Virginia Statehouse News

Gov vs. airport authority: McDonnell tangles with MWAA over Dulles Metro

State House News online — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:28:43 +0000

By Carten Cordell | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — About the only thing Virginia and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority agree on when it comes to extending the Silver Line metro to Washington Dulles International Airport is both want it built.

But concerns about cost overruns and organized labor agreements have turned the $2.8 billion project into a turf war between Gov. Bob McDonnell and the airport authority, with funding and the makeup of the authority’s appointed board in the balance.

In November, talks between the two were so snarled that the U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood intervened to negotiate a deal.

The McDonnell administration points to the fact that the board ran $150 million over budget on Phase 1 with little input from funding partners Virginia and Fairfax County. Rail proponents say the overruns were necessary to meet new Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority safety protocols in the wake of a 2009 metro crash.

The LaHood-brokered agreement deleted an organized-labor requirement from the contract, because Virginia is a right-to-work state. The new deal says any labor agreement will “be consistent with applicable Federal statutory and regulatory requirements and Virginia law.”

“This is a state project that is almost being completely funded with state, local and toll-payer funds,” Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton told Virginia Watchdog. “The General Assembly has passed legislation that prohibits state agencies from funding or supporting projects, if there is any sort of mandatory requirement for labor agreements or for a contractor to have a labor agreement.

“This is not about whether there are labor agreements on this project. It is about whether it should be mandatory or preferred in the actual procurement" of the contract.

Part of the November agreement insured more partner control over funding by creating a coordinating committee made up by funding partners and WMATA.

But Virginia also is seeking more representation on the airport board, and newly passed legislation to expand its membership has opened another battle front between the McDonnell administration and the airport authority.

The airport authority board of directors is composed of 12 representatives appointed by Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and the president. Connaughton said that since the project is based

solely in Virginia, the state ought to have more than its allotment of just five board members.

“The entire airport operation is within the Commonwealth of Virginia. The airport authority has no assets or operations outside the Commonwealth of Virginia and yet Virginia has minority representation on the board,” he said.

Federal legislation and a Virginia bill seek to provide four more appointees to the board — two for Virginia and one each for Maryland and D.C. Only D.C. has not passed legislation for that restructuring.

Without approval from the District, the airport authority has been reluctant to seat new members. Connaughton said blocking expansion of the board violates federal law — and risks the authority’s 50-year lease of Reagan and Dulles airports from the federal government, which began in 1987.

“The inaction by the District places the whole airports’ operation in jeopardy,” he said. “The airport authority is allowed to lease the airports from the federal government. The federal government has obviously changed that criteria (by expanding the board). We need to change the airport authority to match that or we could potentially lose the lease on the airports.”

McDonnell’s position was weakened Monday, when his own General Assembly killed his budget amendment seeking to force the airport authority to accept his new nominations to an expanded board of directors.

That defeat leaves the board appointments in limbo while another funding partner, Loudoun County, weighs its participation in the project. If Loudoun opts outs, everything from design plans to funding agreements would have to be redrawn. The county has until July 4 to decide its involvement.

The airport authority said it was willing to keep working to bridge the gap on the disagreements dogging Phase 2.

“We continue to work with all of our project partners to address their concerns,” WMAA spokesman Rob Yingling said in a written statement.

LaHood met with the Phase 2 partners May 2, but little more was announced than the diplomatic promise of the group’s commitment to finish the project.

“The governor and his administration are very committed to this project,” Connaughton said. “It is about transportation choices and economic development. We are going to continue to work to lower the costs, to potentially make modifications to the finance plan and to seek additional funding in the future.”

Since the November agreement, the authority has drafted a construction contract that provides incentives for contractors to use organized labor. Concerned about cost overruns and a labor requirement in violation of state law, Virginia officials have been reluctant to commit funds to cut toll costs for the project.

Virginia House rejects rethinking non-teacher compensation

State House News online — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:08:05 +0000

By Kathryn Watson | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — The House of Delegates on Monday rejected a handful of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s education-related budget amendments.

Two of those amendments would have jeopardized the higher salaries of school support staff in Northern Virginia, something delegates in both parties of the Republican-controlled House — but particularly those who represent the northern part of the state — adamantly rejected.

McDonnell, who had originally proposed slashing the salary cushion given regularly to school employees in Northern Virginia to compensate for the higher cost of living, had asked to hinge the fate of $12 million of those dollars for non-teaching staff on an upcoming state audit.

A related amendment questioned the need for the compensation program at all, and which schools should get the extra money.

