With every bill having been put through its initial paces, the General Assembly has now turned more attention to the budget process. As a new member of the Finance and Appropriations Committee, I’m excited by the assignment of helping craft Virginia’s estimated $142 billion two-year budget. I sit on three Finance Subcommittees -- Health and Human Resources, General Government, and Public Safety. For the last two weeks, these committees have met regularly to prune members’ amendments, make adjustments to Governor Northam’s proposed budget, and allocate additional funding.
Governor Northam’s budget, which was sent to us in mid-December, emphasized a number of my priorities including education, housing, and healthcare. Despite a strong economic bounceback from the 2009 recession, our budgets have remained fairly conservative -- focusing on shoring up reserves. While financial security is critical, our limited resources have often left working-class Virginians behind. The Senate budget capitalizes on the Commonwealth’s diverse economy and recent revenue growth with investments focused on the people of Virginia, while still investing significantly in our “Rainy Day Fund.”
While the Commonwealth’s economy has grown and diversified, and our top universities have climbed in the rankings, many have not felt that success. In order to ensure all Virginians can share in the Commonwealth’s prosperity, we recommend significant new funds for our pre-K-12 education system. The proposed budget goes a long way toward leveling the scholastic playing field.
Virginia’s teacher pay lags 20% behind the national average, and due to reduced spending on education, teachers often have to dip into their own pockets to give students the supplies they need to learn. To attract and retain the best teachers, we need to pay competitive wages, which is why the Senate proposed to see the Governor’s proposed budget raise teachers’ pay an additional 1% beyond the Governor’s proposed 3% raise. This is on top of the 3% raise to last years’ budget. Though this still trails the national average, it is an important step forward.
We are also working to increase the number of students attending pre-school, which is one of the best indicators of life-long success. The Senate budget offers $81.4 million to expand Virginia’s Pre-School Initiative for at-risk three- and four-year-olds -- a longstanding priority of mine.
Northern Virginia has an outstanding mix of public, private and nonprofit education providers, including Northern Virginia Family Services, Child and Family Networks in Alexandria, and United Community in Fairfax County. But these organizations alone cannot meet the incredible need, and many areas of Virginia do not have the same abundance of active nonprofits.
While pre-K education and K-12 education are both critical, in order to train and prepare the workforce of the 21st century, we need a pipeline to higher education for lower-income Virginians. We also need to ensure that higher education is training the next generation for high demand jobs of the future. To create that pipeline, the Senate budget provides $49.3 million the second year for a new “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Give Back” initiative, covering tuition, fees, and books for up to 24,000 students with a family income less than 200% of the federal poverty limit enrolled in coursework that will lead them into high demand job fields like health care, information technology, and skilled trades.
As a renter living on the Yellow and Blue Lines, the issue of affordable housing in our region is an ever-present concern of mine and of many of our neighbors. The issue continues to strain our region, and I’m glad the proposed budget addresses this reality. The stock of committed and market affordable housing in Northern Virginia has steadily decreased over the last ten years as our population continues to climb.
The Virginia Housing Trust Fund, a relatively new program in Virginia, is finally beginning to receive necessary funding. This year the Senate’s proposed budget finally takes a bold step in addressing housing development by proposing $46 million over the two-year biennium for the Fund.
I am glad that a number of amendments I offered are included in the Senate budget. Among them are funding for nonprofit organizations that provide immigration legal and social services to low-income immigrant victims of crime, including victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse. This funding will support Ayuda -- a legal and social service nonprofit that served over 1,000 northern Virginians last year.
My request to fund additional wage theft investigators in the Department of Labor and Industry, which is currently woefully understaffed led to the Senate budget funding a 10 additional investigators -- there are currently only four to cover the entire state.
The Senate also agreed to my proposal to include one-time funding for the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial -- an educational monument planned to be completed in 2020 on the original site of the infamous Occoquan Workhouse. The workhouse was the site of the sequestration and torture of suffragettes, who willingly sacrificed their station and safety to fight for the right to vote.
The budget includes $55 million to fund Alexandria’s Combined Sewer Overflow System overhaul. This will ensure that ratepayers in Alexandria will suffer less financial impact as the $400 million project to see that all of the city’s wastewater is properly treated progresses.
While politicians often espouse their support for any number of programs: If you want to know someone’s priorities, follow the money. I look forward to proving Democrats support for the priorities we ran on in the 2019 elections.
It is my continued honor to serve the 30th District.
EVENT
Re-scheduled Town Hall with Sen. Adam Ebbin, Del. Paul Krizek and Sen. Scott Surovell on Saturday, March 14, Noon to 2 p.m. at Walt Whitman Middle School.