Weekly Column: Session Ends - Budget Is Pending

The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Prince William Times, The Fort Hunt Herald, and Potomac Local in the week of March 14, 2022.

Session Ends - Budget Is Pending

Last week, state legislators completed the 2022 General Assembly session and 18 of the 27 bills I introduced are now on their way to the Governor.  Unfortunately, we were not able to reach an agreement on a state budget, on two state Supreme Court justices or on a commissioner for the State Corporation Commission and will have a special session.

               Last week, I served on 16 conference committees charged with working out compromises on some of our most difficult bills to reconcile.

Unfortunately, the House of Delegates unexpectedly killed one of my bills to generate more bike and pedestrian solutions.  We have a massive backlog of unfunded pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure projects in Northern Virginia - especially in eastern Northern Virginia which were built before County land use rules required sidewalks or bike lanes on roads.  There is also no meaningful funding stream under which these projects are competitive so planners do not even develop or seek significant projects.  

U.S. 1’s forthcoming $1 billion redesign, which will include a median dedicated bus rapid transit lane, dual sidewalks and multiuse paths, will be a bike and pedestrian magnet, but few of the roads connecting to U.S. 1 have the bike or pedestrian infrastructure to serve the project.  The Washington Area Bicyclists Association recently predicted that we need to invest $1 billion in cycling infrastructure in the D.C. metropolitan area over the next 20 years to meet minimum demand.

                 I introduced SB251 to require the Virginia Department of Transportation to work with Northern Virginia localities to prepare a 20-year bicycle and pedestrian project list.  This would help us estimate future need and develop funding solutions.  The House of Delegates defeated the bill, largely because downstate legislators feared the bill would lead to less road funding for rural areas in the state.  I will try to accomplish this in other ways. 

                My legislation to regulate facial recognition technology in law enforcement also passed both houses on bipartisan votes.  Last year, the General Assembly passed a ban on local police departments using the technology, but the ban did not apply to state police who can still use the technology with no restrictions, when either using it on their own or in coordination with local police. 

My legislation restricts usage and creates criminal offenses for misuse.  It also prohibits facial recognition results from being stated in affidavits or search warrants and requires law enforcement officers to develop alternative corroborating evidence to link an individual to a crime.  We are fully aware that many people have concerns about this new technology so the bill also requires each law enforcement agency to publish an annual report detailing the use of facial recognition technology.  With this information, we will have more information on how it is being used and try to prevent its misuse. 

                I also served on a conference committee to reconcile a bill to reverse legislation we passed last session to subject closed criminal investigations to the Freedom of Information Act.  I did not support the underlying bill, but I was put on the conference committee to try to improve it.

                I represent many crime victims in my legal practice and can appreciate the sensitivity of opening up closed files to public scrutiny.  However, accountability in police shootings and police misconduct can also be achieved with sunlight as we have learned from the Bijan Ghaisar case who was killed in Mt. Vernon by the U.S. Park Police.  The voices of victims can be heard in record disputes without giving law enforcement complete discretion on withholding files so I refused to sign the final conference report which passed both chambers on close votes. 

                The budget is bogged down in a dispute over tax cuts which I do not support.  Our February revenue numbers were down compared to 2021 and I am not convinced our rosy economic growth is here to stay, especially with the instability in Ukraine, rising gas prices and inflation.  Cutting taxes means fewer revenues to support services people expect from their government.  We have many long-ignored needs to fund and reducing revenues will likely continue that neglect.  Stay tuned.

                I hope you will share your views with me at scott@scottsurovell.org.