I’m sure your great ideas are just hours or days away from our drop box. I’ve left instructions with the staff to check it hourly and to call me immediately when we receive them, and the Governor’s staff is on standby. I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of working with you to solve this pressing problem!

Happy Holidays,
Pat Mullins

Response sent from Delegate Mark Sickles

December 15, 2010
Mr. Pat Mullins
Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia
115 E. Grace Street
Richmond, VA  23219

Dear Pat,

So nice to hear from you!  While we’ve certainly missed you since you moved to Bumpass, Fairfax County has enjoyed enormous success since you left.  I am not saying that the there was a cause and effect to your departure, but under reasonable, thoughtful leadership here, our residents enjoy a relatively high standard of living. We are providing our students with a first class education and succeeding with limited assistance from the Commonwealth, although our economic success is keeping Virginia solvent.

We do have significant transportation challenges.  Thanks to federal earmarks from Sen. John Warner, Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Tom Davis, and our current formidable congressional delegation, we have been able to build some significant regional transportation projects despite our declining, inflation-eroded, dedicated non-General Fund revenue sources.  Virginia has, so far, been able to scratch together the 10-20 percent non-federal share whenever that has been required.  Our commercial landowners and toll road drivers are financing rail to Dulles and beyond with vital and integral federal dollars and without State support.  Due to your recent political successes, however, the prospects are grim for similar federal dollars to backfill the State’s ongoing disinvestment in transportation.

It would be good to get some transportation help from Richmond, but we can already borrow money inexpensively without assistance.  A State that obligates future General Fund resources to build roads today simply inflicts a back door cut to higher education down the road.

The need for new transportation revenue is evident to anyone who has studied our system.  As Ronald Reagan, who himself raised the gas tax, once said: “facts are stubborn things.”  The General Fund is already stretched thin.  We have a growing K-12 population.  Our Medicaid program is ranked 48th in helping our disabled, poor children and the elderly.  We have more than 5,000 families with disabled children on a waiting list for services.  Higher education has been cut to the bone, a problem Governor McDonnell pledges to turn around.

At one point, these facts were clear to the Governor.  Attorney General McDonnell was highly engaged in the passage of Speaker Howell’s bill, H.B. 3202, a bill that raised new, desperately needed, dedicated revenue.  When local governments objected to having a State responsibility dumped on them, General McDonnell worked with Governor Kaine to split the responsibility between a (unconstitutional) taxing authority and the localities.  There was no warning from the AG that the new local taxing power was unconstitutional in the run up to approval in the 2007 reconvened session.  You might be surprised to know that H.B. 3202 included authority for a 2 percent gas tax in Hampton Roads.  After the unanimous defeat of the Speaker’s bill on constitutional grounds, Governor Kaine introduced two real revenue bills: neither included a gas tax.

Therefore, one answer to your taunt is for the General Assembly to enact the very same taxes that we authorized the transportation authorities to enact in 2007.  Until a week ago, at least two senior Northern Virginia Republicans were planning to introduce such a bi-partisan bill in the upcoming session, but for some reason, their plans changed.  Delegate Vivian Watts. will now introduce the bill herself and I will be happy to co-patron her bill.

In case you are not aware, transportation is funded almost solely across the United States by dedicated transportation revenues.  We have four in Virginia: the gas tax, 0.5 percent of the retail sales tax, the three percent titling tax paid upon the purchase of an automobile, and annual vehicle licenses.  In 1986, the state gas tax was raised from 15 to 17.5 cents per gallon.  The gas tax provides the lion’s share of our funding (unfortunately, now down to 39 percent of the total) and was once considered a “user fee” by Republican leaders.  You can look that up.  Nobody ever expected the 1986 gas tax increase to be the final increase, forever and ever.  Since it is per gallon tax, its purchasing power has been eroded by more than half over the last 24 years while Virginia grew by more than two million people, the number of cars by 70 percent, and the number of vehicle miles traveled by 100 percent.

The Governor’s plan does not come with a dedicated, reliable revenue stream to retire the new debt.  While I disagree with Delegate Brenda Pogge’s position that “we should sit tight and let the economy get well” before passing a real transportation program, she is certainly right when she says “we should not be borrowing and spending” and that debt proposal is “too much” and that “we can’t afford it right now.”   As the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession—we are in the 15th month of modest economic growth—there will be some revenue from increasing retail sales and car sales, but not enough to build the projects we need to move Virginia forward.  It will not fill the gaping maintenance deficit nor ensure safe Metro trains.  We need $1 billion more each year, not debt that will just put us further behind in years ahead.

Pat, thank you for taking me back to the good ole days when we could count on you to get our people pumped and to the polls on Election Day.  A good high schoolish taunt over the internet is not quite as good as debating you face to face, and I apologize for such a wonkish response, but I tell my constituents that we are simply going to have to wait out the next three years for a meaningful opening to restore the purchasing power of our dedicated transportation revenues to 1986 levels.  I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Very best for the holidays,

Mark D. Sickles

The Virginia House of Delegates annual art contest is open to public, private, and homeschooled students ages 4-12. The goal is to provide students with an opportunity to be creative, explore new ideas, and share his/her vision on a topic that is related to Virginia’s rich heritage.

Each participant should create an original, two-dimensional artwork that illustrates what makes living and/or going to school in your district special and/or what contributions your district has made to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

What is your district, click here.

Entries must be postmarked by December 3, 2010. 

Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

This is not a fundraiser. Please park on Hampton Knolls Drive, Lake Village Drive or at the Snyder Center.

Next year, Virginia will be the first state to use the 2010 Census to redraw legislative districts to ensure that each constituency has the same number of people. When you vote in November 2011, elections will be held in different state house, state senate, supervisor, and school board districts. When you vote in 2012, you may live in a different U.S. House of Representatives seat.

The House of Delegates Privileges and Elections Subcommittee on Redistricting recently held several public hearings on the upcoming 2011 redistricting cycle, including one at George Mason University. The State Senate will hold a similar meeting on Thursday, November 4, at 7 P.M., in the Herndon Town Council Chambers. I would encourage anyone interested in this important topic to attend and let your views be known.

At the GMU hearing, several people from various perspectives, and from both sides of the aisle, spoke about the need for bipartisan or nonpartisan redistricting. There is a view, which I share, that too many elections are decided in the primary for all practical purposes. As a result, successful primary candidates are often found at the extremes of their respective political party. In order to reduce this outcome, nonpartisan or bipartisan redistricting is debated in the General Assembly almost every year. Over my seven years, I have supported several different versions. Since we were unable to pass legislation, however, and as we begin to draw the maps for the next ten years, the goal should not be incumbent protection, but competitive districts that will produce elected officials focused on a wide general electorate in their service. 

The governor also plays a key role in the final outcome as he must sign into law whatever is eventually enacted by the General Assembly. To reduce the partisanship in the redistricting process, he can insist on keeping contiguous communities together, keeping communities of interest together, and striving for compactness wherever possible. Of course, Virginia and other southern states are also subject to oversight under the Federal Voting Rights Act because of its history of discrimination. The fun is soon to start.

Saturday, September 4, 2010
2-4 pm

Please RSVP by Monday August 30th by visiting www.MarkSickles.com/LaborDay. For more info contact Trent Armitage (703-922-6880, sicklesfordelegate@gmail.com).

Contribution levels: $25 Young Democrat, $35 Guest, $100 Friend, $250 Patron, $500 Host, $1,000 Sponsor, $2,500 Benefactor. Tickets at: http://bit.ly/Sickles2010BBQ.