Monday, however, Democrats and Republicans opposed the governor's changes to "cost of living adjustment," or COCA, funding, a relief to principals, psychologists and other school employees in expensive-to-live-in counties such as Arlington, Fairfax and Loudon.

COCA funds were first proposed for Virginia’s education funding formula in a 1988, when the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission suggested the state recognize a “higher cost of competing” for school personnel in Northern Virginia, as it already did for its own classified employees in the same region.

Virginia lawmakers OK life sciences, movie-making

State House News online — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:51:34 +0000

By David Frisk | Virginia Statehouse News

RICHMOND — The General Assembly on Monday passed three key amendments offered by Gov. Bob McDonnell that restore economic development funding left out of the fiscal 2013-14 budget adopted in April.

The governor’s new “life sciences initiative,” intended to fund biological and medical research at several state universities to the tune of $5 million, was approved by a vote of 69-27 in the House of Delegates and unanimously, as a consent item, in the Senate.

McDonnell’s request to restore $2 million to the Motion Picture Opportunity Fund, which provides grants for filmmaking in Virginia, passed the House by 69-26 and the Senate by 24-16.

Activists accelerate campaign against ALEC

State House News online — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:36:40 +0000

By Kathryn Watson | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — Progressive activists had been stalking the American Legislative Exchange Council for months, hoping to derail the free-market organization that specializes in crafting model legislation for state lawmakers.

In February, they found their chance when George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, in Sanford, Fla.

ALEC’s marginal interest in gun rights snagged the group in a months-long political fight, ending when ALEC renounced its interest in gun rights and social issues in order to focus on its core mission of deregulation.

ALEC's enemies say that was just Phase One.

Gathered Thursday — appropriately, in the President’s Conference Room of the AFL-CIO’s Washington, D.C., headquarters — activists outlined the next stage of the battle to crush ALEC.

Dubbed “Accountability 2.0: Innovations Against ALEC,” the lunchtime event was hosted by the New Organizing Institute, a coalition of organizers who say they're promoting democracy and social justice.

Watchdog.org was among the attendees.

Panelists from such organizations as Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes open and accountable government, and Color of Change, an organization that empowers black Americans, outlined the evolving war on ALEC, describing how the dozens of business attire-clad activists and potential activists could join the campaign.

At the head of the colossal table were panelists including Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, a nonprofit dedicated to investigative reporting, and publisher of its PR Watch publication; Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte, director of strategy for Color of Change; and Doug Clopp, deputy program director for Common Cause.

The meeting’s leaders said they continue to lobby corporations and legislators to sever ties with ALEC and what they called its “right-wing” policies — including school vouchers and voter ID requirements.

Panelists said they had spread public awareness of the ALEC spring task force meeting scheduled for the May 12 weekend in Charlotte, N.C.

They said they also will:

Continue to pressure state attorneys general and other local officials in all 50 states to generate reports pinpointing ALEC’s involvement in state legislatures;
Continue to pressure legislators who are ALEC members to cut ties with the organization;
Use documents obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests and submitted to the IRS to find evidence of tax-code violations;
Draw attention to “Stand Your Ground” laws as the Zimmerman trial progresses.

Panelists said activists next will target:

AT&T
Johnson & Johnson
State Farm
Amazon

Organizers said activists had achieved victories beyond ALEC’s retreat from social issues and gun rights, claiming that:

Fourteen corporations have ended their sponsorship arrangements with ALEC;
Upward of 35 state legislators have terminated ALEC membership;
Supporters have made “thousands” of calls to corporations and legislators, urging them to cut ties with ALEC.

As the panel continued through the lunch hour, most attendees showed mild — but perhaps not eager — interest on their faces, asking more questions than time allowed. Why, one asked, haven’t organizers addressed in greater depth issues central to the black community? What type of organizing model comparable to ALEC stands for the left?

There was no single call to action for attendees, other than encouragement to join the fight. Organizers listed specific and not-so-specific ideas for contribution — tweeting about the ALEC spring task force meeting; highlighting people who are “screwed” by ALEC-backed policies; making sure reporters are asking the “right questions;" and pitching in with research skills and money.

Afterward, a few attendees stayed to speak with organizers, while others headed straight for the door.

The message, however, was clear: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

House strikes literacy reporting requirements

State House News online — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:32:35 +0000

By Kathryn Watson | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — The choice came down to people or paperwork — and the people won.

The Virginia House of Delegates on Monday approved Gov. Bob McDonnell's request to fully fund third-grade participation in the Early Reading Intervention Program.

But the $2 million requested for the literacy program did not cover the cost of diagnostic testing and other paperwork, argued some delegates.

Instead of increasing funding, the delegates struck down the stringent reporting requirements that would have accompanied the governor's request.

