County supervisors adopt planning district legislative agenda

Greene’s supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s legislative agenda at their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Oct. 13.
“You all will be getting the last crack at it,“ said legislative liaison David Blount.
The agenda has already been adopted by the other localities in the district, which are the City of Charlottesville and other than Greene, the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson.
Blount’s job, as legislative liaison, is to represent the interests and positions of the localities before the state legislature and other state policymakers. Throughout the year, he attends legislative study committee meetings and other meetings of interest to local governments.
He will represent Greene and the other localities that fall under his area of responsibility to the General Assembly while it is in session, usually from January through March.
Blount told Greene’s supervisors that he expects the coming session to be “heated” due to the current economic climate.
Last year’s state budget included spending reductions of nearly $2 billion. Now, the state faces continuing revenue shortfalls that are likely to result in an additional $2-$3 billion in cuts over the biennium. Reductions in aid to various local programs and services totaled nearly $250 million, including a $100 million cut that required localities to decide how to absorb the shortchanging.
Action items on the agenda include:
•Local and state funding obligations:  Blount will urge the governor and legislature to honor their funding obligations to services provided in cities and counties by their local government partners, and to resist shifting fiscal responsibility for these programs to localities.
•Land use and growth management: Blount will encourage the state to provide local governments with additional tools to manage growth without preempting or circumventing existing authorities. He will request that legislation be crafted to replace cash proffers with impact fees for roads, schools and public safety facilities.
•Transportation funding: Blount will urge the state to establish separate, dedicated and permanent state revenue for our transportation infrastructure. The state also should not shift road maintenance and construction to localities. He will support ongoing state and local efforts to coordinate transportation and land use planning without eroding local land use authority, and state incentives for localities that do so. He will also urge legislative support for enabling authority to establish mechanisms for funding transit and non-transit projects.
•Comprehensive Services Act (CSA): He will urge the state to be partners in containing costs of the CSA and to better balance CSA responsibilities between state and local government. He will support: full funding of the state pool for CSA, with allocations based on realistic anticipated levels of need; increased state funding for CSA administrative costs; and a state cap on local expenditures in order to combat higher local costs for serving mandated children. He will recommend that the state establish contracts with CSA providers to provide for a uniform contract management process, and improve vendor accountability and control costs. And, he will encourage the state to consider penalties for individuals who have had children removed from their care due to abuse or neglect.
•Public education funding: Blount will urge the legislature to fully fund the state share of the realistic costs of meeting the Standards of Quality (SOQ) and to enhance teacher salaries to help recruit and retain high-quality instructional personnel. He will urge the state to resist changes that require localities to fund a greater share of K-12 education costs, such as proposals that recalculate personnel salaries by recognizing only state (and not also local) costs, and that increase the federal revenue deduction, which results in a savings to the state but an increase in required local costs.
Areas of continuing concern include: economic and workforce development; environmental quality; health and human services; housing; public safety; and local government structure and laws.
According to the agenda, member localities recognize economic development and workforce training as essential to continued viability.
They also believe that environmental quality should be funded and promoted through a comprehensive approach, and address air and water quality, solid waste management, land conservation, climate change and land use policies.
Legislatures will be told that TJPDC member localities find reductions to community agencies especially troublesome, as their activities often end up preventing more costly services later.
The agenda includes a request that the state work with local governments toward expanding and preserving the supply of affordable housing for the elderly, disabled, and low- and moderate-income households, and improving its quality.
It will also encourage state financial support, cooperation and assistance for local law enforcement, emergency medical care, criminal justice activities and fire activities.
Finally, it requests that local governments be awarded the freedom and tools necessary to carry out their responsibilities.
The entire agenda has been published on TJPDC’s website, available for viewing at http://www.tjpdc.org.