Friday, January 30, 2009
Lawmakers urged to fund anti-abuse task force
General Assembly 2011
Among the major issues: The state's continuing efforts to provide services with fewer dollars and Gov. McDonnell's plan to privatize liquor stores. Session ends Feb. 26.
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RICHMOND -- Legislators and advocates rallied Thursday to press the General Assembly's money committees to include $1.5 million in the state budget to fund law enforcement task forces that work to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The state last year provided that amount to fund two Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, including one based out of Bedford County. The legislature did not provide the money for next year, however, and Gov. Tim Kaine did not add the money when he presented his budget last month.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, and Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, have each filed budget amendments to spend $1.5 million on those task forces. Last year Deeds and former Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria -- both of whom are running for the Democratic nomination for governor this year -- each put in budget amendments and "Alicia's Law" legislation to provide ongoing funding for the ICAC task forces. Both lawmakers' bills were killed, but Moran succeeded in getting some funding included in the state budget.
Lt. Michael Harmony of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office said that since receiving $750,000 in state funding last year, the Southern Virginia ICAC more than doubled its arrests, as well as providing training for other law enforcement agencies.
The challenge for the General Assembly's money committees will be to find that $1.5 million while filling a projected $2.9 billion budget shortfall.
Alicia Kozakiewicz, the survivor of an Internet-based child abduction for whom "Alicia's Law" was named, had her own suggestion -- though it came too late -- saying the state could have saved the millions of dollars it spent on President Obama's inauguration earlier this month.
-- Mason Adams
Fly-ash permit measure advances in Senate
The Virginia Senate voted unanimously Thursday to approve a bill that would require a state permit for the use of a coal byproduct known as fly ash in a 100-year flood plain.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, first filed the bill last year in response to concerns of Giles County residents over Cumberland Park, a project that's filling about 7 acres of New River flood plain with 254,000 cubic yards of coal ash, which can contain arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxins.
The bill now goes to the House of Delegates, where a committee approved a similar bill on Wednesday.
-- Mason Adams
Anti-smoking bills blaze though Senate committee
A Virginia Senate panel approved a swath of anti-smoking legislation Thursday in what has become a perennial effort to ban smoking in restaurants and other public places.
The Senate Committee on Education and Health voted 11-3 to recommend approval of bills that would ban smoking in most indoor public places (Senate Bill 1057); ban smoking only in restaurants, bars and lounge areas (SB 1105); or give localities the option to pass their own, anti-smoking ordinances (SB 870 and SB 1002).
Sens. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield County, and Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, provided the "no" votes.
Those bills now go to the full Senate for consideration. If they pass, they'll then go to the House of Delegates, which has for the past three years killed similar legislation at the subcommittee level.
-- Mason Adams
Legislation would enable drug court in Franklin Co.
The House of Delegates passed legislation Thursday that will allow Franklin County to establish a drug treatment court for teen offenders without getting new funds from the state.
The court will handle drug cases involving offenders between the ages of 14 and 17 who could benefit from treatment, said Del. Charles Poindexter, R-Franklin County, the bill's sponsor. Poindexter is sponsoring the bill at a time when state budget cuts are jeopardizing other drug treatment court programs in Virginia. But the Franklin court is a targeted program that won't require new state money, Poindexter noted.
The court will function using resources from Piedmont Community Services Board, the Franklin County Court Services Unit and the local commonwealth's attorney, according to a fiscal impact statement attached to House Bill 2275.
Poindexter said those agencies already are performing some functions associated with drug treatment courts.
"This gives us a structure and a framework to move forward," Poindexter said after the House voted 87-11 to pass his bill. "We're going to bring a multidisciplinary approach to this."
An identical bill (Senate Bill 1304) sponsored by Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham, has been endorsed by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee and sent to the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee.
-- Michael Sluss
Panel OKs attempt to nix 'cooperative procurement'
Legislation that would curtail the practice of "cooperative procurement" for local school and government construction projects cleared a House of Delegates subcommittee Thursday after it was revised to apply solely to building projects of $200,000 or more.
House Bill 2628 was introduced in response to concerns over the Roanoke school system's decision last year to spend $2.3 million to replace roofs at three schools without soliciting bids for the projects. School officials used a process called "cooperative procurement" that enabled the school system to piggyback onto a contract that Fairfax County had signed with an Ohio-based roofing company.
Legislation sponsored by Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, would prohibit such arrangements on construction projects worth $200,000 or more. The bill would not affect other cooperative procurement deals, Griffith said.
Griffith's original bill would have affected all cooperative procurement, banning a local public body from purchasing another locality's contract unless it could prove in writing that the arrangement was "fiscally advantageous."
Griffith amended the bill after negotiations with the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League, and the measure was endorsed Thursday by a House General Laws subcommittee. Griffith said cooperative procurement deals make sense for items such as office supplies, but not for large construction projects. The revised bill will fix the problem, he said.
"This was closer to what I intended," Griffith said.
-- Michael Sluss
