The online newsletter for Senator Scott Surovell. The Dixie Pig was my grandmother's favorite restaurant on U.S. 1 located across from Beacon Mall where a Rite Aid used to stand.
This morning, the "U.S. 1 Delegation" consisting of myself, Senator Ebbin, and Delegates Krizek and Sickles met with the project team with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to talk about the status of the U.S. 1 widening and bus rapid transit in anticipation of our next public hearing.
First, Fairfax County's process to implement the state-funded U.S. 1 Multimodal Alternative Analysis Study will come to a conclusion when the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote to approve the Comprehensive Plan changes developed as part of the EMBARK Richmond Highway Process on March 20, 2018. This plan will lay the groundwork for the next thirty years in our community. You can get more information here:
The County is in the process of developing its application for federal transit funding under the New Starts Program to fund approximately fifty-percent of the cost of bus rapid transit (BRT) from Huntington Metro to Fort Belvoir.
The following will appear in next month's Kingstonian Magazine and Beulah Corridor monthly magazine.
This year, I had a
relatively successful session.I passed
13-14 pieces of legislation including bills to lower fees for security freezes
on credit reports, facilitate child testimony at abuse proceedings, provide juvenile
court judges discretion to reduce charges if children rehabilitate, allow
courts to withhold for spousal support, providing local government funds for commercial
transit corridor utility undergrounding, and education children about the
dangers of sexting.
My bill to raise
Virginia’s lowest-in-nation misdemeanor-felony threshold passed after putting
the bill in for nine years.Also, my
bill to extend our coal ash study process for twelve months so we can clarify
how many billions of dollars the coal ash remediation process will cost before
choosing a method.
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of March 4, 2018.
Underground Utilities, Transportation Solutions Get Attention
The second to last week of the General Assembly session brought a conclusion to most committee work in the legislature, passage of several important bills and a fierce wind storm.
On Friday, a powerful wind storm struck Virginia and inflicted millions of dollars in damage to people and property, far more harm than most people anticipated. Many people lost electricity, some for several days. According to Dominion Energy, it was the fifth worst power outage in company history after Hurricanes Isabel, Floyd, Irene and the 2012 Derecho.
The mass destruction reaffirms my view that we need to invest in utility undergrounding immediately. The newer developed parts of Northern Virginia where power lines are underground did not suffer outages and while undergrounding is expensive, the disruption of people’s lives has great value also.
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of February 6, 2018.
Budget Overtime Likely, BYOB Legalized, and U.S. 1 Utilities
Week Seven of the General Assembly brought some focus to the
state’s budget situation and movement on a few important bills of the session.
On Tuesday we debated our respective budget amendments.The budgets are separated by a massive
revenue gulf due to Medicaid.The House
of Delegates’ budget included Medicaid Expansion with a work requirement.The Senate Budget did not.
This week, we passed a bill that legalized activity that most of my constituents probably thought was legal.
Before homeowners' associations came into existence in the 1980's, neighbors banded together to form associations to purchase property to build recreational amenities such as pools and tennis courts. We have many in the 36th District including the Little Hunting Park Club, Inc., Hollin Hills Pool, Hollin Meadows Swim and Tennis Club, Riverside Gardens Swim and Tennis Club, Hayfield Farm Swim Club, Mansion House Club, Inc., Virginia Hills Swim Club, and the Mount Vernon Park Association.
As a side note, one of these pools was the defendant in litigation that resulted in the desegregation of pools. I wrote about it here:
I have been a member of the Mount Vernon Park Association since I was four-years old in 1975. As an adult, we've often used their picnic facilities to cook out and drink a bottle of wine. I was surprised when this year, I found out that was illegal!
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of February 6, 2018.
Week Six
of the General Assembly brought us to the midpoint of session, completion of work
on all bills in our own chambers, and announcement of the proposed House and
Senate budgets.
Twenty-one
of my bills “crossed over” to the House of Delegates including several this
week.First, my legislation continuing
the moratorium on permitting the closure of coal ash ponds was continued for
fourteen months so the legislature could have more time to gather
information.
Most other states have moved
towards recycling coal ash into products such as bricks and concrete instead of
burying it the ground for eternity.Dominion has estimated that recycling will cost $4-8 billion but the
recycling community contends that is greatly overstated.My bill requires Dominion to seek specific
recycling proposals from coal ash recyclers and to pass proposals along to the
legislature so we can consider the actual cost of recycling next year.It is important that we have correct
information before we decide to make a decision that will pass along over a
billion dollars of cost to electricity rate payers.
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of February 6, 2018.
Week Five: A Deal on Misdemeanor-Felony Threshold, Coal Ash
Continues
The fifth week of session brought a furious pace to
legislating including some of the most contentious bills of the session as we
approached “crossover” – the day the Senate and House are required to complete
action on legislation originating in each chamber.It was mostly a successful week for me.Twenty-one of my bills are now set to pass
the Senate to be considered by the House of Delegates.
First, Governor Northam announced an agreement to raise
Virginia’s threshold between misdemeanors and felonies from $200 to $500.Once enacted, Virginia’s threshold will still
be the second lowest in the United States.I have introduced this legislation every year for nine sessions I was
pleased it is finally going to be enacted into law.
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of February 6, 2018.
Progress on Predatory Lending, Fracking, and Education Equity
The third week of the General Assembly brought action on
about two dozen of my bills.
First, my two remaining bills to address education equity
were unanimously recommended by the Education Subcommittee.The first bill prohibits localities from
requiring children to use “electronic textbooks” without providing students
with devices to use such “books” at home.Many children in the U.S. 1 Corridor do not have computers or broadband
at home and our schools should not mandate electronic learning without providing
devices.
Last year, the longest serving member of the Senate of Virginia, Chuck Colgan, passed away After a long and impressive career in the Senate of Virginia where he served from 1976 to 2016 after serving the people of Prince William County for thirty years.
At his funeral, his family put "Chuck Colgan's Top Ten" into the program which were rules that he told his children to live by. A picture of them is at the right. Good advice to follow!
Over the past two weekends we have held six different town hall meetings.
Thank you all who attended the town halls, both in-person and online through
Facebook Live, thank you for all the engaging questions you brought with you.
Stay contacted with me via Facebook and Twitter to hear about future
town halls.
You can watch video from each of the town halls below!
The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, Springfield Connection, The Mt. Vernon Voice, and the Potomac and Stafford Localsin the week of January 29, 2018.
This past
weekend, we saw about 150 people turn out at my three Town Hall Meetings in Occoquan,
Montclair and Stafford County with Senator Jeremy McPike, Delegates Jennifer
Carroll Foy, Hala Ayala, and Elizabeth Guzman.You can watch videos of all six of my town hall meetings on my Facebook
page or on my blog – The Dixie Pig – at scottsurovell.blogspot.com.Thank you to everyone who turned out!
On
Wednesday, the Senate Transportation Committee killed my legislation to authorize
temporary driving permits for Virginians who cannot show legal immigration
status but can pass a driving test and are paying Virginia taxes.Numerous studies in the fifteen states who
have done this have shown that it reduces collisions, hit and run incidents,
increases reporting other crimes to law enforcement, and results in
significantly increased tax collections.The bill died on a party line vote 7-8 after over three hundred people
jammed the room and testified about how a lack of driving privileges affected
them on a daily basis.