“We are asking each school division to justify the decision, the rational … to promote or retain each student,” said Delegate Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, calling the extent of the evaluation an “excessive” and “burdensome” requirement for school divisions.

Delegate T. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, disagreed, saying the Legislature needs to send a "clear" and "convincing" message of the importance of third-grade literacy.

“This General Assembly has an obligation to Virginians to support understanding where those children's needs are," he said.

Delegate Mark Sickles, D-Franconia, called the requirements a "terrible unfunded mandate," and compared the $2 million allotted to "peanuts."

The House also voted to allot $700,000 over the next two years to fund a teacher recruitment initiative in science, technology, engineering and math.

The House postponed voting on the governor's amendments to reduce:

Funding to Project Discovery, which promotes high school graduation among low-income students, from more than $600,000 to $175,000 annually;
Aid for a new college readiness career pilot program to zero.

Governor rescinds change to funding formula for care agencies

State House News online — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:43:16 +0000

By Kathryn Watson | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — Gov. Bob McDonnell on Monday relented to pressure from advocates for the elderly by backpedaling on a budget amendment.

The General Assembly was scheduled to begin debating the governor’s amendments to the biennial budget when McDonnell’s office issued a news release, saying the proposed formula for funding won't change. He proposed shifting money from regions with the slowest growth in aging populations to those with the fastest.

Virginia's Area Agencies on Aging has 25 entities statewide, serving about 58,000 people through home- and community-based services.

The governor made the move "following input from a number of groups and care providers that a change to the existing formula to account for population shifts would have a disproportionate effect on the work done by Area Agencies in a number of Virginia communities,” the release said.

Norfolk, Roanoke and Petersburg would have borne the brunt of the cuts, said Courtney Tierney, president of the Virginia Association of Areas on Aging, a nonprofit education and advocacy group.

“I’m thrilled that he recognized the needs of older Virginians in the state,” she said. “I think we’re all probably doing the happy dance.”

VA gov seeks more money to spur job growth

State House News online — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:19:53 +0000

By David Frisk | Virginia Statehouse News

RICHMOND — Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to spur job growth by pumping up funding for biological and medical research, movie making and high-tech development.

Legislators will consider these three proposals, along with dozens of other budget amendments from the governor, during a special session for that purpose Monday. The General Assembly passed the $85 billion, two-year state budget last month.

“The problem is that (the proposed spending) competes with everything else,” said Delegate David Albo, R-Fairfax County, who would rather see the money go to the state’s roads.

But Albo noted the unusually low 4.2 percent unemployment rate in his district gives him less reason than most legislators to back the extra economic development funding.

Several amendments totaling about $19 million reflect McDonnell’s heavy emphasis on bringing new business to Virginia to add jobs and expand the tax base.

The “aggressive use” of economic development programs to draw corporations or encourage them to expand here deserves much of the credit for the state’s relatively low 5.6 percent jobless rate, said the governor’s spokesman, Jeff Caldwell. Nationally, unemployment is 8.1 percent.

Legislators did not fund the biological or “life sciences” initiative McDonnell supports. The research consortium initially would include the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia Commonwealth University here, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, George Mason University in Fairfax, and Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. The governor is requesting $5 million in startup money over the next two years. Research money from the state would have to be matched at least dollar-for-dollar by private entities, foundations and other governmental sources.

The high-tech development programs — the Growth Acceleration Program and Commonwealth Research and Commercialization Fund — would get $9 million more than is in the budget, restoring current funding levels.

The governor also wants a two-year total of $6 million for the state’s grant-providing Motion Picture Opportunity Fund. The adopted budget provides $4 million.

VA localities raise taxes to pay for state-ordered pay hikes

State House News online — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:09:54 +0000

By Kathryn Watson | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — Taxpayers in some Virginia counties and cities are paying for raises going to public employees.

Appomattox County taxpayers must foot a bill of about $240,000. And that means with an 8-cent real estate tax hike. A family in a $200,000 house will be paying $160 more a year.

“It hurt me beyond belief to have to raise taxes that much,” said Appomattox County Supervisor Gary Tanner, calling the requirement to increase salaries an “unfunded mandate.”

“… For four years, I’ve worked diligently to keep the tax rate as low as possible. This year is different,” he added.

Appomattox County is not alone. Localities like the city of Virginia Beach and Fluvanna County have turned to raising real estate or personal property taxes as a way to help fund the 5 percent raises for local government and school employees.

These raises, in turn, will offset the new requirement that employees contribute 5 percent of their salaries to the Virginia Retirement System for their own pensions, according to the state law, Senate Bill 497, that goes into effect July 1.

