The Virginia Organizing Project : 2008 Legislative Agenda

2008 Legislative Agenda

VOP supports the adoption of a budget amendment to establish a full-time position serving as a bias-based policing coordinator in the Department of Criminal Justice Services to help eliminate racial profiling by law enforcement personnel.
The responsibilities of this position would include such key activities as determining current law enforcement training needs for new trainees and in-service training, reviewing effective training strategies for Virginia’s law enforcement academies, developing and implementing a model policy, improving training provided by Sheriffs and Police Departments that adopt a model policy, and annually evaluating and reporting to the Governor and the General Assembly on efforts to eliminate bias-based policing in Virginia.
Police work that discriminates based on race or ethnicity wastes public resources, weakens trust in our justice system and unfairly treats citizens. More effective training is a cost-effective and efficient approach to reducing biased policing in Virginia.
Addressing biased policing is particularly critical during a time in which minorities continue to experience profiling while our society is also responding to the fears created by the 9-11 attack and more recent immigration issues.
It is time to recognize the existence of racial profiling, its impact upon our citizens and the need to end its practice once and for all.

Payday lenders are allowed to charge $15 for every $100 of a payday loan, which is an annual percentage rate (APR) of 391 percent for a two-week loan.
The VOP supports House Bill 12, House Bill 249, House Bill 1377, House Bill 1404, Senate Bill 24 and Senate Bill 238, all of which cap the interest rates charged by payday lenders at 36 percent APR. This would level the playing field for all small lenders in Virginia and remove the special exception to the 36 percent cap the General Assembly granted payday lenders in 2002.
These bills would stop payday lenders from charging immoral rates, just as Congress imposed a 36 percent cap on such loans to all military personnel.
The average borrower in Virginia obtained fourteen loans in 2006 and paid $793.66 interest to borrow $365 in seven months.
In 2006, 96,831 Virginians had 13 or more payday loans from the same lender, caught in the nightmare of a debt trap with a recurring cycle of loans from which they cannot escape. Virginians deserve protection from such abuses.
More than 50 city and town councils and boards of supervisors in Virginia have passed resolutions (or included in their legislative agendas) asking the General Assembly to cap payday loan interest rates at 36 percent APR.

Governor Kaine proposed increasing resources for child care subsidies and extended-day child care for Head Start children by $6.0 million in TANF funding each year of the biennium to help low-income parents work and be self-sufficient.
Low-income working parents struggle to afford child care as the cost can often exceed 30 percent of total family income. Their costs are reduced significantly by subsidized care, although parents continue to pay a portion of the cost of safe and reliable care for their children.
Approximately 10,000 children are on waiting lists with local departments of social services each year, their parents unable to obtain a subsidy. Even so, waiting lists seriously underestimate true unmet need as many eligible parents fail to apply, knowing that the lists are too long. Studies suggest that only one fifth of those eligible for a subsidy obtain one.
Employers who rely on low-income workers benefit as well, since employees with reliable child care have lower absenteeism, less turnover and higher productivity.
Child care subsidies help low-income parents stay employed, earn higher wages, remain independent of public assistance, and stay on the path to economic self-sufficiency while their children get quality care that promotes school readiness and success.

Governor Kaine proposed several changes in health care coverage for low-income Virginians during the 2008-10 biennium, including the following:

The “Virginia Share” Health Insurance Program would expand access to health insurance coverage for low-income families earning 200 percent of the federal poverty level or less who work for small businesses. One-third of the cost will be shared by the state up to $75 per month, with one-third of the remaining cost paid by both the employer and the employee. This recommendation of the Governor’s Health Reform Commission is expected to initially cover more than 5,000 Virginians at a cost of $7.7 million over the biennium.
$5.0 million each year would be shared among community-based health safety net providers to stabilize their operations and expand access to and coordinate services.
Additional funding would expand eligibility for prenatal coverage of women from 185 to 200 percent of the poverty level, covering 400 additional women per year at a biennial cost of $2.6 million in general funds and $4.8 million in non-general funds.

Recent estimates indicate that there are more than one million Virginians currently without health insurance coverage. That is one out of every seven citizens in the state.

While Virginia ranks seventh nationally in per capita personal income, its Medicaid expenditures rank 48th.
To be eligible for Medicaid insurance coverage, low-income parents must meet eligibility levels that range from 22-29 percent of the federal poverty level, the sixth lowest in the country.
The number of employers reducing their employees’ health care coverage is increasing.

There is increasing attention in Virginia to the health care needs of its citizens.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission studied the cost of expanding coverage for the uninsured and issued the report “Options to Extend Health Insurance Coverage to Virginia’s Uninsured Population.”
Governor Kaine’s Commission on Health Care Reform developed numerous recommendations to improve access to health care for all Virginians, several of which are included in the Governor’s proposals.