The Virginia Organizing Project : 2007 General Assembly is like a roller coaster ride

2007 General Assembly is like a roller coaster ride

“transportation is … the 800-pound gorilla in the room.” Richmond Times-Dispatch’s General Assembly Webcast

“Transportation is the 800-pound gorilla.” Delegate Bobby Orrock, Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star

“Transportation will be the elephant in the room. . . It will be the 800-pound gorilla we will try to get around.” Senator Creigh Deeds, Charlottesville Daily Progress

At the 2007 session of the Virginia General Assembly, transportation funding was maybe a gorilla, maybe an elephant, but definitely huge. It made all the other issues that came before the General Assembly seem smaller. But VOP and its allies still managed to make some of its issues “bigger” than Richmond insiders expected.

Minimum wage

The minimum wage has been a hot issue nationally this year. The new Democratic Party leadership in Congress committed itself to an increase after 10 years without one. Six states voted for minimum wage increases last November. And in Virginia, eight bills were introduced in the House of Delegates and three in the Senate to increase the minimum wage from the current $5.15 per hour to levels ranging from $6.50 per hour to $8.15 per hour.

The eight House bills, as in previous years, were killed in Subcommittee #3 of the House Commerce and Labor Committee. In the full Committee, there was an attempt to revive the minimum wage bill introduced by Republican and Appropriations Chair Delegate Vince Callahan. Its defeat on a 10-10 vote eliminated all the House bills.

In the Senate, the three bills introduced by Senators Colgan, Locke and Whipple were rolled into one by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee — Senator Colgan’s Senate Bill 1327, seeking to increase the minimum wage to $6.50 per hour effective July 1, 2007. The Committee voted unanimously for the bill. On the Senate floor it once again received favorable action, passing 31-8. As with the House bills introduced earlier during the session, Senate Bill 1327 was referred to the House Commerce and Labor Committee and its Subcommittee #3 for consideration.

Once again Subcommittee #3 voted that the minimum wage bill be passed-by-indefinitely. In the full Committee, this recommendation was also challenged. But in a surprising outcome, the House Commerce and Labor Committee reported SB 1327 on a vote of 13-9. A minimum wage increase was only one step away from passage in Virginia!

House Republicans then used an unusual maneuver to defeat the bill. In the House Republican Caucus, opponents of Senate Bill 1327 got a two-thirds majority vote. This obligated caucus members to support re-referring the bill to the House Appropriations Committee — a committee which would not meet again during the session.

On the floor of the House of Delegates, all 39 Democrats voting opposed the motion to re-refer the bill. But only three Republicans rejected the binding decision that had been made in their caucus, and the bill went to its death on a 53-43 vote.

Joining the Virginia Organizing Project in actively supporting passage of measures increasing the minimum wage were groups such as the Virginia AFL-CIO, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Voices for Virginia’s Children, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness and Social Action Linking Together (SALT).

Angered by the maneuver that denied Virginians higher wages for their work, VOP organized a funeral for the minimum wage.

Tax reform

Before the session began, Governor Tim Kaine announced he would seek increases in the minimum tax thresholds for individuals and families. Senate Bill 778 by Senator Walter Stosch and House Bill 2988 by Delegate Ken Melvin were introduced at the Governor’s request. The identical bills would have raised the threshold for payment of taxes by individuals from $7,000 to $12,000 and by couples from $14,000 to $24,000. This would have removed about 147,000 Virginians from the tax rolls and would have prevented 176,000 Virginians from having taxes withheld and having to file for a refund.

These measures moved through the legislative process in unexpected ways. Senate Bill 778 had no serious opposition in the Senate, being reported by the Senate Finance Committee before being passed by the full Senate.

The process in the House of Delegates, however, was more confusing. Delegate Ben Cline introduced House Bill 3022, identical to House Bill 2988. As a Republican in a Republican-controlled legislature, he saw his measure become the vehicle by which tax reform legislation was considered in the House of Delegates. Later, Delegate Cline introduced a substitute bill he described as more viable. This substitute bill reduced the amount of tax savings by the lowest income taxpayers — but it increased the personal exemption for all taxpayers from the current $900 to $930.

This change was calculated to be worth between $1.50 and $1.75 in Virginia tax savings for the average taxpayer each year. This substitute bill was adopted unanimously in the House Finance Committee before being passed by the full House 98-0.

As expected, the Senate and the House of Delegates insisted on their own versions of the bills, requiring them to be sent to a conference committee to resolve the differences. After lengthy deliberations, the conference committee report sent to the floor bills that would increase the personal exemption to $930. The bills would also increase the tax thresholds for individuals in three steps up to $11,950 effective for the 2012 tax year and for couples in three steps up to $23,900 also effective for the 2012 tax year. The substitute bills then passed handily.

