The 2016, 60-day session of the Virginia General Assembly gavels in on January 13.
The legislature will craft a two-year budget, which will be Governor McAuliffe's first chance to put his stamp on the state's finances. While Virginia’s economy lags behind the national average, revenue is up more than average for the first time since I was elected in 2009 and there are many unmet needs worthy of funding.
Supporting our schools and colleges
Virginia is currently funding secondary education on a per pupil, inflation-adjusted basis at levels below funding in 2007. The Governor has requested a billion dollar increase, new teacher positions, teacher pay raises and full funding for “Cost to Compete,” a program that supplements salaries for Northern Virginia school employees.
We are likely to vote on a state constitutional amendment granting the State Board of Education authority to establish charter schools instead of locally-elected school boards. Bills to opening high school athletics to home-schooled children will be at issue again.
Higher education is also starved. Virginia currently funds higher education at 2006 levels and only funds one-third of actual in-state student cost. Tuition rates have risen over 30 percent in the last four years, financial aid demand has skyrocketed and the average Virginia college graduate now has an average of $20,000 in student loan debt. We must make higher education a higher priority.
Governor McAuliffe has proposed a $2.4 billion bond package for new higher education facilities focused on research and workforce development. The package also includes $250 million in modernizations at the Port of Virginia.
Healthcare
A partisan gulf remains on health care, in the shadow of a near shutdown of the government two years ago because the majority refused to accept $2 billion per year in federal Medicaid funds. Virginia still has over 6,000 families waiting for services for intellectually and developmentally disabled adults also called the ID/DD waiver program. If Virginia does not make significant progress on this backlog, we will be subject to court sanctions.
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