However, this law does not apply to employees hired after July 1, 2010. They will contribute the 5 percent to their pensions without the salary increase, said Jeanne Chenault, director of public relations for VRS.

Employees are allowed to phase in their retirement contributions over five years — so long as their government employer matches that contribution in a pay raise, and that contribution is at least 1 percent starting July 1 of this year. So, some speculate that the more significant tax burdens are down the road.

Local governments also will be paying for the increased benefits that come with salary increases, said Mary Jo Fields, director of research for the Virginia Municipal League, a statewide, nonpartisan nonprofit of city, town and county governments.

“The employer has higher contributions for Social Security and Medicare, also for retirement contributions themselves, because the salary goes up,” she said. “… Anything that’s based on salary goes up.”

The escalating cost of the new state law was just one thing cited by the Virginia Beach City Council. That governing body increased its real estate tax by 6 cents, rather than trim its own costs. A family with a house worth $250,000 a year ago would pay about $15 more with the tax increase this year, considering an average residential property value decline of 5.7 percent.

“How many people have the ability to go into their boss and have a pay increase to offset” their pension contributions, asked Robert Dean, communications director for the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance, a group of responsible government and civic anti-tax activists.

“Government is saying they are not able to make sacrifices, but the families need to make sacrifices in order to satisfy the insatiable appetite that government has for spending,” the former Virginia Beach city councilman added.

Fluvanna County bumped its real estate tax by 3 cents to help cover the nearly $350,000 in state employee pay raises. It's unclear what that translates to for taxpayers, as property values have dipped as much as 33 percent in some areas of the county.

Kitty Boitnott, president of the Virginia Education Association, a statewide organization of teachers and school support professionals, however, said taxpayers can’t expect to continue receiving quality teachers and education without paying for it somewhere.

“What would be fair would be for the state to be properly taxing the citizens,” she said, rather than putting the responsibility on localities.

Neil Williamson, president of the Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded public policy group focused on Central Virginia, said, “There should be a better way (to pay for the raises and other budget woes) than solely relying on a property tax.”

Though Williamson didn’t suggest any alternatives for struggling localities, he did say many are using their "limited funds" to manage what used to be "state responsibilities."

Gov. Bob McDonnell's office did not return requests for comment as to just how localities are expected to fund the new VRS requirements.

McDonnell has made pension reform one of the central issues of his tenure, and some would say that's for good reason. With more than 600,000 members and retirees, VRS has about $6.6 billion in unfunded liabilities, according to the Sunshine Review, a nonprofit entity advocating government transparency.

Dudes! Where’s my cars!? Silver Line Metro plans modest parking around booming development

State House News online — Thu, 10 May 2012 18:11:46 +0000

By Carten Cordell | Virginia Statehouse News

ALEXANDRIA — The Silver Line Metro extension is a miracle of modern urban planning.

It’ll transport thousands of people per day from West Falls Church to Loudoun County.

It’ll generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity, producing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

All of that with almost no additional parking.

The numbers are spectacular.

Phase 2 of the Silver Line extension will cost $2.8 billion, but in Loudoun County alone, project planners say, the development of two rail stations will generate $269.5 million of economic impact between its targeted opening in 2018 and 2040. They conclude the rail line will create more than 250,000 jobs in Loudoun in the next two decades.

And yet for all its benefits, planners say, the two Loudoun County stations will require fewer than 5,000 parking spaces.

And it gets worse.

Among the spots planners include in their total are 750 spaces in the Dulles North Transit Center, a park-and-ride lot near the intersection of Routes 606 and 634 that is so overcrowded riders are forced to park along nearby two-lane Lockridge Road.

Critics say accurately estimating parking demand around the stations will add more cost to Loudoun County's $267.8 million share in Phase 2 of the project.

“The question is do they know there isn’t any demand to ride the thing and, hence, aren’t worried about it or are they afraid to admit the cost of the bus service and the parking garages to make the kind of ridership they are forecasting,” said Rob Martin, a former economist from the Federal Transit Administration and member of anti-rail group Loudoun Opt Out.

“Structured parking is kind of expensive,” Martin said of the proposed garages. “There isn’t any money appropriated, set aside, allocated, earmarked or otherwise to that. The plan is that these will be public-private partnerships, but, to my knowledge, there (have) been no serious efforts to talk to potential operators about what they would charge (to) build and operate one of these things.”

Even some supporters see the problem.

“My assumption is that as the economy grows over the next 10 or 15 years that all of these parking facilities are going to be full or over-full,” said Stephen Fuller, director for the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Fairfax, and a fan of the Silver Line extension. “There is going to be a lot of activity that won’t show up as parkers at the stations.