Passage of these measures were supported not only by the Virginia Organizing Project but also such groups as the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

Payday loans

The future of the payday loan industry became what Governor Kaine called a surprisingly “hot issue” in the 2007 legislative session. Twelve bills were introduced in the House and Senate, five to repeal the Payday Loan Act and seven offering various reforms. Reform bills suggested by the lenders, fueled by the intense lobbying by the payday loan industry, got a head start, especially House Bill 2563, introduced by Delegate Lee Ware, and Senate Bill 1014, introduced by Senator Richard Saslaw. These bills amended the Act in ways that sounded good, but would never help consumers escape the debt trap created by the loans. They also included provisions that would take years to “test,” while payday lenders, still new to Virginia, further entrenched themselves.

After lengthy debate and testimony, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee adopted Senate Bill 1014 introduced by Senator Saslaw, and it passed on the floor of the Senate, 35-2.

The House Commerce and Labor Committee reported a substitute for House Bill 2563 16-6. But when House Bill 2563 reached the floor of the House of Delegates, there was a huge surprise. Delegate Jennifer McClellan offered an amendment that would cap the interest rates at 72 percent APR. This rate is double what most Virginia financial institutions can charge for loans — but it’s a lot less than the current 391 percent that payday loan providers charge for two-week loans. This amendment was unexpectedly approved 55-39 by the House of Delegates. After intense lobbying behind the scenes, the chief patron of the bill, Delegate Lee Ware, chose to have the bill stricken from the docket, killing it for the session. His stated reason for doing so was that this interest rate cap was too low for the payday loan industry to survive in Virginia.

“It’s like a kid that gets upset that the game’s not going his way and he takes the basketball so no one can play,” said Helen O’Beirne, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Partnership to Encourage Responsible Lending, a coalition of 25 business, faith and civic organizations who oppose payday lending.

That left only Senate Bill 1014 alive. With minor changes, it passed the House Commerce and Labor Committee 15-7 and the full House 72-27. The Senate was willing to adopt the bill version the House had passed, but Senator Saslaw asked for the bill to be put into the conference committee while he determined what the Governor’s intentions were for the bill.

Governor Kaine had publicly expressed his concerns with the interest rates charged by the payday loan industry, suggesting that if a cap of 36 percent that the U.S. Congress had imposed on loans to the military was good enough for the country’s soldiers, it was good enough for the same soldier the day he became a civilian. After behind the scenes negotiations toward a compromise failed, Senator Saslaw had Senate Bill 1014 die without a conference committee report. Thus, none of the payday loan legislation introduced during the 2007 session passed.

There is no doubt that payday lending, which is widely unpopular across the political spectrum in Virginia, will be an issue in the next General Assembly. Among those preparing for next year’s battle are the VOP Chapters in Petersburg and the Central Shenandoah Valley. However, the payday lending industry, which hired the services of 17 lobbyists and ran television commercials to make its case, is also gearing up for the fight of its life.

Racial profiling

The Virginia Organizing Project worked closely with Senator Ken Stolle (R-Virginia Beach) prior to the General Assembly session on biased-based policing issues. As the chair of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee, chair of the Public Safety Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee and chair of the Crime Commission, Senator Stolle has a significant role in all matters relating to law enforcement issues in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Staff and volunteers discussed with him VOP concerns about the existence of racial profiling in the state and how it could be addressed.

After meeting with representatives of the sheriffs and the police chiefs in Virginia as well as the Department of Criminal Justice Services, VOP staff and volunteers sought Senator Stolle’s assistance. The intent was to reduce biased law enforcement practices through a budget amendment that would increase training of law enforcement personnel, both initial training for new officers and in-service training for experienced personnel.

After meeting with staff from the Department of Criminal Justice Services, Senator Stolle introduced a Senate budget amendment requesting $125,000 to fund the position of a biased-based policing coordinator responsible for the efforts of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services in eliminating racial profiling activities by Virginia law enforcement personnel. The coordinator would determine law enforcement training needs, identify trainers and training venues, develop model policy, form an advisory committee, identify funding opportunities, and prepare regional operational procedures.

Unfortunately, apparently because of the previously mentioned 800-pound gorilla of transportation funding, this budget amendment was not adopted by the Senate Finance Committee as one of the amendments it reported.

Immigration

Restricting the activities and opportunities available to immigrants was politically popular at the General Assembly. While the 40 or so bills that would have done so were all described as aimed only at “illegal immigrants,” most would have created serious problems for Hispanic U.S. citizens, some would have restricted the ability of congregations and charities to help everyone in need, and none took into account the full complexity of the immigration system, which puts many immigrants in “gray areas” as far as legal status is concerned.

