By Del. Charles Poindexter

This week’s report marks Sine Die, the end of the 2018 regular session, as we completed action on all remaining bills except the budget bill, where there was agreement among both House and Senate.

Lacking agreement on the budget bill, we are returning home for a short time and will return to resume our work to complete the budget, which must be passed by June 30, although the intention is to address the budget bill in the near future.

We will return for this Special Session, which has to be called by the governor per our Virginia Constitution. The proposed Senate and House budgets are inconsistent by hundreds of millions of dollars due to disagreement over expanding Medicaid to aged 18-64 childless adults and paying the Virginia match costs of expansion by a ‘provider fee,’ which is a code phrase for ‘taxing hospitals’ to pay the state’s share of the costs.

I read where someone called Obamacare the tapeworm of the U.S. economy and health care. I agree. So, yes, as premiums and costs continue to rise unreasonably, we all have fewer dollars to spend and less to invest or grow businesses. Virginians are fast becoming consumed by this tapeworm as costs and premiums soar. Congress has failed to deal with it and Virginia is being asked by expansion advocates to expand a system that works poorly.

Our budget conferees will be quite busy trying to come up with a fresh budget proposal until we return for the Special Session.

Regardless of the budget impasse, as I reflect upon the Session, I believe we still had a good Session as regards what we passed with an historically high load of proposed legislation. The House advanced our agenda of “Practical Solutions to Every Day Problems.”

Among those were addressing the teacher shortage, prescription costs, helping students onto paths to good paying jobs, killing tax hikes, adoption process reforms, bills to address the opiod crisis, and changes to address the aging and mismanaged METRO system in Northern Virginia.

We also negotiated a major criminal justice reform with the governor that includes stronger restitution enforcement in return for raising the felony larceny threshold from $200 to $500.

A second major compromise was reached with the governor on regulatory reform that will address elimination or streamlining occupational licensing regulations by 25% over the next three years.

The House has led the effort to make our schools safer following the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. In 2013 we passed HB 2343 creating the School Security Empowerment Fund and Local School Safety Fund and have funded these efforts ever since. They provide funds for local school divisions to upgrade school security, such as cameras, single point access, buzz-in access systems, metal detectors, automatic locks, and more.

Then, In 2017 we passed HB1392 to allow schools to hire retired police officers for school security, saving schools money and making schools safer. This week Speaker Kirk Cox took a bold step and announced a Select Committee On School Safety to analyze school safety in Virginia and report their findings in time for appropriate legislation in the 2019 Session.

The Select Committee process has not been used in Virginia for 150 years, as it is reserved for issues transcending and overlapping specific standing committees, such as Education, Public

Safety, Courts of Justice, and Appropriations.

The Select Committee’s scope of work is school safety, meaning strengthening emergency preparedness, hardening school security infrastructure, implementing security best practices, deploying additional security personnel, providing additional behavior health resources for students, and developing prevention protocols at primary and secondary institutions across the Commonwealth.

The committee will not consider issues related to guns or broader behavior health policy that are being considered by other commissions or standing committees nor will it consider security at institutions of higher education, many of which already have rigorous security requirements and are governed by national accrediting agencies that set guidelines for their security.

I agree with Speaker Cox that we should focus exclusively on the real issue, the security and safety of Virginia schools, rather than being distracted by broader, divisive, and timeless discussions on massive changes to our national and state mental health system and gun laws.

This week the electricity bill went to Governor Northam, and he signed it. I voted against it. In addition to my reasons for voting nay, which I mentioned last week, I have also ascertained that it appears utility companies’ spending for low-income bill-paying assistance will be significantly increased.

While I certainly agree these customers need help from somewhere, this appears to be an expanded social program using electric rate-payer dollars to pay the subsidies. I have to pose the question is this good public policy as to where the support money should come from—from the broader citizenry or just by those who actually have a meter?

I would also pose the question as to why this increase in subsidy spending will be needed, but my take is it is realized but not acknowledged publicly that electric rates will rise sharply due to increased costs of deploying renewables, so more money will be needed to help low-income people pay for the higher costs on their electric bills and those costs will be borne by individuals and businesses with a meter.

Arriving home after the high-intensity of Session is always a sweet reward. I’ll take a few days to regroup and take care of pending personal and delegate business. I expect to re-open the 9th District

office in Glade Hill on March 19. You may contact me by leaving a message at (540) 576-2600 or by email at DelCPoindexter@house.virginia.gov.