However, there will be a lot of people living in Loudoun County who will to want to dump their cars at those stations and head into Tysons Corner and Arlington.

“Right now, those people are driving their cars, and there is a lot more coming that won’t be able to drive their cars, because the roads will be full.”

An April 13 report by Desman Associates, the county’s handpicked parking design and consulting firm in McLean, calls for 4,938 parking spaces in three garages between the Route 606 and Route 772 stations.

By 2040, Desman predicts, parking demand will fall as residents seek other forms of transportation to reach the metro or move within walking distance.

The Desman conclusions come from the analysis of three economic forecast reports on the Silver Line as well as ridership statistics from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which operates the metro system.

But a key component was missing — the detailed daily ridership projections for the Silver Line. In its report, Desman says it sought updated projections from WMATA, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority — which is handling construction of the Silver Line — and other government agencies.

Despite calling the projections “critical to forecasting parking demand,” Desman couldn’t get its hands on accurate boarding information. The firm finally relied on more limited numbers from a 2004 environmental impact study for the Dulles Corridor Rapid Transit Project.

Representatives from Desman, WMATA and MWAA were not available for comment.

Martin said without current projections, ridership and parking stats are dubious at best.

“I can’t imagine how they could do a ridership forecast competently that would give them very much ridership, which is why I think they are hiding it,” said Martin.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has until July 4 to decide its participation in the project.

Virginia governor wants cuts to pay for state worker bonus

State House News online — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:15:26 +0000

By David Frisk | Virginia Statehouse News

RICHMOND — Gov. Bob McDonnell and state-employee groups are at odds over his proposal to fund a salary bonus with cuts to state agencies.

Among the governor’s suggested amendments to the adopted budget is a requirement that the 3 percent bonus, which the budget authorizes for payment at the end of November, be funded with savings the agencies would have to find by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Under McDonnell’s proposal, the state would award the full bonus, if $69.3 million is saved. If at least $23 million in cuts were made, the state would pay a lesser, pro-rated bonus. Based on average salary figures for Virginia state jobs in a 2010 survey by the state Department of Human Resource Management, a 3 percent bonus would be about $900 for a low-paid employee, such as a secretary, and about $1,800 for a higher-paid professional, such as an environmental engineer.

This contingent approach would improve efficiency and dissuade agencies from spending down end-of-year balances, said McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell.

Delegate Bob Marshall, a Manassas Republican and a candidate in next month’s U.S. Senate primary, applauded McDonnell’s proposal. Agency employees and officials are “obviously much closer” than legislators to actual operations, Marshall said, and therefore they know better where to find new savings.

Ronald Jordan, executive director of the 20,000-member Virginia Governmental Employees Association, a nonpartisan nonprofit that represents 20,000 state employees and retirees, said his group, the Virginia State Police Association and public colleges and universities oppose the savings-based method.

They say the bonus should be funded by year-end revenue collections that exceed prior official estimates.

The Virginia Municipal League, an alliance of local elected and appointed officials, is worried agency cuts could affect counties, cities and towns.

“There’s no plan for how to accomplish this,” said league fiscal policy director Neal Menkes, “so the law of unintended consequences kicks in.”

McDonnell’s savings-based approach has merit conceptually, Jordan said, but it “comes with less than two months remaining in the fiscal year."

“We believe it will be difficult, if not impossible, for agencies to generate the amount of savings needed to fund the bonus in that short period," Jordan said. "Additionally, state agencies have been cut to the bone over the last several years; there is no fat.”

Wayne Huggins, executive director of the police association, a professional organization with more than 2,000 members, contends that having to identify substantial savings so quickly could lead to cuts in services.

“If you can’t find things to cut in a budget that big, you’re not looking,” Marshall said.

Excess revenue funding wasn’t needed for the previous bonus in 2010, said Caldwell, “because employees were able to save so much money.”

Delegate Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, called McDonnell's proposal politically motivated.

“It’s just a stunt to improve his image, because his numbers are sagging in the polls,” Surovell said.

In a Washington Post poll completed May 2, the governor’s approval rating among residents was 56 percent, down from 62 percent a year ago.

Under the state constitution, McDonnell cannot seek re-election next year, but he is viewed as a vice presidential prospect for likely Republican nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and has not rejected the possibility.

In addition to the 3 percent bonus, the governor supports a 2 percent salary hike in fiscal 2014.

“We must attract and retain top-level professionals in state government,” McDonnell said in a statement Saturday, “and keeping public-sector pay competitive is vital to those efforts.”