Andres Tobar, chair of the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO), describing the worst of these bills, said, “One bill would have turned school children into ‘bait’ in an effort to catch undocumented parents. Another bill, which would have penalized any church or charity that did not check ID’s before they offered a bite of food or clothing to a needy person, crossed the line from seeking to uphold the rule of law to abandoning human decency. These legislative proposals and the reckless language that too often entered the debate sent a chilling message to the immigrant community: you are not welcome in Virginia.”

Most of these bills were killed or rolled into other bills during the first half of the legislative session. Only three of the many bills opposed by the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations were passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor.

These bills were:

House Bill 2261 (increasing the penalties for overcrowding in housing, thus allowing immigrant communities to be singled out for harassment)
Senate Bill 1192 (requires defendants who don’t show up for proceedings to pay for interpreters they request)
Senate Bill 1412 (giving zoning administrators new powers to subpoena documents from residents in housing considered overcrowded)

The issue of in-state tuition for undocumented children continued to be unresolved, with bills on both sides of the issue defeated. House bills that would have had a direct negative impact on public safety by eroding the confidence of the immigrant community in law enforcement were killed by the Senate Committee on Courts of Justice.

Evaluating the session, Tobar said, “We were very pleased with the participation of the immigrant advocate groups who came to Richmond to join us during Latino Lobby Day on February 5. The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy was an outstanding host and the American Jewish Committee representatives were a potent addition during our meetings with the legislators. We have much work to do to reduce anti-immigrant sentiment in Richmond and across the state, and to ensure voters understand the need for comprehensive immigration reform before they go to the polls in November to provide their own report card on their legislators’ performance.”

Death penalty

The 2007 General Assembly also saw more bills to expand the reach of the death penalty in two areas: the redefinition of the Triggerman Rule and adding the killing of a judge, jurist or witness.

Senate Bill 1288 and House Bill 2348 passed the legislature in the same form to eliminate the Triggerman Rule. This rule had prohibited the bringing of capital murder charges against anyone who did not actually commit the murder. Three other bills passed the General Assembly to expand the death penalty: House Bill 2347 (the killing of a witness), House Bill 2750 (the killing of a judge) and Senate Bill 1116 (the killing of a witness or a judge).

Governor Kaine vetoed all of these bills. The House of Delegates voted to override his veto on all the bills, but 14 Senators, just enough, voted to sustain his veto of the changes in the Triggerman Rule — so that change failed, while the others passed.

Virginia is already the state with the second most executions in the United States since 1982, a total of 98 executions, ahead of California, which has five times our population. The new legislation expanding the crimes for which the death penalty can be imposed will only add to this distinction. This proposed expansion is occurring at a time when several other states are debating the merits of abolishing the death penalty. Furthermore, nine states have halted executions due to questions regarding the use of lethal injection.

Sexual orientation

In 2006, the so-called Marriage Amendment loomed over Virginia politics. In the unexpectedly tight race for a U.S. Senate seat, incumbent Senator George Allen was described in headlines in the final days before the vote as “Campaigning on Marriage Amendment” and using the Amendment “to try to gain traction.” Senator Allen’s campaign was not successful, but the campaign for the amendment was. However, it brought many new voters, especially younger voters, to the polls, and passed by a much lower margin than in other conservative states.

In 2007, sexual minorities didn’t seem to be as popular a target for politicians. According to Equality Virginia, only one “anti-gay bill” was introduced in this session, and that bill, which sought to restrict Gay-Straight Alliances in schools, was defeated in the Senate. In contrast, House Bill 2730 on Hospital Visitation Rights easily passed the General Assembly. According to Equality Virginia, “this bill will help protect families and loved ones by requiring that hospitals develop regulations allowing patients to designate any person as next of kin for visitation purposes.”

A number of other bills were introduced to make more Virginia more fair. These included bills to allow localities to pass ordinances banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as well as a state ban on discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. These were all defeated.

Then there was House Joint Resolution 271. Its purpose was to begin the process of repealing the amendment Virginians passed last year. It was easily defeated in committee, but it will be back.

Verifiable voting

This critical issue is covered in detail in the article titled: A first step toward verifiable voting: no new paperless voting machines.

The Virginia Organizing Project expresses its appreciation to the following individuals for their information that assisted in the preparation of this article: Claire Gastañaga (cg2 consulting), Jack Payden-Travers (Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty) and Christina Rebeil (Virginia Poverty Law Center).

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